Upper trapezius pain..

Just curious if anyone has issues with upper trap pain after paddling. Mine get very tight and if the paddle is long can almost cramp up. I suspect my issue has something to do with leaning my head too far forward when im getting tired. Any other sufferers or past sufferers that salved the problem?

Bill

I get something similar - pain on left side near join of C7 and T1. Thought it was rhomboid but could be trap.
Have had physio, Osteo and Chiro treatment with varying degrees of success but find that the best improvement I get is from swimming and surfing.
I have upper cross syndrome which is basically the head forward rounded shoulder posture common with deskworkers.
Suspect you are right with the head leaning forward causing this issue, this is probably why the swimming and surfing helps as you keep the head in a more rearward alignment. Particularly surfing where the head is kept upright when paddling.

My neck gave me a lot of bother when I first started to get serious about training. A physio got me to do excercises to loosen everything up. The best one was to pull your chin as far back towards your chest as you can, then roll the head back until looking at the ceiling then rotating the head on the spine. (probably best to have a physio teach you how to do this)

Once I was aware I was hyperextending my neck when paddling I concentrated on tucking my chin back so the weight of my head wasnt being concentrated just over the T1 vertebrae.

Cripes Brett. You should wear more clothes. In your picture, some very sensitive areas are blue with cold!

Pfffffffttttttttt!!!!! Thanks Marie, you just made me spit out my morning coffee all over my keyboard...

After my paddle yesterday morning I reckon my never regions were about that colour

Great pic convert ! , that is dermatome man , the segments represent the areas of the body and the spinal nerve root that innervates them (i.e. c7 , t1). Good info for paddlers. much talk on the forum about peripheral neuropathies (numbness in hands , pins and needles , etc.) which can often be attributed to impingement on spinal nerve roots (conversely can also be attributed to nerve plexuses away from the spine). Point being that the problems may often be directly connected to spine. (the chiros out there are loving this ! ). MY point ? well , I am a Licensed acupuncturist and treat these conditions often ,usually a combination of local points (around the affected tissues) , distal points (along meridians related to effected area) and points along the spine as indicated by fore mentioned dermatome man. Don't get trapped into 1 single mode of treatment/manegment , usually a combination of therapies provide positive benefit and you need to figure out (with your providers) what that combo is. Shameless Plug coming up here , if any of you folks need help with these kind of issues , I am an empathetic paddler and have a practice in Newport Beach .

On the Mr. Blue Balls chart my ishue is in the C-4, C-6 area. Right between my neck and top of the end of my collar bone.The pain is moderately deep and very sensitive to the tuch if I press around In there. It's sore if i shrug my shoulders towards my ears but have no pain in my supraspinatus with lifting or holding weight out to the side. I'm some how overworking these muscles ( obviously) but not sure how. They are involved with supporting your arms when holding them out away from the body. As I said before, I suspect not sitting up straight with my shoulders back vs. hunched forward..... That said, I'm very conscious about this and try very hard to sit up straight and look out at where I'm going. But I still find myself staring at the bow when I get tired. The other thing is paddle path. Yesterday on a 14 mile/22.5k long slow-ish as my shoulders started to tighten I moved my stroke to a higher, tighter along side the ski stroke and that seemed to help. But that was also when the head wind and chaotic chop stopped so who knows..... So many variables. Just to muddy the water even more, I have been taking flat water classes and the coach says my form looks good with only small things too work on but that I sit up straight and lean and not hunch forward.... Maybe he needs to see me when I'm tired and I don't have a coach staring at me!

I have similar pain on the right and I have determined it is due to improper posture while working long hours with a computer mouse. Paddling hard and long aggravates it... I have since changed to a larger and more ergonomic mouse, adjusted some things on my desk, and am generally more conscious about my posture. It helps, but that thing takes long to fully heal as I think some tendons are irritated and they heal slowly... Although, I may have contributed to this condition by rolling forward on the floor with my daughter and putting too much pressure on my neck (in a failed forward roll).

Over the years I've had a slight niggle in my left shoulder, it started and got to be a problem during my time using a greenland paddle for a 3 month period, but subsided when I stopped using the paddle but has remained in the back ground with a slight niggle that I can feel when warming up or doing everyday tasks. At times I could feel a pulling sensation and a pain that would start beneath the shoulder blade and up into my neck, also a tenderness in different parts of the shoulder joint.
Switching into my off season period I decided to go see an Osteopath to sort out this niggle. He quickly picked out that my top rib (both sides but left was worse) was out of alignment and no amount of stretching, massage etc that I had been doing was ever going to relieve the tension that it put through my shoulder.
He relieved the pressure and aligned my neck, shoulders and spine and arranged a new pillow to take pressure off my shoulders when sleeping. One treatment, done!
He did tell me that if I notice a drop off in performance when paddling that its worth having a treatment to relive built up pressure and align everything so the body can function correctly. Can't believe that this niggle I've been carrying could have been sorted so easily years ago and would recommend an appointment with someone who knows paddlers and the demands placed on them if you have any postural issues or niggles to sort out.

Other than being entertaining, I wasn't sure what the picture of the dermatomes adds to our knowledge. It shows the skin coverage of the spinal nerve roots, so unless the problem originates from compression of these nerve roots, they are irrelevant. ( BTW a peripheral neuropathy by definition is not caused at the nerve root level.)

