Ideal tissue quality

Hi All,

After reading a number of topics regarding tissue quality, referred pain and ART, trigger points, etc. I wondered what a healthy muscle should feel like.

I've a feeling it's not normal to have thick 'cables' running through most muscle groups? These cables feel pretty numb, until you eventually pin them down, then they hurt like hell when you actually get into them. I also seem to get the beginnings of tennis and golfers elbow pain at the slightest provocation.

So what should healthy muscle tissue feel like? I just prodded a thumb into my kids' calves and biceps for comparison, there is some resistance, like a steak, but no twangy cables in there ...and no yelps of pain. :shock: Right now my calves are almost one solid lump, and will literally run (albeit slowly and painfully) if a foam roller comes within 20ft!

If it transpires that I am destined to be doing a lot of remedial work in the near future, is there an upper limit on treatment for any given muscle group, or in total? I am hoping I can safely work on the real problem areas a lot (forearms/biceps) and get back into training ASAP, while working through the others a little more at my leisure (if you can describe rolling round in pain on a hard rubber ball leisure).

Cheers,

George.

Your muscle tissue should be soft and pliable, and it should feel like tons of individual nylon cords sliding past each other.

Foam rolling is a great place to start and is a great way to space out deeper treatments once "optimal" tissue quality is re-attained.

Every muscle on my body used to be one big lump. When I was younger I thought that was cool, you know? I felt like that made me more resistant to damage, like a superhero (some sarcasm) ! The truth is about as far away from that as it can be.

It takes time, but it is reasonable to restore excellent tissue quality in less than a month. ART and Graston type therapies can both be performed 2-3x per week, but 2x per week is the recommendation. These are deeper therapies and as you get deeper into the tissue there may be some slight bruising as a result of the treatment. Nothing major, the worst I have gotten is like a tanned spot on my shoulders where I have worked down to the bones. It does hurt sometimes, but I have several different anatomy books as well as a good sense of what is happening inside my body, so I just look at pictures of the areas I am working on and figure out exactly where everything is. I am much, much better at this than I was a month ago. Practice is really key, there is a steep but relatively fast learning curve. I have been working unilaterally on my right side for the most part, just to see what the effects would be with my left side as the control doing nothing but stretches and mobilization routines that Coach has given us, and there is a massive, massive world of difference between the two. My right side is now my good side, with the notable exception of much weaker scapular depressors for the moment, though now that motion is restored I can actually build that back up!

Thick cables are bad, but one big lump is even worse. The thick cables, in my experience, are most effectively dealt with using a Graston-type approach, as deep as you can handle, for about 30-60s per site per treatment. In what is now 4 treatments my muscles feel totally different and are more mobile and stronger. 6 more treatments is apparently what it will take to completely restore my arms and right shoulder to "original" tissue quality.

I can tell you that just one treatment made an enormous difference in how I felt during and after workouts. I think you will find the same. Forearms and elbows are the easiest parts, with lower legs being pretty easy too. I just did mine for the first time last night and it was different but good! Not terribly difficult. Shoulders are tough, my girlfriend does my scapular muscles.

any more info on how to get started doing this yourself slizz?

would greatly appreciate it

Thanks for the great info slizzardman!

I have this interesting post-workout soreness (or bruising, probably) in my forearms today, which is hopefully normal. I had a bit of a play around, using self-ART (using a marker pen* or small rubber ball to save my hands) and what I could find on Graston from Google and YouTube on the areas I couldn't really get into. I definitely need to make/find something concave for the Graston, as I can see that should make it much easier to pin down those cables in a self-centering kind of manner.

* not the ends, but holding it across the muscle, like a tiny foam roller.

Re: Traps/shoulders - I have been doing some self-ART and pain-balling a-la Kelly Starrett by lying on various balls, and moving my arms/shoulders through various planes of motion, as well as some t-spine mobility work with foam roller and two balls taped together. I have been doing the shoulder stretches you showed on your YouTube channel as well.

I looked for the Scapular Retraction and Depression video, but guess it's still in the pipeline? ...do you have any quick tips in the interim? I have noticed that I am embarassingly weak in this area, have a visible lack of muscle mass in my upper back. My posture is improving with the stretches, deep tissue work around the pecs and trying to reinforce good posture whenever I remember.

Oh, yes ...I feel compelled to stretch after doing deep ART, Graston, etc. as it feels great. Is this OK?

Thanks again for taking the time to help out. It is much appreciated.

Cheers,

George.

No problem! Some of those I am going to have to get to over the next week or so, but as far as stretching goes I believe it is a good idea. I notice that my stretching and mobility work has been much more productive all around in the areas I work on regularly.

For retraction work I am using a variety of things, my daily routine is fairly light but explosive these days to enhance recruitment. Once or twice a week I also do a set or two of moderate resistance bent over rows with dumbbells or foot supported rows on a bar, and whenever we have a ring strength day I do upper body maximal strength stuff since that's what ring strength is for.

I have found that the planks for the planche progression are very good for re-activating my depressors, especially when I do something of a bodyweight get up. It's more of a rotational plank and is pretty tough at first, but I am getting much better at it. I WILL have to make a video for that, but that one is good enough to where I am going to have my legal paperwork together first and make sure I start copyrighting everything.

