I’ve had pain behind my shoulder blade for the longest time. I constantly pull and tear the muscles beneath it by doing the most mundane things: sleeping, getting dressed, or even brushing teeth! With this in mind, I took to YouTube to try to find some solutions to my problem. I didn’t want relief. I wanted it fixing.
YouTube has a wealth of information on fitness and physiotherapy. There’s some highly qualified folk on there willing to give away their tips and hints in exchange for a few hits and likes. The problem the average viewer has is whom to believe. Some will tell you to get the foam roller out for your injury. Some will say to not use a foam roller in any circumstance. One may say to ice your pain, others will recommend heat. The list goes on and on.
When it comes to my particular ailment however, I was seduced by a video that claimed to heal it once and for all. This guy didn’t even claim to have any qualifications, but he’d done the rounds of medication, physiotherapy, and chiropractics. It occurred to him that as all the stretching that had been prescribed to him hadn’t horked, then contracting the muscle instead might offer some relief. He took it upon himself to invent a new exercise which basically saw him violently swing both elbows behind his back as if almost to meet each other.
Sure enough, his decade-long struggle with shoulder pain vanished in an instant. I scoured the comments section and was amazed to see that dozens more had tried it and had their long-standing issues resolved just by this simple action. Needless to say, I was sold.
I instantly did exactly as the YouTube vid said, and swung my arms back with enough force to hopefully sort my rhomboid pain out once and for all.
The next thing I know, I find myself in the accident and emergency room of my local hospital. I was in absolute agony. My muscles were in a continuous spasm, and I couldn’t do anything at all. Eventually I was given a cocktail of morphine and diazepam three times a day just to dull the pain slightly. I was out of it for around a week.
As things stand now, I’m still waiting to rehab my shoulder blade just to get it anywhere near to how I had it before I performed this daft YouTube exercise. It may have worked for others, but few would have been aware of the risk they were exposing themselves to when performing the exercise.
So there you have it: a cautionary tale. Whilst some YouTube channels are an excellent source of information (I recommend Jeff Cavaliere’s ‘Athlean X’ channel for good rehabbing solutions), some may do much more harm than good. Stay vigilant when looking online, and try to ascertain the credentials of the person telling you of their wonder cure. I don’t believe that these people are malevolent in any way. I genuinely believe that they’ve hit upon something that’s worked for them (I had a similar problem after following acid reflux advice of drinking apple cider vinegar on YouTube. The video creator had enjoyed great success, but I only found discomfort), the problem is that these people are not qualified enough to know the risks that these solutions can have. Take care out there, and as always, check with your GP if in doubt about anything