Newbflat, it sounds like your problem is definitely muscular and, yep, hunching is likely part of the problem. As well as trying to sit up straight, try consciously dropping your shoulders. They tend to creep up again so give yourself a visual prompt of some sort, like tying some red string to your footstraps. Every time you look at the string, drop your shoulders.

It could also be helpful to practice relaxing and extending your upper back off the water. Draping yourself over a small roller or rolled up towel with head resting on the floor and doing some slow relaxation breathing. Or if you have a bath long enough to lie your whole torso flat, run enough water so you will float clear of the bottom, then try to find the position where you can float your body and head without drowning (facing upwards ; ) ). If you can find this position and progressively relax, muscles that have been bunched for weeks can unlock. I fixed 4 months of neck pain in half an hour doing this.

Have to agree its more likley to be muscular, than a neck/nerve root issue.
I have seen this when people are pulling a slightly bigger paddle than they should, the last cpl were using offset teardrop approx 500mm by 190mm dimensions, sold as a "powerful" paddle, but using for long distances.
you haven't told us what you paddle with so could be not related.

Shrugging is the first thing to address, as it costs nothing and will obviously tighten up traps and lev scap muscle group.

Mareski and physio , well please tell me where the muscles groups we are talking about are innervated from ? just saying ...Spinal nerve roots contain both afferent efferent bundles to they not ?

As for what I paddle its a Stellar SR and I'm swinging an ONNO small/mid at 208 cm and a 60° feather... Right. I'm paddling 5 mostly sometimes 6 days a week somewhere between 40 and 55 miles 64/88k a week. Mostly an 8 mile /12k corse broken down as a mile warm up and a 6 mil/10k timed corse paddled at or near race pace, then a mile warm down. . Plus at least one 14mile long slow a week. No intervals.... Soon though. A bit less mileage of late as I have been in a sprint boat class two days a week.

I like the idea of the red yarn or what ever... Red to sit up and shoulders down and back. I could the reminder. Oh.. And green for getting my back hand up, and yellow for separating my stroke.. 123.. 123 ...123, and white for relaxing my grip, and blue for heel drive and pull, and........

Neck wise if I had to guess where I have issues it's more in the C-8 T-1 area.

Marieski wrote: Other than being entertaining, I wasn't sure what the picture of the dermatomes adds to our knowledge.

The idea was to get people to open their thinking.

When people understand how referred pain works (this diagram helps them understand this) then they will be more open to think about their posture.

I am not about to get into a debate on the causes of specific aches and pains, I'll leave that to those better qualified, just saying that once I understood the relationship between the spine and various areas of my musculature (as well as neck issues I am a ITB syndrome sufferer) I was better able to look after myself and more likely to give those areas special attention when stretching and concentrating on posture.

If you have shoulder pain referred from poor Cervical/Thoracic posture no amount of shoulder stretching and massage will alleviate it. Once I realised the relationship and had the stretching techniques taught to me I have been pain free since!

Like someone said earlier, dont just rely on one practitioner when getting his stuff sorted. While my Chiro is great with most things he didnt pick up my poor posture, he just kept treating the symptoms. So after several; treatments without lasting relief I went to a sports physio who picked up on the poor posture (one would have thought it would be the other way around)

I agree that in treating musculoskeletal problems there are many paths to God. There are also a lot of things that work, but not in the way their practitioners think they do.

I would only caution against 2 things: don't bother with anyone who just tries to fix the symptoms. You need to know what caused the problem in the first place and fix that. Related to that, don't ever go to anyone who says you need repeated treatments and doesn't teach you any exercises/techniques you can do yourself.

Sandy wrote: Mareski and physio , well please tell me where the muscles groups we are talking about are innervated from ? just saying ...Spinal nerve roots contain both afferent efferent bundles to they not ?

Absolutely the original upper traps area would be supplied by a combination C4-C6 ish. If from last post it's C8-T1 it's a lot different mechanism. And both could just as easily be a neck, joint somatic or radicular pain referral . My previous was a guess based on what I've been treating lately. When we can't see the person it's about giving ideas for them to think about, was not disputing anyone else's suggestions.

The c8-t1 area brings in a lot more possibilities in addition to spinal joints we also have upper rib joints, and rhomboids, less shrugging and more scapular retraction. Another guess but I would consider whether you are rotating enough from low down, or whether its around your shoulder area. And I would try a smaller volume blade for a paddle and see if the symptoms are the same. In addition to all the posture recommendations.

In regards to my specific complaint suspect you're dead right Physio.
I first started noticing the issue when I changed paddles to one with a very strong catch and also was concentrating on trying to get the paddle as far forward on the catch as possible but was achieving this more through shoulder extension then rotation.

Have since moved to a smaller paddle and shortened it right down to about 206 cm and concentrating on posture improvement and good rotation have made a big improvement.

A lot of other good suggestions posted to try out as well. Going to put a bit more focus on my head/neck position, mainly been concentrating on keeping my shoulders relaxed and neutral.

Agree with Kayaker Greg - see some professionals, sometimes it's a simple fix, then you need a monthly maintenance program. I'm seeing a Chiro and Massage Therapist once per month and through the week using a foam roller (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foam_rolling) for massage and opening/stretching the chest and pec minor muscles. Use a cricket /tennis ball to get into areas the roller won't. Has all improved my paddling posture and now concentrating more on technique over power.

Another video from Ivan.
Hard to hear in parts but he seems to point to his trap exactly where I get pain, at 4 min in, saying the incorrect lifting of the blade can cause this.
Again hard to hear but I'll focus on this and see if it improves.