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? →