Captain Bill is lying on his back on my massage table, but his shoulders do not even touch the table because they are so ‘rounded’ towards the front of his body. His head is not evenly centered on his shoulders, but is pulled to the right side by several inches. During my intake interview he reveals that he has come to me for relief from the pain he experiences upon raising his right arm “especially above shoulder height”. He also lives with a chronic “stiff neck” that oftentimes triggers headaches. He tells me that I am his “last resort” – something his wife talked him into doing because she was tired of listening to him complain. He is a professional charter boat captain and spends untold hours fishing and assisting other anglers. His is a common complaint on the Northern Neck of Virginia. After seeing so many anglers with similar complaints I have begun to call this condition ‘northern neck’ and ‘angler ache’. I tell him “living in a body is a day-to-day challenge” as I begin to work on relaxing the extremely tight muscles in his neck. 

     Each sport has it’s own unique set of required movements. Every athlete knows that ensuring that your body is in peak condition for the rigors of your preferred sport increases the potential for success. In sport fishing the efficiency with which one moves through the entire range of motions utilized to prepare the equipment, arrive at a destination, and cast out lines can determine the amount of success in hauling in a big trophy specimen. They also often determine the amount of soreness one experiences the next day, week, or even longer if underused muscles are strained or injured during the process. Captain Bill can tell you that repeated stress to the same area of the body over time causes just as much pain as does a sudden injury. Anglers come in all shapes, sizes, and ages. As with most sports there are a few common aches, pains and areas of injury that any angler may experience. 

     All great athletic trainers will tell you about the importance of stretching before and after a game. Although performing this activity would benefit the majority, I would bet money that most anglers do not perform pre and post - fishing stretches. Ten to fifteen minutes of stretching is probably one of the best things you can add to your fishing routine to improve your game and ensure a pain-free experience. Good body awareness goes a long way towards injury prevention. Great anglers realize the limitations of their own body, and the connection between their body and the success of their catch. Receiving bodywork such as massage therapy or chiropractic can help you to establish body awareness, and also prepare your body for a day on the water angling. An ounce of prevention…

     Unfortunately, anglers often come to me after they are already in pain. The shoulder girdle is the joint most often compromised, followed by the “low back” or lumbar area. The freedom of movement afforded by the shoulder joint also makes it the most vulnerable joint in the body. The arm is attached to the trunk of the body by a series of interwoven muscles, ligaments, and tendons that form a complicated and beautiful web called the “rotator cuff”. Unlike a ‘ball and socket’ joint, the shoulder girdle does not fit into a ‘cup’ but instead ‘floats’ along the ribcage by the tone and strength of these structures. The casting/reeling motions utilized while fishing can stress the shoulder joint, and weaken or tear these interlaced structures resulting in pain or restricted movement. The years of repeated movements that Captain Bill has performed during the course of his fishing career has caused the muscles surrounding the shoulder joint to become chronically shortened, and has resulted in the restricted motion and pain he is currently experiencing. I have seen worse cases. 
I have felt muscles so chronically tightened that over time they have begun to ‘pull away’ from the bone. As the body builds up calcium deposits in an effort to keep the muscle tendon attached to the bone a condition develops called a ‘bone spur’. Spurs can happen in any area, and are a very painful condition that usually requires surgery to relieve. Some conditions are beyond even the most talented massage therapist and require ‘…a pound of cure’. 

     Massage therapy can be a powerful weapon in an angler’s arsenal to prevent injury and enjoy this sport in a pain-free manner. Massage relaxes strained muscles and allows the body to reset their ‘resting length’ longer, removes the toxins from the muscles that cause pain, and stimulates frayed tendons and ligaments to heal. Within the first few minutes of our session Captain Bill is beginning to relax and is starting to become increasingly more aware of his body. He comments that he did not realize just how tense he was until I touched “that particular sore spot.” 

     I apply a combination of deep tissue and sports massage techniques to release Captain Bill’s stressed neck and shoulder muscles. My treatment allows the muscle to lengthen, easing the pulling force at the attachment site on the bone, and thereby relieving much of his pain. The addition of passive stretches and active movements during the massage session retrains his muscles to follow a more efficient motor pathway and serves to prevent future injuries. He not only feels much better after the one-hour session, but is also able to demonstrate a full range of pain-free circular arm movements. He is amazed by the ability to raise his arm above shoulder height, and schedules another session in two weeks. I tell my clients that it took a lifetime to create this issue, and we won’t fully resolve it in just one hour. Regular applications of any medicine (even complimentary alternative modalities) insure a successful healing. He requests that I concentrate on his lower back in the next session.

     Low back pain is the most commonly reported pain in the American population. Anglers surely own their share of this statistic. The lumbar region of the back is the fulcrum of the coil inherent in the cast and reel actions of fishing. Anglers often do a lot of bending, lifting, and hauling during the course of an outing. Balancing on a swaying boat while performing the myriad movements that fishing requires can add undue stress to the lower back muscles. Add all of this to the above statistic and you have a recipe for trouble. 
I write a detailed progress note on Captain Bill after our session including the location of all of the ‘knots’ I found in his tissues, what techniques and applications I used to address them, and our mutually agreed upon plan for the next session. He departs with a smile on his face and a swing in his step – promising to drink lots of water tonight and to perform the stretches targeting specific muscles as I instructed. There is hope for even the saltiest of anglers!

©2005 RuthE Forrest NCMT All Rights Reserved