I mentioned in my Powerlifting Progress post on Sunday the problems that I’ve been having with knots in my lats and rotator cuff muscles (and my rhomboids and deltoids and… the list is endless). In fact, any muscle above my waist, with the exception of my spinal erectors, facial muscles and forearms, were solid with knots.
The instruments of torture to get myself back in working order
Identifying the cause of new knots and sores
What’s changed to suddenly cause this?
Mostly I put it down to a concert I was playing in at the weekend. After a couple of months not playing a violin I was suddenly doing a couple of hours practice a night for a few nights. Playing the violin is possibly one of the most twisted and unnatural postures in existence and several hours of getting my fingers back into the groove quickly created tensions in different places to normal.
But the knots started to form before that so it wasn’t the only culprit.
Another possible cause was my new laptop. My work laptop is upgraded every three years and my return from holiday heralded the arrival of the cutest and tiniest laptop I’d ever seen. It’s perfect for all the travelling that I do with work, since it weighs a fraction of my old one, but there are some vital differences to the old laptop as well. The keyboard is slightly smaller and, importantly, the screen is much smaller.
Lookout for unexpected changes
Lots of things change in our lives. Often they are small incremental changes or tiny changes that you wouldn’t think would impact on you. For example, if I had changed from a desktop computer to a laptop computer I would have been instantly thinking about how this might change my posture at the desk and the extra things I would need, such as a stand for the computer and a separate keyboard for when I am at my base office, rather than on the move.
Changing my laptop though, I didn’t even think about it. It was only when I started waking up with a stiff neck every morning and established that I was suffering from shortening of the muscles that are used to look down that I thought about what had changed. The new laptop was smaller. So much smaller that the platform I previously used to stand it on was no longer high enough.
Once I’d rolled out the knots and started putting my laptop up on a few books (on top of the platform) the problem seemed to stay away.
Always be on the lookout and assessing
When I first started out doing weights and looking after my body in a more careful way I went through a critical assessment of everything that I did in life. I considered where my posture or activities could negatively impact on my muscles or other areas of my life and set about rectifying the problems.
Since that initial session though I have been lazy at keeping track of what changes and how it may have a subsequent impact on my body.
Something I learned this week was that I can never afford to get complacent. I should always be assessing what things have changed in my life and how these changes might impact on me. Even the small changes. That way I don’t lose time doing restorative work and rectifying the damage. Instead I can concentrate on doing the things I love all the time.
After all, who wants to spend all their time battling against knots?
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