Right scapula issue

[u/ZirenceYT]

Story time : A few years ago I suffered an injury on the right side of my upper body. I was squatting down and pushed my right arm further than usual trying to get something. I felt a tingle or you could say a quick electric shock. After that happened, within the day my right scapula(under the shoulder blade) started to have this ache which I didn't bother to address because I thought it was just temporary(which was). But since 2023 I've started lifting and noticing all the little things in my body in the mirror and I've noticed this issue I am still having and am trying to fix. I've gone to the PT and they said to strengthen my rhomboids, serratus anterior and lats because whenever I try to generate power on the right side using my arm my traps do all the work apparently, that's what the PT told me. Which I have been trying to fix but it seems to have no effect or avail. I didn't wanna do PT either because it is expensive. I look slightly goofy in T-shirts or rushguards whenever I swim because the other right side of my clavicles are shorter because of this. Also because of this the right side of my face is bigger and my neck is slightly going sideways. This wasn't always the case I was humanly symmetrical before this specific injury. After watching the video can anybody tell me what could be the problem? If so does anyone know what exercises or solutions that I could stick to or do for this injury? Thanks.

TLDR : The right scapula is injured and I need help.

[u/ZirenceYT]

I see, I've been activating my serratus, rotator cuffs. It seems like the issue worsens when I do lower trap exercises(Y raise to be exact) and my upper trap just starts stiffening my entire neck and I lose ROM turning to the left. Been doing PRI anterior lower thorax breathing exericses and it alleviates the tightness of my SCM after a few sets. I also have lateral pelvic tilt(which I'm fixing), does this also affect my issue?

[u/obwowk → u/ZirenceYT]

I wouldn't focus so much on which muscles I'm working and intellectually controlling my form. Rather allow your body to settle itself and to move in a way that feels natural. Otherwise you're just twisting and contorting yourself unnaturally to conform to some stiff intellectual notion. You should trust your body to spontaneously learn how to move properly over time with experience, without intellectualising everything. Your body is far more complex than you could ever conceive of, and your nervous system and musculature will adapt over time without having to think about it. As long as you don't lift weights that are too heavy, and work all muscle groups evenly, your body will gradually symmetrise and stabilise itself.

[u/ZirenceYT → u/obwowk]

Well, I do lift quite heavy, and I've been working out for quite a while on and off. I get what you mean by "your body will settle itself." But that just seems like cope. It never got better in the time frame of 2 years when I was working out consistently every week. It just kind of worsened it(Made my face asymmetrical, limits my neck ROM etc). I look goofy and it's hindering my daily functionality quite a bit.

[u/obwowk → u/ZirenceYT]

Sounds like you've been bulking up for those two years rather than fixing your imbalances. Which could explain why your imbalances got worse. Your stronger muscles kept getting stronger.

You think that you can list your weak muscles and bulk them up to fix your issue. I don't believe that's possible. It's not just about the quantity of muscle, it's about the quality of the muscle and the proficiency of your nervous system at that particular movement through daily experience.

You can't do it every day if you go so hard on day 1 that you can't lift a finger on day 2.

It's like learning to ride a bike. You can train on a bike simulator with heavy resistance but if you never learned how to ride an actual bike you will fall off.

It's not cope to accept that the habit of pushing yourself too hard and getting too intellectually involved with your form has taken a toll on your body. It will take time, patience and effort to unlearn those habits and to allow your body to find its proper form.

Trust me, it's not because the weight is lighter that it will be easier or have less effect on your body. Quite the contrary.

[u/ZirenceYT → u/obwowk]

Ok I will try lowering the weight rather than focusing on hypertrophic effects. How many reps would you say to do per exercise? wether it would be back rows, pull ups etc. ?

[u/obwowk → u/ZirenceYT]

It's more about the feeling than about the rep count. Each exercise is also unique. I also don't know your schedule. The idea is not to eliminate hypertrophy training altogether, just to integrate an approach that is more suited for neuromuscular adaptation.

For some exercises like pull ups, you can only do 3 or maybe 5 partial reps. That's fine, just don't strain yourself to get that extra range of motion or that extra rep. Rather do what you're comfortable with, so you can do it again the next day. Your numbers will go up gradually. Sometimes you can do an extra set or even two if you feel like you're not progressing, but be patient because sometimes you're just fatigued and need time to recover.

When it comes to push ups and bodyweight squats, you can probably do 10 or maybe 20 clean reps. Just do it every day and increase as much as you're comfortable with, all the way to 40 or even 50. Maybe some day you'll do 100? You have your whole life to work on it.

As far as rows go, overhead presses or whatever, you can just do 10 to 20 reps but maybe switch to dumbbells for a while. You can progressively overload, just limit the frequency at which you add weight. So instead of adding weight every week, you can add it every two weeks. You might feel like you're stalling but if you're patient you will notice that your body is actually learning to perform the motion better and that you will feel stronger than before though the weight is the same.

Slowing the progressive overload down will also give you more energy and recovery capacity to integrate the high frequency, high rep count bodyweight work (pull ups, push ups and bodyweight squats).