Back Pain – Spasm Between Shoulder Blade and Spine
Mar 18th, 2008 by Kathryn Merrow
You probably know the back pain I mean. It’s that nagging, cannot-be-ignored pain between your shoulder blade and spine. It often feels like a knot or spasm.
It’s usually on the side of your dominant hand. If you’re right-handed, it will probably be on the right side of your back.
There are two likely causes and one that often gets the blame, but usually isn’t the cause.
The rhomboid muscle (there is one on each side of your back)often gets blamed as being the cause of that pain. The reason for this is probably because the muscle happens to be in the same area as your back pain. This is the muscle most massage therapists will probably try to rub out for you, but it may or may not (probably not) be the cause of your pain.
If this massage doesn’t help, or the muscle “won’t release,” then the rhomboid muscle is not the cause of your pain.
A more likely cause is that the muscles where your knot is located are being overstretched. They are complaining about this by causing pain. Overstretched muscles will go into spasm to keep from being stretched further and torn.
Your back muscles can get overstretched when the muscles in front of your body (your chest and neck) are short and tight. Over-stretching can also occur when you work or play alot with your arm stretched out in front.
You can correct this by strengthening the muscles between your spine and shoulder blades. The stronger muscles won’t be so easily overstretched and so won’t go into spasm like they do now. Also, strengthen the muscles behind your neck so you won’t go into “forward-head” posture, which also strains your upper back muscles.
Loosen, relax and open the muscles in front of your body, too, with stretching or massage.
Another likely cause of this back pain are the scalene muscles, which are located on each side of your neck. These muscles can harbor trigger points. Trigger points in the scalenes refer, or cause, pain into the rhomboid area.
Often a massage therapist will try to work out a pain by working where it hurts.
You can see in the two likely causes above, that the problem can be elsewhere. The pain between your spine and shoulder blade may be caused by muscles in front of your body being short or trigger points in your neck.
The first thing I would suggest today would be to begin a strengthening program for your upper back. This will help you get rid of that nagging pain between your spine and shoulder blade.
And, I’d like to invite you to claim your free report, “5 Steps To Get Rid Of Those Miserable Knots In Your Back” (<– click here.)
It doesn’t matter whether you call them “knots” or muscle spasms or contractions, they hurt! And you CAN get rid of them naturally. 
This is good…
Because You Deserve To Feel Better!
Love your site. Could you give a list of suggested exercises and stretches (and how to do them) to strengthen the back and help with shortened muscles in the front of the body?
Thanks,
Susan
Hello Susan,
Thank you for your comments. If you go to http://www.SimpleStrengthening.com You will find all the articles I have done so far about how to strengthen the back of your body. I believe there are also some articles there on stretching the front of your body.
Also, I will be writing about stretching here in the near future.
I am glad you are taking your health into your own hands. Please let me know if you have any more questions.
Kathryn Merrow
I am glad I found your site. I started having pain btw. the shoulder blades in Aug. every night when I sleep and the first few hours I am awake and just started seeing a massage therapist and chiropracter in Jan. My pain is on my dominant side, right side. I started having some tingling and my right arm was falling asleep at night. The message has worked to get the knot out and the tingling is mostly gone, as well as the pain btw. the blades. Occassionally I feel like I am having a spasm that starts in my back but goes right through to my sternum. It feels like a muscle or nerve-like pain and goes up my neck a little. There is no SOB or change in HR and it definitley stems from the shoulder blade area. I am going to make an app. with family DR. but does this sound familiar?
Thanks, Maryann
Hi Maryann,
By now we have talked by email several times, and you are doing better. You were able to release a beginning spasm by stretching. You have had tests which came back normal and that is very good! I’ve made several suggestions to you and you are working to take care of yourself. Most recently, I suggested using “tennis ball therapy” to release the painful area on your back, and also massaging your breastbone and the ribs that attach to it. Those tight muscles “pull” on your back muscles and can cause back pain symptoms. You are going to start taking a B-vitamin complex and I also suggested that you have your vitamin D level checked, because many people are deficient in D.
Thank you for your updates!
