Muscles in the front of your body can cause pain in your neck and back.  It’s true!

Sometimes pain in your back is caused simply because tight muscles in the front of your body are pulling and causing strain and stress in your back muscles.

Sometimes the tight muscles in front cause trigger points.  Trigger points are crabby areas of muscle that cause pain elsewhere.

By massaging, rubbing or pinching the following muscle groups you can help the muscles relax.  You might also be able to knock out any trigger points that are causing your back pain.  🙂

Chest muscles can cause back pain.

This link will take you to an article with more information about stretching your chest muscles.

http://simplepainrelief.com/2012/08/19/a-good-stretch-for-neck-and-upper-back-pain/

Rib muscles can cause back pain.

The good thing about the rib muscles in the front and sides is that you can reach them yourself to rub and massage them.  Pinch them if you can and lift them.  Roll tender areas of muscle and skin between your fingers.

Abdominal muscles can also cause back pain.

You can also massage, pinch, lift and roll the muscles on the upper abdomen.  You want to pick up muscle, not just skin.  If you lean forward a bit it will be easier to pinch the muscles. This is much easier to do if you don’t carry too much weight in your abdomen.

When you find tender areas, those are the muscles and tissue to focus on.  Spend more time massaging tender areas than places that don’t have discomfort.

You may discover some very, very uncomfortable tissues in the front of your body.

And if you pay attention you may also find that your back feels a bit looser and more happy after you treat and relax the muscles in the front of your body.

You could also notice the next day that you feel a little tender or bruised where you were treating.  That’s a perfectly normal reaction that happens when tight tissues are manipulated.

Drinking extra water (and lots of it!) can help prevent a lot of the tenderness following ‘deep tissue massage.’

We want to have long, relaxed front muscles.  By helping the muscles in the front of your body relax you will prevent muscle strain in your back.

If you’re suffering with “knots” or muscle spasms in your upper back, you may like to check out this page:  Knots In Your Back.  It will tell you all about a simple program I created to help people just like you (and me) get rid of our knots forever!

P.S.  I don’t have knots any more. 🙂