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One year ago I had serious surgery to remove cancer from the right side of my face, followed by radiotherapy. Everything is going great now, and I'm ecstatic to be riding harder and more frequently than ever - about 10 hours per week.
There's a lot of tension in the right side of my neck, through my face and on the skull which I manage daily very well using simple stretches, and exercises from the hospital. I have shiatsu every month and that does a great job to rebalance me, but the positive effects from it last about one week.
Recently my whole upper back is tight, notchy and crunchy, and sore. When I shove my shoulders backwards slowly or circle them up, back, down, up I get lots of crunching sounds going on. The major soreness and tension sits below the right shoulder blade and runs up and over the right side collar bone through the lower neck, then down into the right pec which is probably the sorest area of all.
What can I do to get things loosened up?
I would suggest visiting an osteopath, they have always been good with me. Mine costs £35 per half hour. I think it is expensive. Then again I think it helps prevent injury, especially as I run quite a bit and health is surely the most important attribute to anyone's life?
Glad to hear you're recovering. Short term, maybe foam roller? I find working on my upper body much trickier & less effective than doing legs though. Long term working on your posture & maybe trying tai chi or yoga could help you learn to relax the muscles more. I've certainly found at chi to be helpful.
You could try looking at www.mobilitywod.com. There are a lot of basic mobility exercises on there, you can take things at your own pace and a lot of the exercises have a "test, re-test" element to encourage you to understand exactly what you are freeing up.