Kathryn Merrow
The Pain Relief Coach
hi, my shoulder blade pain began ealirer today!! But its not on my domanint sde. Its on the opposite shoulder more and travels over to the other side. i also am having issude with my stomach which might play a role in this i dont knw yet? dO have any ideas4 pain relief 4 me thanks
Hello. I have an idea that by now you have seen your doctor. You’re not specific about your stomach issue, but problems in the abdomen can refer pain into the upper back. If your pain is continuing, my current suggestion, based on what you have told me, would be to see your doctor and rule out such things as an tubal pregnancy (if you are female) or appendicitis or something similar. If you are still having pain and want to give me more information, I’d be glad to respond again.
Kathryn
Occasionally I have had this pain between my shoulder/spine on my dominant side (right)… I believe the cause to be either a fast whipping of my neck or from weight lifting “chest”. Typically, it just goes away on it’s own after a couple of days. Just recently, I was doing Jiu Jitsu and felt a “tweek” in the same are of my non-dominant side (left). This is the first time for this side that I can remember. The pain is intense, I have to hold my head to lie down and get up. I can turn my head right with almost no pain. Up/Down = some pain, more on the up side. A lot of pain turning head left. Should i assume that this will go away on its own or should i see a doctor??? Do you have any suggestions? Thanks for your help.
Hi Don, I wrote directly to you so that you would have my complete response as quickly as possible. I hope you are starting to feel better by now. Kathryn Merrow – The Pain Relief Coach
Hi Kathryn,
Nice and informative wesite. I just wanted to run my symptoms by you and get your opinion. I have this pain between my sholder blades and up my neck, when it is at its worse I even have difficulty breathing and I can feel every heart beat, I can even feel the pain on my arm(dominant) and tingling in the fingers. It started about 3 weeks ago and I had to rush to emergency care once to get it checked out. From x-rays the doctor said it was just a muscle spash and prescribed a muscle relaxor, it took it for a couple of days and it felt better and so I stopped the medication, the pain returned. It has been a few weeks now and I don’t see much improvement so I I visited with my family doctor and she has prescribed a physical therapy.
Thanks
Glad I found you! Your explanation sounds exactly like my case. I have been suffering with these exact spasms for nearly 20 yrs now. I use to work out with weights heavily, my back was very strong but, the more I worked out, the tighter my back would get until it would seize up and I would be in therapy for weeks, physiotherapy, chiropractic, etc… It got to the point that I had to give up exercise completely, for every hour at the gym, it was four hours of therapy. Now, I’m at the point where just lifting my arm or turning my head causes extreme pain between the shoulder blades, it feels like the muscle is going to rip in half. Can you help????
Hi Jon,
By now you have received my email response which was lengthy. I have probably narrowed your symptoms down (in my mind) to the scalene muscles which are on either side of your neck. I hope you will feel better soon.
I did my millionth web search this morning yet again to try to find solution to my pain. I am healthy, active 48 year old. I have complex history of repeated injury to neck and have had pain as long as I can remember in my right shoulder. I was aggressive in sports activities as a child….waterskiing, gymnastics, etc. I had two successive anterior disc replacements at the c-5/c-6 area with a titanium plate left behind and all objective tests done since indicate I am cured. However, I have constant debilitating muscle spasm and pain in my dominant side (right) neck, shoulder & shoulder blade area with numbness and tingling in arms and hand. I have a headache on that side at base of scull that never goes away. I have over the years tried strenghtening the muscles, rehabilitation and massage. The knots will not – ever – go away. I have been under the care of a pain management doctor for years now and am on a regimen of painkillers (hydrocodone) muscle relaxers, xanax and anti-inflamatories. I have been told that there is nothing I can do but manage the pain, which I can anticipate will get worse as I age. I cannot function if I don’t keep up the regimen, but it gets to me. I’m careful to do everything as prescribed because I have a family and work that needs me. But, honestly, I cry alot and am depressed. Its getting to me and I feel so helpless. Every once in awhile I reach out to see if there is something I’m missing…….but there are never any answers. Should I just give up?
