Infraspinatus Muscle

It has been just over six weeks since injuring what I thought was my Latissimus Dorsi. After four weeks of total rest from all sports I was nearly pain free except in the late evening when the wear and tear of the day would lead to some aches.  So, I took two more weeks off and decided that at six weeks I would see a PT specialist to help direct my recovery. My main concern was discerning what exercises to use and when so I could return to full sports ASAP – especially climbing.

As luck would have it one of my fellow parishioners at Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Daneen Luna, is a back specialist with many years under her belt at the Veterans Affairs facility here in Denver, CO. Daneen has a cozy PT facility setup at her house in north Denver and after catching up on life for a half hour we settled down in the examination room. After 15 minutes of background discussion she began probing, pulling and testing ruling out lat, teres major, and teres minor muscle injuries. More then likely she was sure I had an infraspinatus muscle injury that was for the most part healed. Further, she noted that my caved in chest and over development of certain muscles had left my upper back susceptible to injures. Of course her assessment was spot on as I have had many shoulder injuries the last five years: trapezius muscle both right and left, left SLAP tear +/- (i.e., barely), left rotator cuff strain three times, and some deep muscle injures between the lumbar and cervical regions affecting breathing (i.e., mostly resurfacing injuries from snow boarding/skiing accidents).

Now with the correct diagnosis in hand and a better understanding of the basis of all these recent upper back injuries Daneen laid out a game plan to re-balance my skeletal shoulder alignment. I’ll be doing a routine of six exercises three to five times per week two sets each for ten repetitions. I was cleared to start lifting weights again except for overhead movements while erect. So psyched to be back in the gym – much more non-activity sedation and I was going to go stir crazy.