Category Archives: Upper Back Muscle Knots

Upper Back Muscle Knots

Five Causes of Muscle Spasms In Your Upper Back and Shoulder

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Muscle knots in backGot pain between your spine and shoulder blade(s)?

Got painful muscle spasms in the back of your shoulder? 

Got “knots” in your upper back on one or both sides?

Below you’ll find five possible causes for your back pain:

Pssst:  Your body is trying to tell you something.  It’s complaining!

When you get “knots” or muscle spasms in your upper back, that’s one of the ways your body says, “Hey, pay attention!  I’m not happy!”

Knots in your back muscles are symptoms that there’s an issue somewhere—a cause.  Our goal is to get rid of the cause.

There are common causes of one-sided upper back pain between your shoulder blade and spine and we’re going to talk about them right here.

When you discover the causes of your upper back pain, you’ll be on the road to be rid of your painful knots naturally!

You’ll learn how to get rid of those nasty muscle knots forever in a bit.

So, what causes one or more muscle knots in your back?

1.  Thyroid issues and mineral deficiencies.  Thyroid or other immune system dysfunctions can  cause a tendency to get muscle spasms (knots.)  You’ll probably need to work with your doctor if you have this diagnosis.

Mineral deficiencies can cause muscles to be unhappy.  Magnesium makes muscles happier.  Muscles also like calcium and potassium to function properly.

2.  Posture. If you have a “forward head” posture or rounded shoulders the muscles in your upper back get stretched and strained and complain.  They go into spasms or “knots” to try to protect themselves.  This is a really common cause!

Slouching or even straining to see the computer screen can be a cause of muscle strain and knots in your upper back.  Adjusting your chair, table and screen heights can help.

3.  Weak back muscles. If your back muscles are weak, the stronger, shorter muscles in the front of your body will pull you forward.  This can be a cause OR a result of poor posture.  It strains your back muscles and causes muscle knots in your back muscles.  The goal is to get a strong back side (excepts calves.)

4.  Holding an area of your back in contraction (shortened) for a long time.  Do you tend to hold your elbow behind the midline of the side of your body?  Muscles that are held in just one position for a long period of time  think they are supposed to be in that position all the time.

You get lopsided.  And, you get knots.

5.  Tilting or rotating. This can be due to habits if you always stand or sit in the same off-balance position.  It can be caused by such things as stretching to keep your hand on a mouse or leaning to one side a lot.

Perhaps you lean on the armrest of your chair, couch or in your car?  Or, always cross the same leg over the other leg?

Scoliosis (curvature of the spine) can also have tilts and rotations.  It might be primary (the way you were born) or secondary (from habits.)  Scoliosis can sometimes be corrected naturally, by the way.

Now you know the possible causes of those nasty knots in your upper back.  If you get rid of the causes, you’ll be rid of the muscle knots.

I’d love to help you do that.   🙂

If it’s okay with you, I’d like to invite you to discover an easy online self-help course that I designed just for you!  Knots In Your Back Gone!

Knots In Your Back has all of the information you need to get rid of the gnawing pain between your shoulder blades and spine from a trusted, reliable source (me!) in just one place.

You won’t have to search the Internet trying to figure out what’s actually helpful and true and what’s not.

I’ve done all the research for you, taken all the advanced training, and have over thirty years of experience helping people get out of physical pain.

I’ve gotten rid of the miserable knots in my own upper back, too, naturally and forever!

I know how you feel because I’ve been there.  And I’ve been helping people get rid of those miserable knots in their upper back and other pain for over thirty years!  That’s a lot of years and a lot of bodies.

I’d love it if you go look and see if it sounds interesting to you. Please click >>>   Knots In Your Back Gone!

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Natural Back Pain Relief, Self Help, Upper Back Muscle Knots

Movement Helps Back Pain Go Away and Stay Away

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What kind of movement will help your back pain go away and stay away?

Well, here’s the deal.  We have several hundred muscles and most of us use only the same sixty or seventy all the time.  That gets us out of muscular balance.