My fiance has had bad back pain for the last 7 years. He was in a head on collision around that time. He was also hit by a train when he was 12. I rub his back almost every night. He has many knots spread throughout his back. Lately knots close to his spine have been hurting him so bad he hardly gets out of bed. The massages I give him dont help at all. Heat hasnt really helped either. I am afraid something is seriously wrong. I want to know your opinion on what we can do to help naturally. I also would like to know if you know of any doctors in the harrodsburg, ky area that would be willing to check him out. We do not have insurance and most doctors want an MRI before they see him and we can not afford it.
hi kathryn, my name is martin and im a 22 yyear old professional kickboxer/mixed martial artist. im writing to you as i am in despair. about a 18 months ago i started to develop a very tight shoulder/blade area, i blamed the amount of weightlifting i was participating in for my sport and basicly (and stupidly) just ignored the problem, after a while it got a little worse and the most major problem was the fact that i would struggle to keep my left hand raised during sparring and it would fatigue very quickly, this was the worst of the problem so i simply put up with it for the sake of competing. then about a year ago, i started to develop a pain in my left side, moving from under my lat up and round to just under my left shoulderblade, as at first it was not too bad i again ignored it till it got so bad i could hardly rotate left it was at this point i had to stop training, a couple of weeks later and plenty of rest i was sitting for a long period in an awkward position and was getting a lot of aching in the back under my shoulder blade, and generating through my chest, so i stood up and walked it off, however as i went to walk down stairs i sort of slipped on the step but managed to correct myself using my balance and core, however as i did something in my chest and middle back left side area, went and caused me a lot of pain, i immediately found it hard to breath in or out and moving was also a challenge. this kept up for about a week or so, but gradually i got to a point where breathing and generall movement did not hurt. however i still could not rotate left without pain. i went to the doctors and after numerous pills and rest nothing was making it better. after about nine months i noticed an inprovement in rotating left but i was not fully healed, at this time i would get a sharp pain just under my shoulder blade radiating round to under my lat on the left side, that felt like my ribs, but after extensive rib examinations it was concluded it could not possibly be ribs. i went to see physios and chiropracters and all of them failed to help me. after several more months i was able to fully rotate left without pain, however i did still feel a tightness under my shoulder blade and down from there to the middle of my left mid back, and it was at this time i decided to see someone about my shoulder. i was experiencing a lot of tightness inbetween my shoulder blade and spine on my left side and rear delt along with under my armpit, which was uncomfortable but never painfull. after seeing a massage therapist for this he managed to free up a lot of muscle spasms around my shoulder blade and delt and i immediately felt a releif, however it did nothing for my uncomfortableness in my lower left side under my sh blade and down to the mid part of my left middle back. since the pain in my back was now minimal and i thought my shoulder blade and inbetween blade and spine was now free of pain and spasm, i tried a little bit off training just some ligght punching and kicking of the bags in my gym, the first bit of training i had participated in in a year. however after only a few punches and kicks i felt the muscles inbetween my left shoulder blade and spine tighten up and become very painfull and sore, and also very sore too touch. i again had them released and expected this to be the end of it so i tried again, and again they spasmed and tightened up almost instantly. to date, when i do not train i feel like a normal human being, i feel like i function normaly, however as soon as i start any type of excercise that involves punching or using my arms above my head or forcefully eg grappling mixed martial arts or kickboxing i feel this tight feeling starting to happen and have to stop or it spasms straight up and takes days to return to normal. the uncomfortable feeling in my side and just under my shoulderblade is now only there when i rotate and force my body to stretch to the left whilst rotating, however i do still feel its presance. i have recently been to a good physio and a private consultant who say that they think i have suffered in the past from an injury to the serratus anterior causing it to weaken (along with my left side rhomboids) and let my scapula wing when doing any type of intense activity using my left arm out infront of my body. and that strengthening these muscles will help stop the muscles spasming during the exercise. i am so sorry for the longwindedness of this peice, but i truly am in despair as these sports are my life, and for almmost two years now i have been away from them and i am starting to get into the deepest pits of depression and im wondering now if i ever will be able to return to competition, as i was seen as somewhat of a prospect for UFC contention. i would be eternally gratefull for your feedback and advice on my problem, as i am trying to gain as much info on this problem so i can try and fix it and prevent it happening to me or anyone i know again. i thank you in advance for your time.
martin
Hi Martin, You gave me a good lot of information to go on. I am responding by email.
