The Stick

I just bought the coolest tool for tight muscles!!! It's called The Stick. In my last post, I explained a bit about hypertonic muscles, where some of my muscles are so tight that they limit mobility. My hypertonic muscles are in my neck, my calves, and my hamstrings. I can still touch the floor despite very tight calves and hamstrings though!

In PT a while back, I was introduced to The Stick to help calm the hypertonic muscles in my leg that limit mobility in a bad way. I was hooked but didn't get to use it again after that. Then my PT used the Stick again last week to help relax my trapezius muscles and their nasty trigger points. (BTW, a great book on trigger points that you can use at home is called The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook) I don't typically buy something like this unless I feel a true difference with it and I've wanted it for a long time, so I got it the other day. I worked on my legs for a while (20 light rolls per segment) on Sunday and felt some relief. However, I also seem to have overworked an area behind my right knee! It feels bruised but there isn't one. Seems I rolled over some nasty points on a tendon or ligament. Felt painfully good at the time I worked on it, but now I know to take it easy! Can't figure out how to work on my traps muscles without help though. I'm hoping that consistent work on my legs at home will help with some of the puffiness and venous insufficiency/blood pooling issues I have from squishy tissues. Get some qi moving!

Shoulder/neck stuff - taping and mobility

Taping #3 definitely helped a lot with my shoulder instability. Apparently my left shoulder blade deviates from the spine more so than the right one and that instability contributes to problems with my shoulder itself. I can't do any more taping for a while because the skin on my shoulder is raw to the point of peeling. I think it's been two weeks now since I took Tape #3 off and my skin is still irritated. I definitely don't recommend taping for some one with classic type unless the person is very specialied in tissue fragility! Gotta love EDS!

We're working on shoulder stabilization exercises in PT. The trick is to do so without engaging the neck muscles - see below!

My PT has been doing some intense work on my neck due to its noticeable lack of mobility - who'd a thunk?! After treatments of deep massage on my trapezius muscles (ones running across base of neck out to shoulders), I tend to be really spaced out and a bit confused for the rest of the day (or a few days thereafter). I came home early from work the other day because I was sooo fatigued and couldn't concentrate (more so than normal EDS); just wanted to sleep for a few. I laid down on the couch, got comfortable and didn't wake up until my husband came home 2 hours later. I was really confused about dinner and couldn't figure out how to put things together. It was very strange. This all has something to do with the nerves being stimulated in ways they haven't been in decades! Not kidding - that's how bad the hypertonia is!

We've been doing some neat exercises on the floor to help my core and shoulder muscles without engaging my neck muscles in a way that causes problems. I basically roll/flop around on the mat (floor mat, not my PT Mat)! I have to go from facing up to facing down without moving either my upper body or my lower body. It is sooo hard and I have much more trouble rolling my upper body from left to right due to weakness in that sohoulder. You'd think rolling on the floor would be easy but trying to use only the upper body muscles or lower body muscles to move is sooo darn hard! Wish I could describe this exercise better.