So, mix things up!  Wake up the muscles that you haven’t been using.  Stretch the muscles in front.  Most of us have muscles in front that are way too tight and short.  That causes back pain.

Strengthen the back muscles.  Most of us have weak backs and we collapse forward.  Make those back muscles strong again.

If you take on a program of movement that is too far different from your usual activity, you will be sore tomorrow.

  • Start gradually.
  • Move thoughtfully.
  • Pay attention to what feels tight.
  • Look in the mirror to check your posture.  (You used to have great posture when you were little!)

Even simple, subtle movement will help your back muscles start to feel better.

A weak back can develop muscle “knots” and make your life miserable.

Did you know that even walking can help strengthen and normalize your back muscles?  How?  Because your legs are attached to your back!

If you feel the problem is a weak back, there is a program designed to help you get rid of those knots and muscle spasms in your upper back.  I’ve included lots of movements in it to help you get rid of that achy upper back, for good!

Click here to learn more:  Knots In Your Back.

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Neck Pain, Shoulder Pain, Upper Back Muscle Knots, Upper Back Pain

Pain In The Left Side Of Your Upper Shoulder And Neck

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Why do I have pain in upper back
Pain in upper back and shoulder

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.

4.  Do you tuck the phone Continue reading Pain In The Left Side Of Your Upper Shoulder And Neck →

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Causes of Back Pain, Natural Back Pain Relief, Self Help, Upper Back Muscle Knots

What Is The Most Common Cause Of Back Pain?

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Muscle knots in back

What is the most common cause of back pain that you wouldn’t normally think of?

We expect to have back pain when we work our muscles too hard but what else could make your back hurt?

Here are three causes you might not have thought about:

The most common cause of back pain is under-use of muscles!

This happens when you spend too much time sitting.  We were built to move–to walk, swing from trees and all the things we don’t do much anymore.  We are supposed to use ALL of our muscles but we mostly use just SOME of them.

That makes muscles unhappy so they get knots and they complain.  Weak muscles are easily overstretched and that is a common reason for muscle pain in your back.

Poor nutrition causes muscle pain in your back.  Muscles need minerals to function well and a lot of the things we eat don’t supply all of the nutrients that used to be in (real) food.  (<–click to article.)  Worse yet, some of the things we eat actually deplete our bodies of necessary vitamins.  Yikes!

Poor posture causes back pain, too.   Poor posture is often caused by poor habits–slouching, leaning to one side, sitting with your head way forward, ‘forgetting’ to stretch.  If you have the feeling that you are curling forward it’s time to stretch.  Get your arms up and back, (<– click to article.)  squeeze your shoulder blades to your spine, lift your chin.

You may have noticed that all of the most common causes of back pain are things that can easily be fixed.  But you have to take action!

Take control of your posture and nutrition, get moving and USE your body and you can get rid of the most common causes of pain in your back.  🙂

I created a program to help people get rid of the nasty muscle knots in their upper back but it actually has solutions to all of these causes of “plain old back pain,” too.

Just click the link –> to learn more about Knots In Your Back Gone!

 

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Self Help, Upper Back Muscle Knots, Upper Back Pain

How To Keep Muscle Knots In Your Upper Back From Coming Back

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Muscle knots in back

Here’s a good question I received about muscle knots in your upper back:

I am a student and find my self working in forward head posture every day.  My goal is to get rid of my knots and once I get rid of them I was wondering what i can do to keep them at bay? I don’t have the option of changing what I do or my future career.

Many careers involve forward head positions and working with hands stretched out in front of your body.  That posture makes upper back muscles very unhappy.

The good news is those muscles can be happy again!

Once the knots are gone here’s what you can do now and forever to keep those miserable muscle spasms from coming back:

Here’s how in a nutshell:

Strengthen your back muscles.  It doesn’t have to be a hard workout; it just has to help you get a stronger back.

One way to do this is to squeeze your shoulder blades toward your spine.  Be sure to have your head over your body rather than “out in front” when you do this.  Laying flat on your back in bed makes it easier.

