Judy says, “Hello,  I have not been able to stop my back spasms.  My dad also has the same problem and he tells me I should see a doctor and be put on muscle relaxers.  I want to, but I’m afraid that after I finish the meds, the spasms will return.”

“Will this be a never ending cycle?”

That was a great question!  Her fear could come true–stop the meds and the pain can come back because she didn’t get rid of the cause.  Most pain has a cause–it doesn’t happen without a reason.

And all medicines have side effects.

Here’s my understanding about muscle relaxers. (Remember, I’m not a doctor.)

They relax all of the muscles and that seems to cause some relief but the part of the muscles that are in spasm–the knots–aren’t affected by the muscle relaxants.  It doesn’t get rid of the knots; just makes a person feel a little better.

There are several possible causes for muscle spasms in backs.

1.  It could be the muscles in your back are stretched too far and so they go into a special type of contraction (spasm.)  They do this to try to protect themselves from stretching too far.

The solution is to strengthen your back while you stretch all of the muscles in the front of your body from your knees to your head and also stretch your calf muscles.  There are articles about this at http://SimpleStrengthening.com.

2.  It could be muscles in the front of your body that attach to your legs, hip bones and spine pulling on your back and causing spasm.  This can happen from poor posture (“forward head” and rounded shoulders.)  Poor posture is most often caused by weak back muscles.

3.  It could be the way you work, sleep, play, watch television, hold a mouse or baby or something else you are doing that aggravates those muscles.

And the tendency to have back knots can run in families because of similar skeletal structures or learned postures.

So here’s another possibility:  Maybe both Judy and her dad have scoliosis or a curvature of the spine.

If so, don’t panic.  That is also something that can be worked out naturally in most cases and I write about it here.

And try using Tennis Ball Therapy for your knots.  Applying direct pressure by laying on a tennis ball or similar ball for about 5 minutes can often help relax a muscle spasm in your back.

Also, seriously try to locate a very experienced and highly skilled massage therapist who does postural evaluation as well as massage to help you.

Another option is to look into buying my program KnotsInYourBack  I put together a lot of little videos to help you get rid of knots in your back naturally and keep them from coming back.

I also included a video there about how and why to get a strong back side.

This doesn’t have to be a never-ending cycle.  I think Judy is on the right track:  Get rid of the cause or causes & you can get rid of the miserable  muscle spasms in your back.