Kathryn Merrow
The Pain Relief Coach
Hi Kathryn,
I ran across your site, and I have found it truly informational and beneficial to me! I have a couple questions for you. Regarding your article, you mentioned that upper back pain is usually on the same side as your dominant side. I am right handed, but I have had pain in my upper left side of my back, between the shoulder blades and spine for 3+ years now. I have had 2 anterior cervical fusions (C5-C7 now), with relief to some neck pain, but no relief to any of the upper back/shoulder pain. All scans of my shoulder/arm/throacic spine have come back clear. Blood work shows that I am severely anemic and have a very low vitamin D count. I’ve been on every medicine and homepathic treatment I or my doctors could think of (acupuncture, massage, magnents, nerve blocks, epidurals, chiropractors, PT, etc.) I think, to no avail. Seeing a therapist now for depression, and I’ve been sent to a pain management doctor for chronic pain as the doctors I’ve seen have no idea what to do with me. Do you have any ideas? Thank you for your help.
Thank you for writing, Amanda.
I had several thoughts and so sent a personal e-mail to you. What I suspect is that you have a curvature of the spine–a scoliosis–and that no one, including the massage therapist, has properly assessed and addressed that. Without seeing you, just by your description, that’s my best guess. Of course, I also don’t know why you had your neck surgery but it’s most like all related. And that’s good news that the tests come back showing nothing. That almost always means it’s soft tissue (muscles) and muscles are treatable!
You do have a smart body that wants to be well. It just needs a bit of help right now and that could most likely come from a neuromuscular massage therapist or muscle therapist who specializes in postural assessment and corrective massage.
You’re welcome and please write again if you’d like.
Kathryn
Kathryn
My wife is now 3 weeks into a progressive pain between the shoulder blades which has now led to “crying pain” and sleepless nights. She spent 2 days in the hospital being sure it was not her heart, etc. After the hospital stay she developed the typical knot over the scapula as many have noted here. We are assuming now this is a spasm of the right rhomboid muscle. We have done trigger point pressure,heat, massage and some stretching, but she has found minimal relief. We would value your opinion regarding relief of the acute pain and some stretching she can do when she is no in acute pain.
Thank you for a good question. The rhomboid muscles are often blamed for pain and knots in their area. Actually, that area can be the “symptom” and not the cause at all! You are doing all of the right things but perhaps in the wrong areas.
Work (massage) the muscles at the “outside” of her back–the latissimus or “lat” muscles. Try to mobilize her shoulder blade because the muscles between that bone and the ribs may also be tight. The muscle along the spine from the waist upward toward the rhomboid may need massage, too. The front of your wife’s arms and upper chest, too, and the upper back (trapezius muscle.)
And, of course, there is always the muscle in the neck that causes pain in the rhomboid area. When nothing else works, that is the place to go to. If you go to http://CarpalTunnelPainReliefNow.com and look in the Video Category you will find a video that shows a massage professional treating that neck muscle. Also if you look in the Causes Category while you are there, you will find articles about the “muscle in your neck.”
If you go to http://SimpleStrengthening.com you will find articles about how to simply get strong back side muscles which will help prevent future occurrences by correcting posture. Also, stretches to open and relax the muscles in the front of her chest and arms will help, too.
Even now, if your wife can “squeeze” her shoulder blades toward her spine, that may cause some relief.
I hope this helps and wish you the best.
Kathryn Merrow
The Pain Relief Coach
Hi Kathryn,
I love your website! A lot of these symptoms sound familiar and I wanted to touch base with you about my specific issues. For years, I have had a tight neck, upper back, and right shoulder blade that was merely a nuisance. However, during the past two years, the pain has increased to the point where it can be uncomfortable to just sit for a prolonged period of time. My pain is not severe all the time, but comes and goes. I do not feel anything on my left side. Currently, my pain seems to stem from the right side of my spine and runs through my entire right shoulder blade and is more intense around the edges of my shoulder blade – extending to my right side, under my arm. I also feel tightness in my right lower back, but it is not as acute. I feel pain when I breathe in deeply or do any sort of stretching movements (which feels like a good type of pain). Essentially, I feel like the whole right side of my back is very tight. I have been worried that my pain is coming from an internal source but have not yet been checked out by a doctor. My masseuse says that my erector muscles are very rigid and has found some trigger points. Just wanted your input on my symptoms! Thanks again for your website!
Hi Katie,
Thank you for your kind words. I will write back to you privately to discuss your pain. Look for my e-mail in the next few days.
