Tag Archives: Kathryn Merrow

Shoulder Hiker Muscle Causes Pain In Upper Back And Neck

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

Fotosearch_MM103008 — 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?

The stress of poor, collapsed posture will cause the shoulder hiker muscle to complain. So can Continue reading Shoulder Hiker Muscle Causes Pain In Upper Back And Neck →

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!

July 3 Kathryn Merrow 2 Comments

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! →

Self Help, Shoulder Pain, Upper Back Pain

Tight Shoulders? Here are 6 Ways to Help Your Shoulders Relax

June 30 Kathryn Merrow Leave a comment

Tight muscles in your shoulders? Here are six things you can do to help your poor shoulders feel better.

Get out of stressful situations! 🙂 Well, as much as you can.
Lift your shoulders and roll them backward. Up and back. Up and back.
Hike your shoulders up to your ears. Hold them there for 20 seconds. That will cause them to fatigue or be tired. Let them drop.
Throw a baseball or softball. That uses the shoulders in a balanced way and helps the muscles relax.
Toss rocks into a pond. See if you can make the rocks skip. This uses your shoulder muscles and distracts your mind.
Place ice packs on the tops of your shoulders. Leave them there until you start to feel numbness. The cold packs will help your muscles relax by bringing in more blood.

It’s helpful if you can figure out what caused your shoulders to tighten up in the first place. Most often it’s posture.

People often say, “It’s stress.” Stress can be a part of it because we assume certain positions when we feel stressed.

Still, most often it’s posture.

Work at lifting your chest and the crown of your head. If you have a “flat” lower back work on sticking your butt out a little. You are supposed to have a slight curve behind your waist, like a toddler.

And, after all, your shoulders are attached to your back.

Try any of the six ways to help your shoulders relax and let me know which works best for you!

And if you need more help for your tight shoulders, check out Knots In Your Back Gone!

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

How Does Stress Cause Knots in Your Shoulder Muscles

June 28 Kathryn Merrow Leave a comment

Do 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.

Shoulder Pain

Pain In Your Shoulder Joint–What Causes Pain In Your Shoulder?

June 22 Kathryn Merrow Leave a comment

There are many causes of shoulder joint pain. Of course, the most common cause is muscles. If the muscles in your neck, chest, back or anywhere in the shoulder area are out-of-balance (that means tighter on one side than the other) that can cause pain in your shoulder.

When you look at pictures of a shoulder skeleton you will see that without muscles the whole thing would just fall apart.

Muscles hold skeletons together and they move bones.

Muscles cross over joints. They attach one bone to another. That’s how we are able to move. A muscle moves the bone when we contract (shorten) the muscle.

The muscles of the shoulder area can become out-of-balance and they can also develop trigger points.

Trigger points are areas of specialized tightness that are very irritable. The irritable places can cause pain nearby or at a far distance.

Trigger points can make it hard to move your arm, shoulder or shoulder blade properly and so can muscles that are too strong on one side and too weak on the other (out-of-balance.)

Your shoulder has four muscles that are called the rotator cuff muscles.

One is packed onto the lower outside 2/3’s of your shoulder blade (infraspinatis.)
One is packed into the top of the shoulder blade (supraspinatis.)
One is sandwiched between your shoulder blade and your ribs (subscapularis.)
The fourth is on the outer side of your shoulder blade and attaches to your arm (terres.)

The rotator cuff muscles keep your arm bone in the socket and allow you to rotate your upper arm.

But those are not the only muscles that can cause shoulder joint pain. Others can, too.

Sometimes Continue reading Pain In Your Shoulder Joint–What Causes Pain In Your Shoulder? →

Causes of Back Pain

Medical Test Results for Back Pain in Rhomboid–What Do They Mean?

June 20 Kathryn Merrow Leave a comment

What do medical test results for back pain mean? Does it all sound like Greek to you? That’s because it’s a snapshot of that moment.

A diagnosis doesn’t necessarily mean ‘forever.’

Here’s an email I received from “Keith”: Keith had an intense stabbing pain in his right rhomboid. It even hurt to breathe.

Hi Kathryn,

I do regular workouts at gym and martial arts. For many years I often get a stiff neck or intense stabbing pain in my right scalpula or rhomboid (I am right-handed). It occurred once during heavy barbell shoulder press (overhead) and once when stretching out after a back workout when I held my right arm straight out and with my left hand pulled it towards the left side. It almost felt as if something gets torn in my back.

The pain is so intense it hurts when I breathe, too, and only reduces after muscle relaxants. I took an MRI and the diagnosis came out as ‘broad-based left paracentral protrusion of C5-C6 disc indenting the anterior subarachnoid space abutting the left C6 exiting nerve root. Mild ligamentum flavum prominence seen at this level indenting the posterior subarachnoid space’.

I cannot understand this and the doctors did not tell me what to do about it except ‘don’t work out hard!’.

