The rhomboid muscle is often forgotten when it comes to the back. An excellent rhomboid stretch can go a long way in helping the health of this muscle. The rhomboid muscle attaches the shoulder blades to the spine. Most pain in the rhomboid is caused by strains to the muscle fibers and sprains to the ligaments. The rhomboid serves the purpose of pulling the shoulder blades towards the spine. Think of when someone dumps cold water on your back, and you move forward shocked by the cold. You usually are squeezing your rhomboids together as you do this.
Symptoms of Rhomboid Muscle Pain
- Pain in the center of your upper back
- Trouble breathing deeply
- Trouble moving shoulder blades
- Bruising
- Swelling
- Lump under skin
- Muscle spasms
- Unable to do Rhomboid Stretch
Causes of Rhomboid Muscle Pain
Most of the rhomboid muscle injuries that occur happen from overuse of the shoulders, arm, and back. These activities include but at not limited to sports like baseball, golf, tennis, and rowing. When it comes to regular activities that can strain rhomboids, they including starting a chainsaw or lawnmower, and carrying a backpack.
If you sit at a desk all day slouching can be a tremendous strain for the rhomboid muscles. If you are not sitting with excellent posture, the rhomboids will be on stretch all day. Other activities that hurt the rhomboid muscles include a lack of warm-up before sports, weak muscles or rhomboids that have been overworked. If your rhomboids hurt from sitting, you should avoid doing any rhomboid stretch.
To avoid spams, you want to make sure that you do not stay in the same position for too long. Another easy way to keep them healthy is to make sure that you are taking in adequate amounts of fluid on a daily basis.
Treatment of Rhomboid Muscle Issues
If you hurt the rhomboids playing sports, then you will need to rest and start working with a healthcare provider. Working with a sports medicine provider will give you the best opportunity to get back on the field and be healthy.
If you have pain from your everyday activities, you should strongly consider seeing a massage therapist. They will be able to relieve tension from all of the muscles of your upper back and chest that get tight from sitting too much.
Working with a physical therapist will help you to do the needed exercises to strengthen the upper back and make sure that you do not have any more issues with the back. Rehab usually is the best way of correcting problems at the source of the problem.
For short-term pain management, you can ice and take painkillers, but you must do so with caution. Sometimes people take painkillers not realizing that they make you feel better for a short time, but they are not facing the injury at all.
Prevention of Rhomboid Muscle Pain
It is relatively simple to keep the rhomboids healthy. The first thing you should work on is maintaining excellent posture when you walk, sit and play sports.
The second thing you can do for rhomboid pain is staying hydrated. All the muscles of the body move and work better when they are hydrated.
The third thing you can do is a different rhomboid stretch that you feel hits the spot you need it to. We will cover that in the next section.
The last thing you can do is work on your rhomboid muscle pain and to improve all your injury prevention is focus on injury prevention. The problem with injury prevention is that it is pointless when your form is terrible. Making sure you are moving with proper mechanics is the most important thing you can do.
Rhomboid Stretch
The rhomboid stretch is something you can do on a daily basis. The first stretch is designed to be much more of shoulder stretch, but it also is a rhomboid stretch. You can choose whichever rhomboid stretch feels better for you. The key is that you do it on a consistent basis.
Finding The Best Local Sports Medicine Providers for Rhomboid Muscle Problems
9INE POINT Health is the best place to start your search for a health care provider to help you stay healthy. The key to success as an athlete is staying healthy and making sure the injuries are dealt with appropriately. Any athlete is at more risk of hurting their rhomboid and the key to success as an athlete is staying healthy.
9INE POINT Health lets you search for providers by type and skill. For example, you can look for a Physical Therapist with the capability of the Graston Technique. It does not matter what kind of provider you need, 9INE POINT Health can help you find them and help you to sort through their skills.
If you are unsure where to start your journey, 9INE POINT Health will ask you questions and help you figure out the best starting place. All you have to do is answer a few questions. From there, 9INE POINT Health will connect you with the type of provider best suited for your needs. It does not matter if you are injured or making sure you don’t run into needing Rhomboid muscle treatment.
The platform makes it easy to compare health providers as they are all given a 9INE POINT Number. How do you decide which healthcare providers are the best? Reading bios and reviews is just not enough because you need more than that.
Skill Sets to Look for In Sports Medicine Providers
Skill sets are the things healthcare providers learn after they graduate. A healthcare provider can take courses and get certifications for different skill sets. These skill sets are valuable and help them approach injuries from different perspectives so that you can get the best help at the right time for any Rhomboid stretch or treatment.
- Dry needling
- Acupuncture
- Joint Manipulation
- Active Release Technique
- Graston Technique
- Functional Movement Screen
- Fascial Stretching
- Strength and Conditioning Coach
- Athletic Trainer
- Sports Background
- And many more
9INE POINT Health was created by 9INE POINT in '19 as a means to provide athlete-driven resources to "Protect Athletes' Minds, Body and Belly". As well as be a platform for healthcare providers and other specialists to display their knowledge.
