Injuries Cause Compensation, Compensation Causes Injuries

Earlier this summer I had a mastoid infection, and as a result, I wasn’t chewing and grounding through my right side as much, in fact I was kind of avoidant of my whole right side through movements. 

Even though I was intentional and tried to chew on the right side, because it was so inflamed and it hurt, I didn’t do it as much. Fast forward weeks later, I tweaked my knee during a workout, and it made me take a look at my movement pattern all the way down the right chain.

I wanted to see - what were my feet doing? Sure enough, rather than using that dorsiflexion through the big toe, my right foot was gripping on the outside. I also wasn’t weight bearing as much on this side. From a proprioceptive standpoint, I was off balance.

No surprise, today I woke up with pain in my right shoulder and right side of my neck - this tension pulling from injury, paired with avoidance of weight bearing, set me up to have some pain further down the chain.

It’s all connected. Fascia is connective tissue that signals movement across the body; proprioception is our awareness of ourselves in space, and important neurological signaling occurs when we move (and when we avoid movement) in certain areas.

If we are more dominant in our movements on one side versus the other, weakness on one side and over-use on the other can occur. Have you ever experienced an injury that had cascading effects elsewhere in the body? 

Of course, there are more pieces to the puzzle, but it’s important to pay attention to your body and how it moves into and away from certain patterns. When we listen to and observe what our bodies are saying, it’s a starting place for our journey to healing.

You’ve got this - let’s go make some Myo Magic!