Can you tell me specific exercises to perform and which ones to avoid? Your input will be very helpful.

Here’s my response (please remember: I am not a doctor.)

Muscles can be torn and so can their attachments at bones. If you cannot lift weights with perfect form you are lifting too much weight.

Back pain happens for a reason. A medical test tells Continue reading Medical Test Results for Back Pain in Rhomboid–What Do They Mean? →

Self Help

Ice Or Heat? Which Is Better For Muscle Pain Relief?

June 18 Kathryn Merrow Leave a comment

Is it better to use heat or cold therapy when you have muscle pain?

Lots of people think heat feels better (me, too!) but most often cold therapy is the best way to get rid of your muscle pain.

However, even though I like heat, I also think ice feels great. Sometimes it’s a bit uncomfortable but it has such a nice effect!

Note: Only use cold therapy until you start to feel numbness. Then it’s time for a break.

Twenty minutes on and off will work.

http://simplepainrelief.com/2010/10/11/a-wonderful-natural-pain-relief-remedy-ice-for-knots-in-your-back/

Natural pain relief is so nice; you don’t have to worry about nasty side effects or anything.

I read that ice may not actually not the very best treatment for inflammation because it slows the body’s healing response. However, the slowed response was minimal.

(Inflammation is swelling in the tissues.)

Do you remember RICE? (Rest, ice, compression & elevation.) Apparently, according to research, the new plan is RCE when there is swelling.

But ice is the treatment of choice for nervy pain and when Continue reading Ice Or Heat? Which Is Better For Muscle Pain Relief? →

Self Help, Upper Back Muscle Knots, Upper Back Pain

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

June 16 Kathryn Merrow Leave a comment

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:

Stretch the muscles in front of your body.
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.

Natural Back Pain Relief, Self Help

How To Get The Natural Curve In Your Spine In A Swimming Pool

June 14 Kathryn Merrow Leave a comment

You can easily start to rehabilitate your back and get rid of back pain in a swimming pool or any body of water where you can move your arms and legs.

If you have pain in your lower back it may be because you have lost the natural curve behind your waist.

Do you slouch and slump? Does the area behind your waist feel flat rather than slightly curved inward?

Water movement can help.

If your pain is in your upper back that can be for the same reason; you have lost the natural curve in your low back. That makes your head move forward and causes strain on your upper back muscles.

Water movement can help.

Water acts as resistance and also massages your muscles as you move through it. Swimming is excellent if you know how and IF it doesn’t aggravate your pain.

Any body of water is good to exercise in but a swimming pool has the advantage of edges to hold onto.

Hold onto the edge of the pool with your arms outstretched and kick your legs. That will help strengthen your legs and hips. And guess what?

Your legs are attached to your back via muscles!

When you are kicking in this position you dropping your belly and lifting your tail–you are making a forward curve behind your waist. Your muscles will start to remember where they used to be. 🙂

Every now and then reverse the curve in your lower back. Give it a break. Move into the opposite position but only to your comfort level.

The idea is to keep using ALL of the muscles in your spine in ALL directions. That’s what keeps spines flexible and back pain levels down.

If you don’t have access to water, yoga can help.

There’s a movement or posture in yoga called cat-dog or cow-camel. It has you on the floor on all fours. Drop your chin to your chest thoughtfully (always move thoughtfully) and arch your back like an angry cat.

Then lift your head, elongate the front of your neck, and let your belly drop like an old cow. You’re now flexing and extending your whole spine.

When you do that, it warms, loosens and relaxes the muscles that attach to your spine in a similar way to water movement.

Keeping or re-gaining the natural spinal curves that you had when you were a toddler and small child is KEY to natural back pain relief!

Causes of Back Pain

Does Your Mattress Cause The Knot In Your Back?

June 12 Kathryn Merrow Leave a comment

Your mattress definitely could be causing the knot in your back or shoulder!

Here’s how:

1. An OLD mattress could be the problem or part of the problem if it sags or has depressions. If the “holes” or depressions don’t feel comfortable to you, figure out a way to fill them.

Sometimes you can bolster up an old mattress by propping it from the bottom or padding the top. You might put a piece of plywood underneath or even move the mattress to the floor.

There are foam toppers that range from cheap to expensive. A flat one can be folded over to make twice as much padding where you sleep.

A NEW mattress could also be the problem if it doesn’t fit your body well. If it’s too firm, a foam topper will help. People with large-boned frames or wide hips need a place for the bones to go.

If your new mattress is too soft…wait, I’ve never found a new mattress that’s too soft. I guess you’d have to return or sell it.

2. Do you always sleep on your side? The SAME side? That can do it, too, because you may be smashing your shoulder, tilting your neck, shortening your chest muscles and straining the muscles in your back on that side.

3. Side sleeping also Continue reading Does Your Mattress Cause The Knot In Your Back? →

SIMPLE BACK PAIN RELIEF