How to treat upper back pain
Do you suffer from constant neck and upper back pain at work or in the comfort of your home? This blog targets people who do office work, but is beneficial for anyone who may have muscular issues in the areas as depicted in the pictures provided to the right. I have suffered with these symptoms, both after a car accident and when I had a sedentary job in an office. As a massage therapist, I see many clients with upper back pain ranging from, thoracic outlet and carpal tunnel syndrome, shooting pains, numbness and tingling in the arm, as well as pain in the upper chest. These symptoms may be caused by anything from tense shortened muscles, subtle changes in the joints, to impinged nerves.
These structural or mobility changes may be caused by:
– Trauma causing whiplash, such as a car accident;
– Improper ergonomic workstation and chair setup;
– Flexion of the neck for extended periods of time;
– Rotation of the neck for an extended period of time;
– Poor posture
– Stress;
– Too thick of a pillow when sleeping;
– Watching TV in odd positions.
A few simple stretches and exercises can stabilize the parts of your body that hurt, stop the pain and prevent it from returning. In the event of stress, I suggest meditation using a simple breathing exercise (refer to my blog post on the power of the breath, which teaches you how to do a two minute meditation).
If clients have back pain between their shoulder blades (rhomboid muscles), it’s usually a result of tension in the chest (pectoral muscles). The pain in the back is most always due to over-stretched back muscles. When the back muscles become weak it causes the shoulders to roll forward and downward, thereby shortening the muscle fibres of the upper chest.
I have also seen people suffer with constant pain in their levator scapulae, a muscle that connects from the back of the neck to the shoulder blade. This can be caused by similar over-stretching: prolonged flexing of the front neck muscles – like when you’re working at a desk – or chronic tension can shorten the muscles along the front of the neck.
The muscles along the front of the neck that usually cause over-stretched muscles in the levator scapulae are the SCM (Sternocleidomastoid) and the scalenes, both of which run from roughly underneath the ear to various points along the collarbone. Two or five minutes a day spent stretching the tense shortened muscles will alleviate, if not entirely relieve, the pain in the levator scapulae in as little as a week, depending on the severity of the problem. If the resulting levator scapulae pain started to occur in as little as a week, you may just need to make simple routine changes such as using a thinner pillow or no pillow when sleeping, making sure that you have a better neck posture when sitting to watch TV or a movie, driving, in a meeting or at your desk.
The videos below provide easy preventive stretches that can be done at work, home or on the run. These stretches should be done two to three times a day to anyone working in an office, whether they have an ergonomic setup or not. You should also get up and move every fifteen minutes, to allow your eyes to refocus, retain muscle strength, and to activate your lymphatic system to encourage your body to purge toxins through muscle movement. I also recommend that you check out my blog “Do you suffer from lower back pain?” if you sit or stand for long lengths of time.
For anyone regardless of age who are unable to do the chest stretches because of extensive atrophy of the surrounding muscles, pain or previously lingering injuries to the shoulder, I suggest that they do light frictioning to release the tension in the chest (pectoral) muscle, then stretch out your chest enough that you don’t injure yourself. To do the frictioning press into the affected muscle in the chest then move your finger an inch up and down and side to side for 30 seconds until the entire surface area of the affected muscle has been palpated. This will reduce pain to the affected muscle, breakdown some of the scar tissue promoting muscle mobility, promotion of body awareness through stimulation of the nerve fibres and increase blood-oxygen circulation to the effected muscle. Another option to lengthen and strengthen the muscles is by doing aquasize therapy using water as resistance, but before engaging in this activity make sure that you do the frictioning first to reduce pain and further damage to the affected muscle.
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