Actually you need to strengthen ALL the muscles from your knees to your skull on the back side of your body.

When the muscles in back are strong, they can ‘hold their own’ against daily working postures.  That avoids pain!

I created a program just to help you get rid of your upper back pain forever.

It will even teach you how to get a strong back easily–in bed!

Check it out but in the meantime…

  • Take lots of breaks to stretch up and back, up and back.
  • Lift your breastbone and the crown of your head to the sky.
  • Eat healthy foods to support your muscles.  Well-nourished muscles function better.
  • Drink plenty of water.  Muscles that are well-hydrated function much better.

Having a strong back helps a TON and stretching the muscles in front of your arms and chest and abdomen also helps keep the nasty muscle knots in your back from coming back.

If you want to know more about this simple, easy, self-help course that I created just to help people like you get rid of the muscle pain in their upper back, please just click here:  Knots In Your Back

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Shoulder Pain, Upper Back Muscle Knots, Upper Back Pain

Burning Pain Between Your Spine And Shoulder Blade

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Trapezius Muscle Trigger PointsDo you have burning pain on one or both sides of your spine?  Does it look like one of the red pain patterns on the right side of the picture?  It may be the trapezius muscle.  As you see, there is one on each half of your body.

The trapezius muscles can cause pain on the tops of the shoulders, near the spine, on the inner side of the shoulder blade toward the spine and even on the back of your skull!

This picture shows trigger points.  The trigger points are indicated by the X‘s.  Those are the places to apply pressure (approximately) in order to get rid of the red areas.  The red areas indicate painful areas.

If your shoulder pain pattern is approximately where any of the the red is in the picture, applying pressure to the appropriate X may help get rid of the pain between your spine and shoulder blade!

Here are directions Continue reading Burning Pain Between Your Spine And Shoulder Blade →

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Self Help, Upper Back Muscle Knots, Upper Back Pain

Four Ways to Use a Tennis Ball to Get Rid of Knots in Your Back Naturally!

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Got muscle “knots” in your upper back?

Tennis balls make really nice tools to get rid of muscle spasms in your back.  This doesn’t work for all knots, however.

It’s actually better to figure out the cause(s) of your muscle “knots” but here we go!

(1)  I recommend laying on a tennis ball so gravity and the weight of your body do all the work.  Place the ball under your body as you lie on your back.  Let the ball press on a muscle knot for about 5 minutes and then shift a bit to the next most tender knot.

If it’s too much for you to lie on the floor, you could pad the floor to make it easier.  Only lie on a bed if absolutely necessary, because the therapy ball will be lost in the softness of a mattress.  It will not be as effective.

(2) You can put a tennis ball in a sock or sack and hold it behind you with the open end of the sack in your hand.  Then you can lean against a wall and the ball will be between you and the wall.

I believe it’s more effective to use the floor but you might not want to lie down at work.

(3)  You can thoughtfully place a tennis ball or similar ball in front of your shoulder and upper arm and hold static pressure or roll the ball to massage the area.

The muscles in the front of the body get short and tight from everyday living and can cause strain and muscle spasm in your back.

(4)  Stand and support yourself in a doorway while rolling one foot back and forth over a therapy ball with pressure.  This helps relax and normalize foot and leg muscles so you can have better posture.

Better posture means less back pain. 🙂

Here’s the e-mail response I got from Rich about tennis ball therapy and the knots in his back.  He has some good ideas!

> Hello Kathryn,
>
> Tried the tennis balls but I just crushed them.  Switched to Lacrosse balls
> and they seem to help. However, when you hit the “spot”, it will bring tears
> to your eyes.

(3)  I found that if I start at Continue reading Four Ways to Use a Tennis Ball to Get Rid of Knots in Your Back Naturally! →

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Self Help, Shoulder Pain, Stress, Upper Back Muscle Knots

How Does Stress Cause Knots in Your Shoulder Muscles

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get rid of muscles knots upper backDo you know that stress can cause muscle knots in your upper back?  It’s true.  Read on…

Do you remember the science fiction suspense television series called The Twilight Zone?

