If you have pain in the left side of your upper shoulder and neck, right about where they meet, guess what the cause might be?
Sure it’s muscles, most likely. But why are they complaining?
1. Do you type? Do you sit facing toward the right while you are at the computer? The best way is to face the monitor or your material squarely in front of your nose.
2. Do you always watch the television from an angle? Or sit in the same corner of the same couch with your head tilted? How about changing position so you look directly and straight at the television or book?
3. Do you sleep on your side with your head tilted either up or down? You can prop your neck and head in a more neutral position to avoid neck muscle strain.
What Shoulder Muscle Causes Pain In Upper Back And Neck?
Muscles are the most common cause of pain in the upper back and neck.
The levator scapulae muscle is also called the ‘shoulder hiker.’ It lifts or hikes your shoulder blade. The levator scapulae is responsible for a lot of upper back and neck pain.
Trigger Points Cause Upper Back and Neck Pain
Shoulder Hiker Muscle
Trigger points are hyper-irritable areas of muscle that cause pain elsewhere, sometimes at a great distance from the trigger point. Trigger points can be in the shoulder hiker muscle and, when they are, they cause pain around the upper back and shoulder blade.
In this picture, you can see the shoulder hiker muscle. You are looking at the back side of a body.
The muscle attaches to the bones of your neck and to your shoulder blade on the innermost top part.
If trigger points develop in this muscle it will cause pain where the muscle is.
2. It will also cause pain along the spine side of your shoulder blade down to the bottom of the shoulder blade.
3. And it can cause pain at the back of your shoulder on the top of your arm.
If it always feels like your shoulders are creeping up to your ears, this guy is the culprit. The levator scapulae has become shortened because you held your shoulders hiked and the muscle got used to being in that position.
It may also have developed trigger points that need to be released. If you do not help the muscle relax and/or release the trigger points you will continue to have pain in your upper back and neck.
What can you do to help this muscle relax?
1. You can use a pressure tool or finger to press into the levator scapulae muscle. Press at the crook of your neck where your neck meets your shoulder.
Look for very tender areas. That is where you want to apply pressure. Also press where the muscle meets the top of the shoulder blade. Those are the two areas where trigger points tend to be.
2. You can go to a professional massage therapist who can warm and relax the muscle (and others around it) with manual pressure and massage. He or she will work the length of the muscle to help it stretch and settle it down.
A trigger point therapist can get rid of the triggers that are causing the pain in your neck and upper back. They can also help you get rid of the CAUSES of your trigger points!
3. You can lift your shoulders to your ears.
Hike them waaay up and hold for twenty seconds or so. This will tire the shoulder hiker muscle so it will start to weaken and relax. You can do this several times. (But use sense. Too many times can make the muscles ache from overuse just as any new exercise program can.)
What Activities Cause Pain In Upper Back And Neck?
I received the cutest email today from a man who has knots in his back. He said he loves to slouch but when he does he gets pain in his upper back and in his head.
He loves to slouch.
He gets pain when he slouches.
His question was whether therapy would help him get rid of the pain.
But he said he knows it comes from slouching and he just loves slouching on the couch so much!
Well, I told him that he already knows the answer. In fact, he did a really good job of diagnosing where the pain comes from.
I also said that if the therapist helps him get a strong back and relax the muscles in the front of his body and neck it would help a lot. Mostly, it will help keep him out of slouching positions.
And since his body will be more balanced, if he does still slouch once in a while, it won’t be so likely to cause the pain in his jaw and the knots in his back.
That’s the type of self-help information you can get for your own “muscle knots” in your upper back if you go to –> Knots In Your Back Gone! (I made it easy just for you.)
Slouching and slumping can definitely cause muscle knots in your back!
Your new goal is to correct your posture to avoid back pain naturally. 🙂
What’s the most common cause of upper back pain? Is it herniated disks?
Is it neck bones that are out of place? Is it your neighbors or your job?
Not likely any of those. It’s muscles! (Well, maybe your job is contributing, too.)
A recent commenter said the knots in her upper back are caused by a herniated disk. But that’s taking things out of sequence. (And that‘s really, really common in the medical field.)
You see, disks cannot move on their own. Neither can bones. So how do they move?
You got it: Muscles! Muscles move bones and disks. That’s their job.
So how do disks get herniated? (We will assume there is not a whiplash or other serious tossing-around injury.)
When muscles get out of balance they don’t hold the bones in a neutral position anymore. Instead the muscles pull or push the bones and disks out of alignment. They can actually push a disk out of place!
“Out of balance” means muscles on one side of your neck or back are too short or tight. On the other side they are too loose or weak.
This means pain in your upper back and neck.
What’s the solution?
In a nutshell, strengthen the muscles on the back side of your body. Stretch and lengthen the muscles on the front side.
And don’t forget you also have muscles on the sides of your body. They probably need lengthening and stretching, too!
Other things such as nutrition can also play a big part in how happy your muscles are. If you eat healthy and exercise and get plenty of water into your body your muscles will be nicer to you in return.
And posture plays a huge role in upper back pain. I created a self-help program for upper back pain and knots and in that program I actually have a video that will help you get straighter and stronger in a simple, easy way.
If you’d like to know more about the upper back pain relief program that addresses ALL of these, please click here: www.KnotsInYourBack.com
You can get rid of upper back pain, lower back pain and neck pain naturally with Complementary Alternative Medicine (also known as CAM.) 🙂
It’s called ‘complementary’ because it can be used along with conventional medical treatment.
There are a lot of reasons why CAM helps and research backs it up.
An interesting study from the National Institutes of Health (the United States government’s health arm) tells about the benefits of massage, chiropractic and acupuncture (3 types of CAM) for neck and back pain.
Here’s a simple, gentle neck massage video I’d like to share with you. I found it on YouTube and chose it solely because of the massage technique. The reasons that I like this video are because:
1. It involves massage and touch is a wonderful tool for pain relief.
2. The therapist in the video (Athena Jezik) uses massage in a gentle, soothing, thoughtful way. She doesn’t pull on the neck. She allows it to move. She doesn’t push on the neck but she gently assists it through its normal range of motion.
What causes pain in your neck? Most often the cause is muscles.
Unless you had a traumatic accident which shifted your neck bones, muscles are generally to blame. Even if the pain is caused by pressure on nerves, muscles are still the bad guy. Muscles caused the pressure on the nerves to start in the first place.
Here are some ways to relax those neck muscles and take pressure off the nerves.
1. Ice massage. Use ice to massage the muscles in front on the sides and in back of your neck. Also do the base of your skull and the top of your breastbone. Go to http://SimplePainRelief.com and look for the Category for Ice and Heat.
Here’s how neck pain starts. Your neck is attached to your shoulders. And to your upper back. And to your chest and abdomen. And to your lower back. Your legs. Feet, too.
Your neck muscles got tight and crabby because all of those muscles from all over your body were pulling on your neck and head.
When your head started moving forward (because the muscles in the front of your body were pulling it) in front of your body instead of over it–when your perfect posture started to collapse–gravity was able to grab Continue reading Neck Pain – How To Get Rid Of The Pain In Your Neck→
GET RID OF BACK PAIN NATURALLY with KATHRYN MERROW the PAIN RELIEF COACH