For me, the first part of this process was re-teaching my upper traps to work properly on the right side. Until they know how to contract and lengthen you aren't going to have much success depressing the scapulae. Keep in mind that my right side was really screwed up, and most people will not have these little hang ups. Anyhow, I found that cable seated row retractions and foot supported rows were great to switch off with, but you have to be sure to fully protract with straight arms and THEN start retracting as you pull back, making sure not to rotate the shoulder forward at all. That's the big challenge, but as long as your elbow never goes behind your shoulder, as viewed from the side or directly above the shoulder, you are usually ok. That is a bit trickier than it sounds if you are not in the habit of doing this.

Bands are also a great tool to use for this.

Thanks again, that has really helped with clarifying where I am going wrong. :oops:

slizzardman said:

...Anyhow, I found that cable seated row retractions and foot supported rows were great to switch off with, but you have to be sure to fully protract with straight arms and THEN start retracting as you pull back, making sure not to rotate the shoulder forward at all. That's the big challenge, but as long as your elbow never goes behind your shoulder, as viewed from the side or directly above the shoulder, you are usually ok. That is a bit trickier than it sounds if you are not in the habit of doing this...

I had become quite fixated about getting (what I assumed was) the necessary full ROM on the row (i.e. getting sternum to bar) as I thought it was necessary. Since that is pretty tough for me anyway without any loading, just using a stick even, I guess that is more stretching than strengthening ...and probably shutting off my retractors to some extent, to protect the antagonists that are at end ROM.

Since I like to repeat back (I am not sure if that's an annoying trait)...

Strengthen the correct movement pattern for rowing movements using foot supported rows, cables and/or bands, following this sequence:

a) arms fully straight, scapulae fully protracted

b) start to retract and pull at the same time, so that both finish when...

c) my elbows reach my sides and scapulae fully retracted, with no shoulder rounding.

d) return to the start position in the same manner

You mentioned that I probably won't have much success working with depression of the scapulae until I have made some progress with the retraction exercises ...so I will hold off on working support on rings etc. until then, so I don't ingrain poor position/movement patterns?

Cheers,

George.

Retraction and depression are both lower trap functions, so as long as you know how to use your upper traps you should be ok learning how to use your lower traps. Upper traps were my big issue in the upper back (along with general tightness in the shoulder girdle, which the manual therapy is fixing). That's pretty uncommon supposedly, but I'm not sure about that. I see a lot more chronically hunched shoulders than chronically depressed shoulders when I look around the gym. I literally have gone through every single muscle that attaches to the shoulderblade or upper arm and performed some form of soft tissue mobilization, either my homemade Graston solution or self ART, and both where practical. This has broken up a ton of adhesions, and I can not say how many people will receive AS much of a benefit from that as I have, because I was really screwed up. It's safe to say that the more physically active you have been in your life, even if it was just a few years of intense activity, the more you will benefit.

The retraction issues are very common among IT professionals, along with "kyphotic" postures from benig hunched over screens so much. Same thing happens to secretaries and other people who spend a ton of time sitting and typing. I spend enough time at the computer between here, school, and outside reading that I have to constantly stay on top of all that too. I don't know what's going on with your body without being able to see it, but it's a pretty safe guess that you will need to always have an extra focus on scapular mobilization and stabilization than non-IT people.

The Y and T/I prone dumbbell lifts, which can also be done with bands or chest expanders, are great for learning how to use these muscles again. Youtube has some great videos that I will link in here at some point, if you like.

As for the rows, sternum to bar isn't necessary for this application. Sternum to bar involves internal rotation, there's no way around that, and internal rotation inherently involves scapular protraction to some degree when subscap is involved (which is always in this exercise) so for the purpose of rehab that could actually be counter-productive. It's great for building the strength to muscle up, but not very good for the retractors. The Bulgarian rows, if you look at them carefully, never take the elbow past the shoulder. They are actually our best pure retractor exercise, and Coach is very adamant about how important it is to be strong with those. He's right, too. They are our greatest bodyweight balancing exercise for the retractors. Done properly they strengthen the middle and lower traps immensely. Of course the upper traps and rhomboids are worked hard too, but the whole group learns to work together with this exercise.

You've got it right in your 1-4 step list. You really don't even need fully straight arms or fully protracted scapulae at first if that causes problems, just go as far as you can without screwing up the motion. A perfect shorter range of motion will translate into a longer perfect range of motion over time, but a longer screwed up ROM will usually stay screwed up. Just make sure that your elbows never pass the line between your shoulder and hip, if that makes sense. That will force you to use your retractors more, and that will help activate the lower traps. Performing some very explosive reps this way once you have that whole movement down will enhance the neural activation. Cable rows with a neutral grip are also a very similar motion and may be a good option if available. You don't want that super close grip though, you'd be better off with a palm down grip at shoulder width on a straight bar than that close one.

Edit: I don't know if you need to hold off on the supports, I don't think that's as big of an issue. I seem to be able to perform them fine. I would make that a personal decision based on how you feel in the support.

I just wanna add my 2 cents here that even at 19 years old I'm completely fuc*ed. Soft tissue work has helped me tremendously!

Graston, SASTM, etc are descendants of gua sha (http://www.guasha.com/)

The technique can be performed on yourself using a smooth, flat edged surface (I use a pumpkin scraper from halloween, traditional chinese practioners often use a soup spoon).

It can be very effective at rapidly improving tissue quality, but the scraping over tissue leaves a lot of marks and they last for a number of days.

Note: A working knowledge of trigger points and anatomy helps a lot when experimenting with this.

Indeed. Gua sha tools should work fine, and are quite affordable. You definitely want to have a very good knowledge of soft tissue restrictions, trigger points, what muscles are indicated for certain areas of pain (Trigger Point Therapy Workbook is a lifesaver for that one), and what direction the fibers run.