Let’s enter now into the Twilight Zone of Knots In Your Back.

Host Rod Serling often said “Imagine this”:  (So, Imagine this:)

You are driving.  Traffic is moving fast.  Big trucks are all around, weaving in and out.

Other drivers are tail-gating.

The sun is hitting the car windows ahead of you and blasting right into your eyes.  The driver behind you is blaring his horn.

You are almost out of gas and have no money to get more!

Do you feel your shoulders lifting and tightening up yet?

The other muscles to tighten would be your jaw and neck.  Your head moves forward; your chin juts out.

You have mental stress when you are in a tight situation like the heavy traffic.  Mental stress causes changes in the way you hold your body so your muscles contract–they become tight.

Tight muscles cause discomfort.  Bodies just don’t like to be all bound up.

And if you keep your stress posture long enough–shoulders hiked, jaw tight–your chest muscles will tighten and shorten, too.  In fact, maybe they already are short and tight just because of the day to day positions your work in.

That, in a nutshell, is an example of how stress can cause knots in your shoulders.

I don’t want to leave you all stressed-up like that so here’s a little meditation for you…

Imagine this:

The weather is perfect.  A soft breeze kisses your cheeks and the setting sun is warming your skin perfectly.

Birds are lining the rustling trees, making their sleepy noises, settling in for the night.  The moon is rising and the sky is becoming rosy and then indigo.

A million stars are twinkling overhead and the cooler breeze is lulling you to sleep.  You can fall asleep easily and rest well.

There is always enough…

Meditation is one way to relieve stress.  There are other easy, self-help ways to start to reduce your physical stress so you can more easily deal with day-to-day stresses at Knots In Your Back.

When your body has more muscular ‘balance’ (like a toddler does) it reduces body stress and pain and lessens mental stress.  It’s like peeling stressful layers off one at a time.

Toddlers:  No stress.  No muscle knots.  🙂

You can get rid of the stressful muscle knots in your shoulders!

Your smart body wants to be well.

 

 

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Self Help, Upper Back Muscle Knots, Upper Back Pain

How To Strengthen Your Upper Back To Relieve Upper Back Muscle Pain

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It takes a lot of work to get rid of your upper back muscle pain.  But it’s well worth it!

The problem that causes your back pain is probably a weak back or poor posture (same thing!)  Strengthening your upper back can relief miserable muscle pain.

Here’s an email I received:

> Honestly Kathryn, I ‘ve been a little worse. I’ve been trying to
> strenghthen my upper back since I sit all day at a desk, and it seems like
> my shoulders KILL me the day after. I’ve only done it a couple of times; do
> you think that once they actually get used to working, it might help? My
> upper body is SO weak. I would love your advice on this.

Here’s my response:

If you do strengthening movements too often right off the bat your muscles will ache just as they will from any new exercise program that’s done too aggressively.  As they get stronger you will feel better.

It’s good to start slowly and thoughtfully.

Do your strengthening movement only a few times to start.  You can do more and more repetitions as your body adjusts.

You can also use a foam noodle to help relax the muscles in the front of your body and start strengthening your back.  Lay over the noodle (or towel rolled long-wise) so the noodle is behind your spine.  Let your shoulder blades “fall” to the floor.

Getting rid of your upper back pain is a two part process:

  1. Stretch the muscles in front of your body.
  2. Strengthen your back.

I also have a website called http://SimpleStrengthening.com

If you haven’t been there yet I have articles with simple movements that you can do in bed to strengthen your upper back and help correct your posture.

All of those movements–and more–are in the Simple Strengthening video that is included in the Knots In Your Back program I created just for people with upper back pain (like you.)

You have smart muscles.  They just need a bit of help from you right now to get rid of your upper back pain naturally.

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Causes of Back Pain, Neck Pain, Upper Back Muscle Knots, Upper Back Pain

Why Do You Have Muscle Knots In Your Back?

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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. 🙂

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