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. 🙂
Hi! Just wondering if you have any suggestions for helping my husband with his constant back pain. He did have an injury about 10 years ago when he had a compression fracture on vertibrae 8-9. He has been seeing a chiroprater who has been working with sublixations but he has such constant and painful muscle pain thru-out his mid to upper back. I do deep massage nearly every night on it and he groans and moans the whole time but desperately wants it. Any suggestions?? Thanks
Hi Shana,
Thank you for the question about your husband’s chronic back pain. I don’t know exactly where your husband is feeling the discomfort but here are some long-distance thoughts:
The muscles on the front and the sides of his body are probably contributing to the pain.
Your massage no doubt makes it easier for the chiropractor to do his adjustments because the muscles are softer and move moveable.
There are several layers of muscles all along the spine. They go the length of the spine from head to tail and are between and over the ribs. You can feel the outermost thicker layers of these long spine muscles but there are smaller layers underneath. If you approach these long muscle groups from the side, you can get to the underneath layers of smaller, thinner spinal muscles. So, instead of pressing straight down into his back, move your body off to the side of his and try to slide your fingers under that outermost, thicker layer of muscle.
Right off the bat, I’m thinking for you to try this: Instead of massaging the back, move off to the sides of the back. “Lift” the muscles that run from the outer edge of the shoulder blade down to the waist. If your husband is lean, you will easily be able to lift (pick up, squeeze) the edges of the latissimus muscle and the other soft tissue in that area. If he is heavy, you may have to “push” it toward the spine or “stretch” it from armpit to waist. You may find it easier to do this if he lays on his side. The idea is to treat/massage the muscles on the outer edges of the back that run from the armpit/outer shoulder blade area toward the waist (they are in a V-shape.)
Secondly, do gentle compressions (gentle!) on the front of the ribs when he is laying on his back. Just enough to get a little movement in the ribs, as though he is breathing. Work across his body to ‘rake’ the ribs on the opposite side with your fingers. The more you practice this, the better you will become at feeling muscle vs. bone.
Here is something of interest to you both. There is appropriate pain and inappropriate pain. If you press on a spot, and your husband says that hurts and it feels good (appropriate or “good pain”) then that’s a fine place to work. But if you press and he says that hurts BUT it doesn’t feel appropriate, then that is NOT the place to work. He is the only one who can tell you whether it feels appropriate or not. If it doesn’t, it won’t help. There is no sense with him tolerating painful touch that cannot help.
I hope this helps you help your husband get rid of the painful muscles in his upper back.
Kathryn
The Pain Relief Coach