Tag Archives: Kathryn Merrow

Upper Back Pain

Common Causes of Upper Back Muscle Strain

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What’s causing the muscle strain in your upper back?

What causes that achy miserable feeling in your neck and upper back?

More importantly, what can you do to get rid of it?

When muscles get stretched too far too often, they complain.  That aching feeling in your upper back and neck muscles is giving you a message:  “Quit Stretching Me, Already, Okay?  Hey, Are You Listening?  Or Do I Have To Get Louder?”

But muscles can’t really talk so they send messages along the pain telegraph.

So what exactly are you doing to stretch those back and neck muscles too much too often?  Here’s how:

When you were Continue reading Common Causes of Upper Back Muscle Strain →

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Sciatica

Sciatica and Piriformis Syndrome

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You probably already know that there are far fewer back surgeries performed today than there used to be.

The reason is because too many times after surgery folks still had the same pain.  It didn’t go away.  That’s because the diagnosis for the cause of the pain was incorrect.

Muscles are the most common cause for pain and they are also the most commonly overlooked or ignored cause.

So sometimes a person truly does need surgery.  But surgery should always be a last resort.  Once something is removed or fused it’s changed forever.

And if it doesn’t cure your problem it makes it harder for natural methods to succeed.  Maybe not impossible, just harder.

Probably the biggest problem with surgery for sciatica is that it’s only addressing the immediate symptom.  It’s not addressing the muscle imbalances that probably caused the problem in the first place.

When your muscles are “out of balance” you get into pain.

That’s why you didn’t have pain when you were an active child; you were using ALL of your muscles then.  And that’s why you have pain now; you aren’t using them all anymore.

You might not move much these days, right?  🙁

You see, when your muscles are out of balance they pull your spine out of the position it is supposed to be in.

Did you realize that just about everything that happens in your body has a cause?  If you fall, you get a cut or bruise or broken bone.  The reason was because you fell.  Cause and effect.

Get rid of the cause and you can change the effect.

So if you really want to get lasting relief from sciatica, the very first thing you must do is figure out which muscles are out of balance and causing your pain.  The second thing is to treat them and get them back to neutral.

I remember years ago when I was a new massage therapist.  An elderly woman came in complaining of “sciatica.”  As soon as I placed my hand on the gluteal (buttock) muscles on the side she complained about, I could Continue reading Sciatica and Piriformis Syndrome →

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Sciatica

What Causes Sciatica And What Is Sciatica, Anyway

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What is the best treatment for sciatica?  And what IS sciatica, anyway?

You have a very large nerve that runs through your hip.  There is one on each side of your body.  This nerve is about the size of your finger in diameter.

When you have sciatic pain or nervy pain in your hip (buttock or gluteal muscle) or leg it’s caused by pressure on the sciatic nerve.

Nerves hate pressure!  If another part of your body–a bone or muscle–presses on your sciatic nerve it will complain by giving you nervy pain.

Disks in your spine that are “bulging” can press on the sciatic nerve.  (But what caused the disks to bulge?)

So can bone sometimes press.  And so can the muscle in your hip (butt) called the piriformis.

But why?

When the pressure comes from the piriformis muscle, it is often Continue reading What Causes Sciatica And What Is Sciatica, Anyway →

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Upper Back Pain

Five Ways To Knock Out The Knots In Your Upper Back

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Knots in your upper back can make you SO uncomfortable.  It seems that once you have them you are stuck with them.  Is this true?

Absolutely “knot”!

You can get rid of your muscle knots (or spasms or contractions) naturally.

So how can you get rid of these painful muscle spasms in your upper back?

Here are 5 ways.

1. Figure out what causes your knot. Painful areas between your spine and shoulder blade are Continue reading Five Ways To Knock Out The Knots In Your Upper Back →

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Upper Back Pain

How Can You Get Rid Of Painful Muscle Knots In Your Shoulder

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Why do you get painful muscle “knots” between your shoulder blades and your spine that keep you awake at night?  They can also hold your attention all day, too.

What are those “knots” and how can you get rid of them?

Lots of things can make your muscles unhappy. Most often the reason you get knots or muscle spasms in your shoulder has something to do with Continue reading How Can You Get Rid Of Painful Muscle Knots In Your Shoulder →

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Upper Back Pain

Get Rid Of Knots In Your Back And Shoulders Naturally

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Do you know what causes the “knots” or muscle spasms in your upper back and shoulders? Would you be surprised if I told you it is most often muscles?

But why do muscles become “knotted”?

A knot is a contraction or spasm in a muscle.

The most common cause is over-work. That means that you are over-working some of your muscles while others don’t get used enough.

When you were a child, you used all of your 600+ muscles. Then you grew up. As adults, most of use use fewer than Continue reading Get Rid Of Knots In Your Back And Shoulders Naturally →

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Upper Back Pain

How To Get Rid Of Painful Knots In Your Back

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Get rid of muscles knots in your back naturally!
Get rid of muscle knots in your back naturally!

Are you suffering from a painful muscle “knot” in your back?

The most common place for these muscle spasms or contractions is between your shoulder blade and spine. They usually occur on the side of your dominant hand (the one you use the most.)

So what causes these painful knots and what can you do to get rid of them?

There are different types of muscle contractions. A “contraction” is a shortening of a muscle. One type is protective. If a muscle is stretched too much, too often, it will Continue reading How To Get Rid Of Painful Knots In Your Back →

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Upper Back Pain

Causes for Upper Back Pain or Knots in Your Back

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Pain in your upper back always has a cause.  It doesn’t happen “just because you’re getting old.”  It happens because your body is complaining.

Muscle knots in upper back
You can get rid of miserable muscle ‘knots’ in your upper back naturally!

Usually, it’s your muscles that are complaining!

The roles of muscles in causing pain are very commonly overlooked in the conventional medical field.  Your doctor was trained to treat symptoms with medication and surgery.  That is how most doctors were educated in most medical schools.

But there are steps you can take to prevent back pain and to get rid of back pain, simply and naturally.

When you discover Continue reading Causes for Upper Back Pain or Knots in Your Back →

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