What to do About  

Upper Back Pain 

Upper back pain has become an ever increasing burden in today’s modern society. Headaches, shoulder and neck pain, and even numbness and tingling in the hands often have an upper back problem to blame.

Hours spent in front of a computer, typically with one or both arms outstretched, causes muscle tightness in the shoulders, neck, and upper back.

Holding a phone between ear and shoulder gives a cramp in the neck and surrounding muscles. Playing video games, reading, and even driving are often associated with upper back pain and other symptoms.

Notice a pattern? Holding your body in an unnatural position for extended periods of time leads to trouble!

The good news is most non-trauma upper back pains and related symptoms are muscle and joint related. This article will show you how to stop the pain.

What causes upper back pain

The pain in your upper back may have appeared suddenly, but unless you had some kind of trauma it didn’t happen overnight.

Almost every case of pain in the upper back and surrounding regions is a result of long-term muscle imbalances. Let me explain.

Muscle imbalances develop when some muscles are overused and other related muscles are not. The overused muscles grow stronger and overpower nearby muscles which are not used as much, causing them to become stretched out and weak.

For example, if you normally sit at the computer for hours with your head tilted forward, you will feel a growing tightness between your shoulder blades while other neck muscles grow weaker. It’s just a matter of time before you start feeling soreness and pain in your upper back.

Correcting upper back pain with muscle balance therapy

It never ceases to amaze me how many people experiencing back pain reach for the medicine cabinet over and over again – without taking the time to understand and correct the source of their pain.

Don’t get me wrong – pain medicine may help you get through the day (although there are great alternatives there too). But drugs simply cover up the symptom. They don’t fix the problem.

If you’re experiencing recurring back pain, don’t jump into an exercise program or yoga class to try and correct it. At least not until you understand the muscle imbalances that are causing your pain. Otherwise you may make matters worse by working out the muscles that are already overused and stretching out muscles that need to be strengthened instead.

There are two good options. First, look for a healthcare professional who understands muscle imbalances and postural dysfunctions (the result of long-term imbalances). Many healthcare professionals are not trained in the treatment of muscle imbalances so you may have to get a second opinion.

Alternatively you can learn how to diagnose and treat your own muscle imbalances. This is the preferred option for many patients as they are no longer relegated to spending hours and hundreds or thousands of dollars at the doctor every time their back hurts.

Learn more here about treating muscle imbalances.

One more hidden cause of upper back pain

Another little-known cause of upper back muscle pain are trigger points. These are literally microscopic contractions of muscle tissue which cause painful contractions and knots in your neck, shoulders, arms, back, and other areas.

Dr. Janet Travell, who treated President Kennedy’s chronic back pain, helped write “The Trigger Point Manual.” In the research leading to this book, trigger points were identified as a primary cause of pain 75% of the time and a factor in almost every other painful condition.

The difficulty lies in the fact that trigger points are often responsible for referred pain. For example, you can have upper back pain, but the actual trigger point might be in your shoulder.

Besides upper back pain, trigger points can also be the root cause of symptoms like dizziness, earaches, neck and jaw pain, headaches, carpal tunnel, numbness in hands or feet, and the list goes on and on.

Just like you can overcome muscle imbalances using muscle balance therapy right at home, you can also self-treat trigger points with a system of deep massage in the comfort of your own home. You owe it to yourself to learn more about the Trigger Point Therapy Self-Treatment System. Your upper back will thank you!