Quite often, patients come into my office complaining about "tight pecs." This often occurs in individuals that either do a high volume of push-ups, or are avid bench pressers. It's often that this dysfunction is secondary to other issues. Regardless, tight pecs are fixable with the right treatment.
Often, you will complain of tightness, heaviness, or achiness in your chest. This symptom can get sharp during push-ups and bench press, or any other horizontal pressing movement. In some cases, you might even feel burning, pins and needles, and tingling down into your fingers.
Tight pecs are almost always secondary to adhesion development in the rotator cuff. Because your rotator cuff adheres, your shoulder loses its primary stabilizers. Your pec picks up the slack. This doubles the work that your pec major and minor need to do. Because of this, your pecs will soon adhere from overuse as well. Most frequently, your pec minor and major will actually stick TOGETHER.
In rare cases, a nerve bundle will become stuck down with adhesion at the pectoralis minor. This accompanies nerve symptoms, especially when recumbent.
Home treatment should be focused on restoring range of motion in your shoulder. It's best to utilize a combination of supinated grip bar hangs and one-arm overhead carries.
Alternate between the two. Once range is restored, which you can test using this video, you may look to do deep dips and parallete push-ups to train your pecs in their full range of motion.
While you can make progress at home, the best intervention is going to be Shockwave Therapy. At Wildcard, we can remove your scar tissue in your rotator cuff before eliminating any adhesion that's built up in both your pectoralis major and minor. This will result in fast, efficient, and durable change in your range of motion, enabling you to get back to what you love to do.
If you would like more information on shoulder dysfunction, please check out this webinar!
At Wildcard Spine and Sport, we specialize in fixing pain that’s lasted longer than six months, even if you’ve seen two or more providers. We are the only practitioners in the five boroughs certified to diagnose and remove adhesion. Click the button below or call the office today at 917-908-0055.