Pulled something in my neck on the farmers

[ClayEdgin]

I was walking with 410 per hand yesterday and about 30ft into the trip I felt a real bad strain in the left side of my neck at the collarbone. The pain extends from the front of the neck to the back of the neck, as well as across my left trap. It is especially painful to shrug my shoulders up.

I'm looking for recommendations on how to go about fixing this so I can compete in four weeks. I don't think I'll be doing any more farmers walks for a few weeks!

[Scott Porter]

Clay, I had the same thing it sounds. I started feeling it about last September I'd guess and actually took 2 months off of farmers and only did them once before the NM contest last December. I felt a sharp pain from the back of my trap all the way up to my neck and sometimes extended to the front. The only thing that worked was rest. And it still doesn't feel 100% sometimes.

With your type of grip, you probably don't need to hit farmers very often. I know I hit a PR with 315 per hand for 60 ft. without training them so it can be backed off without too much worry.

Good luck man!

[ClayEdgin]

Pretty much sounds like the same kind of pain there Scott, thanks for the info. I'll probably not do any farmers from now until the contest, but I still need to work some deadlifts between now and then.

[Jedd Johnson]

Clay,

Sorry to hear about the neck. Sounds like it hurts bad.

As you get back into training, I learned a while back that you can help stabilize the neck by pressing the tongue up against the roof of your mouth. This radiational tension is similar to the effect of when you squeeze your fist extremely hard, it will tense up the entire shoulder girdle.

I hope this helps.

-Jedd-

[Scott Porter]

Just be careful Clay. I had a hard time giving up deadlifts as well and learned the hard way. I re-tweaked my trap a lot. Once it felt perfectly fine and boom! it got jacked on a 675 reverse band pull (that's heavy for me!). I waited awhile, trained around it, pretty much never deadlifted heavy and couple months later came back to hit a huge and easy PR.

[Barry Perkins]

also clay..I've found that the yoke is a good substitute for farmers and some other work.

It has helped improve my speed on the farmers and kept my back good and strong... maybe do this instead of farmers...

hope you get better asap!

[JohnWietzel]

Last week I was doing some light farmers and felt a pull in my lower trap that caused my neck to sieze up about 40 minutes later. I went to the doctor and it ends up I slipped/herniated a couple discs in my back, so I'd advise getting yourself checked out. A good massage therapist and chiropractor could get you back and ready to hit it in 2-3 weeks if it isn't to severe (if you have slightly herniated discs like I do).

Regards,

John Jr.

[craig kruse]

many times people will have a "muslce spasm" in their upper trap or around their shoulder blades when they have something going on in their neck. Your body responds to this injury by causing a muscle to tighten.

A disc herniation at C5C6 or C6C7 causes pain on the inside part of your shoulder blade, even nothing is wrong with this muscle. It is referred pain and is similar to how someones left arm hurts during a heart attach.

Most likely you did not pull a muscle but have something going on with your neck. Your muscles are strong to handle much heavier loads so I don't think it is a muscle problem.

If you don't have constant unrelenting pain, it is probably just irritated and will get better with time, rest, exercise, and anti imflammatories.
Seeing a PT or chiropractor will help.
PT will most likely teach you exercises to manage the problem on your own.
Chiropractic will most likely manipulate your neck and upper back and you could feel better sooner but need to go to the chiropractor whenever the problem happens.

6 of one, half a dozen of the other.