My shoulders feel FUCKED, suggestions for shoulder stretches or things that would help would be appreciated
@dayglochainsaw where is the pain
@seagazelle kinda like right here where my fingers are, above my shoulder blades on both sied

@dayglochainsaw @seagazelle I've been dealing with strain injuries for a full decade now and have learned a stupid amount about the human body and pain like this. i recommend looking up the terms myofascial therapy, trigger point therapy, and ischemic pressure. but i can also go into what you can do:

find something hard and stationary that will dig into that spot, ideally that you can lean into a bit. i have a thing called the theracane i use for stuff like this. (cont)

@dayglochainsaw @seagazelle mechanically what's happening is that your muscle is tensed and as such flexion is being perma-triggered. the reason knots feel crunchy is that nerve firing uses calcium ions and the leftover is building up.

so you wanna disrupt that signal by cutting off blood to the area temporarily.

once you found something that digs right in to that spot, lean in to apply pressure. you want to stop well before the pain becomes too much, but it should still hurt

@dayglochainsaw @seagazelle after about twenty seconds, the pain will reduce to dullness, but the crazy part is that during that 20 seconds the tight muscle will start jumping around like it's trying to buck the pressure. once it stops squirming, you can lean in a bit more and wait another 20 seconds. i wouldn't go in any longer than like 60 seconds, and then after you wanna gently stretch the area and rub along the length of the muscle the way you do with a gentle massage
@dayglochainsaw @seagazelle OH i forgot to mention, as you are applying pressure, you have to do deep breathing shit where you are relaxing as fully as possible, and breathing *into* the muscle. i don't know how much yoga you've done, but all you have to do is focus on that spot while you're breathing in and it feels like it's inflating against the pressure
@ohtazer @seagazelle I've done next to zero yoga and... kind of have no idea what you're talking about

@dayglochainsaw @seagazelle well your body is basically a pneumatic system. listening to breathing exercise tracks can really help you get acquainted with how your body functions on a mechanical level.

there's this weird thing that happens where you learn how to "breathe into" parts of your body and it's like it inflates. it sounds like bullshit but it's really kinda fun to feel. you realize how shallow we breathe normally by just filling our lungs and breathing out

@ohtazer @seagazelle huh, I'll try that. Got any recommendations for good ones? or should I just Google "breathing exercise tracks"
@dayglochainsaw @seagazelle yeah I'd just explore what google has, there's such a wide variety and different things work for different people. hope you find some good stuff!
@ohtazer @seagazelle I will, thanks for the help!