What’s your athletic glitch? Maybe it’s a shoulder that twinges when you swim backstroke, a knee that aches when cycling, or a hip that feels tight and painful after your golf swing. Many athletes have minor discomfort that can exacerbate whenever they’re active. This could make someone limit or even quit spending time on a favorite sport. I find that many of these problems can be traced to restrictions in the fibrous connective tissue called fascia. 

Fascia is fibrous tissue that covers almost all the other tissues. This includes muscles, bones, blood vessels, organs, and more. Fascia is tough but flexible, and has millions of nerves that sense stretch and motion. We rely on these nerves for posture, coordination, stability, and alignment, all of which are crucial for athletes. However, restrictions and distortions in the fascia can inhibit athletic performance and cause serious pain.  

I treat quite a few athletes in my practice—from young children to fitness enthusiasts to seasoned professionals. In my experience, finding and treating fascia restriction can resolve everything from minor aches to chronic, painful injuries. I’m a fan of careful motion analysis with particular attention to the specific muscles and joints involved. This information leads to identifying the specific restrictions in fascia that underlie the problems. Here are some examples of what is possible when alleviating fascia restrictions (names changed for privacy):  

Pickleball 

Let’s look at the most common issue in pickleball—weak lower leg muscles. Pickleball requires ankle strength due to the quick, sudden changes in direction of motion on the court. Ankle sprains, tendonitis and Achilles tendon injuries are common. Frank had to quit pickleball due to Achilles tendon pain that became exacerbated by repetitive playing. 

During his exam at our office, I asked him to hold his ankle rigid while pressure was applied to the foot. This revealed weakness in two directions, which I traced to restrictions in the fascia of the leg, thigh, and lower back. Releasing these restrictions, in combination with exercises to stretch and strengthen his various leg muscles, allowed Frank to resume playing pickleball without pain or concerns about his tendon.  

Swimming 

Betty had been swimming for years, but recently began to suffer from pain in both shoulders. This pain only came on while swimming or raising her arms high overhead. A knowledgeable swimmer noticed she used mostly shoulder joint movement to swim, instead of shoulder blade motion. The swimmer coached her to use the stronger, safer method. This helped somewhat, but the pain still lingered. I suspected that she had built up restrictions in her fascia due to years of incorrect form, and those restrictions affected her even with the improved stroke.  

I asked her to perform the incorrect stroke motions she had previously used. I noticed too much contraction and strain in the infraspinatus muscle on the back of the shoulder blade. Pressing into the muscle, I found an obvious sensation of fascia restriction. We released the restriction with manual therapy, alleviating Betty’s shoulder pain. 

Tina swam on her high school’s swim team when she came to our clinic with intense left shoulder pain that occurred whenever she swam. Having her recreate the motions of her swim stroke showed a problem that’s common in many competitive swimmers—round shoulders from only swimming with forward strokes. This posture builds the chest and low back muscles, but it does not strengthen the upper back.  

The round-shoulder posture causes narrowing of the space where one shoulder tendon runs between the bones. This pinches the tendon when a person reaches upward or performs swimming strokes. Tina learned how to exercise to balance her muscles and stop the shoulder from rounding, and we treated her pectoral muscles for fascia restriction that made the rounding worse. Within four weeks, Tina was swimming without pain.  

Tennis 

Jerry’s backhand tennis stroke had been causing him shoulder blade pain for about two months, with no apparent cause. He demonstrated his backhand motion for me, and it became clear that he was over-rotating his back to compensate for a faulty rhomboid muscle (a muscle connecting the shoulder blade to the spine).  

Careful examination showed that restrictions in the fascia of his rib joints caused this rhomboid weakness. When these fascia restrictions were released, the rhomboid was able to work correctly, and his backhand became smooth and pain-free. 

Kim’s left hip frequently hurt after playing tennis, but she particularly noticed the pain after serving. On examination of her serving motion, I found a telltale shift in her posture with the downstroke, showing weakness of the psoas muscle that flexes the hip. The weakness was traced to fascia restrictions of the psoas and two other hip muscles. The psoas strengthened after these restrictions were treated with manual therapy. Not only did Kim experience tremendous pain relief, but her serve’s accuracy and speed increased after treatment.  

Golf 

Irene was still an avid golfer in her 80s, but she became plagued by an inability to control her clubface’s alignment as it struck the golf ball. As a result, she started hitting the ball everywhere but where she wanted to aim it on the fairway. She had no noticeable pain, but physical therapists found that her right shoulder was weak.  

Efforts to strengthen the shoulder made no change in her wild inaccuracy. When she was referred to our office, we assessed her golf swing in slow motion. It was apparent that weakness in the supraspinatus muscle control of her shoulder position on the downswing. Fascial restrictions in several of her shoulder and neck muscles were the culprits behind this weakness. Releasing these fascia restrictions restored Irene’s strength and control, and she went right back to hitting tee shots down the middle of the fairway.  

Fascia must be supple and strong to prevent pain and injury when athletically active. Stiffness and restriction in fascia can cause pain, stifle athletic  performance, and interfere with enjoyment of a sport. Fortunately, a qualified practitioner of fascia release therapies can detect and treat such restrictions, restoring healthy pain-free motion for many suffering athletes.   

Dr. Eric Winder has been practicing chiropractic for 27 years, with a focus on treatment of fascia and soft tissue for the past 24 years. Dr. Winder’s practice emphasizes relieving pain and restoring alignment and motion with gentle therapies. For more information, call 941-957-8390 or visit https://gentlebay.com/