Having torqued my back last year at the climbing gym, I have been pursuing a regime of physical therapy in an attempt to get back into climbing shape. I’ve done a lot of damage to my body climbing and wrestling over the years. My injury from last year was cumulative on top of a right shoulder injured three times: twice in High School Wrestling and then again in 2002, weeks before my wedding. I did minor PT for it then, and got a cortisone shot. It seemed to have healed, but the right shoulder blade sticks out further than the left, so it can’t be in factory condition. The damage done last year was in the middle of my back, manifested just below the left shoulder blade. It feels like a perpetual knot. My back sounds a lot like a rice breakfast cereal upon application of milk. The worst is that my lower back was seizing up.
It seems that when the shoulder healed, it applied a lot of pressure on the spine in the vicinity of the shoulder blades, along the muscles called the rhomboids. Climbing in general causes you to hyper-extend your back while reaching for holds, and the rhomids take a beating they are not really designed to take. In myu case, there appears to be a related tear along the serratus muscle, that lies along the rib and attaches to the spine about three inches below the shoulder blade. Nothing is completely conclusive, as we haven’t seen the actual damage in an MRI yet (thanks to my HMO) but we’ll get there.
While not all is well yet, I feel I am on my way. I’ve gathered a bunch of exercises that, if I had been doing all along, would have helped prevent the injury. Here’s the complete list. I will attempt to post pictures of the various stretches as I get them taken.
Lat stretch (pray to Allah)
Shoulder Stretch Arm Cross Body, Shoulder Blade immobilized
Pectoral Flys
Incline Rows
Shoulder Shrugs
Side bends
Cross Cable Flys
Pec Stretch in Doorframe
Back Roller
Standing Quad Stretch
Arch over Roller
Towel along Spine
Inclined Fonzy
Cable Row and Twist
Surgical tube in the doorframe: abduct
Surgical tube in the doorframe: adduct
Surgical tube pull down
Arm Wrestle Stretch.
Here’s the first picture:   This is a great rotator cuff stretch. Note that the shoulder blade is immobilized against the floor. This is a good one to let go for a long time: I did it for over a minute, and watched my arm get closer and closer to the floor.
arm_wrestle_shoulder_strech