Kathryn
Hi Kathryn,
I have have a history of back pain. Over the last 12 years I have had several extensive physio treatments for muscle spasms. Originally for the lower back. Several months back being the last. However, over the last month I had been getting niggling pain near my left shoulder blade (not dominant side). I had tried stretching this off, and my girlfriend had kindly been massaging the knot. As bizarre as this sounds, two nights ago I was asleep in bed when I must have moved in my sleep and my head and it came off the pillow (lying on my back). My neck dropped back and I remember waking up with the jolt. Next the muscles in my neck and shoulder went from being relaxed into spasm. I couldn’t raise my head from the mattress. As you can imagine I was unable to sleep for the remainder of that night. As a result I have had severe pain in the shoulder blade area and neck. Very limited mobility of the neck in all direction, most extreme when trying to turn my head right. My left arm feels weak. I also have a radiating pain down my left arm, tingling/ numbness in my left hand. Numbness in the left side of my face, along with aching in my left cheek, gum, ear and eye socket area.
I’m worried about several things:
1) will I be able to get. Rid of the nagging pain in the shoulder blade area when this spasm calms down.
2) I can feel the mid and lower parts of my back starting to tense up. With small spasms starting to happen in the left buttock I’m worried this will result in recurrance of my lower back spasms
3) will I have to stop weight training? At the ripe old age of 32 I no longer lift the sort of weights I used to but the back flair ups seem to be happening with more and more frequency.
I work long hours sitting behind a desk. Can you recommend any exercises I can do in this position to help me be proactive and stop this happning again?
Lastly, and most importantly, I snapped at my girlfriend soon after I had the spasm, and now I’m in her bad books. I’m not sure she understands just how painful this episode was and that trying to cope with her passing stinky wind on top of that was more than I could cope with at that time. Under normal circumstances I would have laughed it off. Is it unusual for someone to be unusually irritable soon after a spasm?
Any help or advice you can give regarding the above is very much appreciated.
N.B my doctor has prescribed Diclofenac and physio for the inflamation and pain.
1)
Hello. Well, Rob, I am going to send you a private email to give you all of my thoughts about your muscle spasm. Please watch for an email from me. Since you are familiar with strength training, though, when this passes please devote more time to strengthening the back side of your body–from knees to skull–rather than the front. I have lots of articles at http://SimpleStrengthening.com but I suspect they may be on the simple side for you.
And, yes, when people are in pain they can tend to become short-tempered for a few reasons. The medicine you are taking is an anti-inflammatory. It is supposed to reduce inflammation in the muscle. Physio (physical) therapy may give considerable relief. Talk to you shortly. – Kathryn
Hi Kathryn,
I am a 40 yo female, and I practic martial arts. A couple of months ago, I started gettin a chronic pain along the backside of my shoulder, in my armpit, and along the tricep. I ignored it thinking it would go away, but eventually I began to notice that my arm was feeling weak. It would tire easy when I was holding something up, and the muscles were weak and the pain along the armpit increased. Then, about a month ago, a muscle under my scapula seemed to spasm, and ever since then I have had chronic shoulder pain. Not just in those areas, but all over, often moving from the tricep, to under the shoulder blade, and sometimes along my bicep, and even my forearm. I have rested, taken motrin and mucsle relaxers, and everytime I think it is improved and I try to train (even a little), it immediately gets inflamed and painful. I also have chronic pain up the right side of my neck, and sometimes under the clavical on the front and along the front of my neck. The PT has said it is essentially a stability issue, and because my shoulder joint is a little loose, the capsule is inflamed and referring pain to all the muscles nearby. The scapula area hurts when I raise my hand up and then back. I have been trying to strenghen it, but I have to be careful how much i do because it gets so easily inflamed, and then spasms. Thank you for any suggestions you might have!
Thanks!!
Oh, one more thing that I forgot to say. It is particularly uncomfortable if I do any quick, whipping movements with my arm.
Hi Lee. Long-distance help is always a little tricky but here are my best guesses. If you are a side sleeper, you may be aggravating the muscles where your pain first started. That happens.
With the weakness, it sounds like muscles in your neck may be involved (because they can press on nerves). You can listen to a 1/2 hour episode about the muscle in your neck that causes carpal tunnel pain and knots in your back, too, at http://CarpalTunnelRadio.com Scroll down and you will find this as a “Featured Episode.” (green header) Another possibility because you mentioned weakness would be a partial rotator cuff muscle tear. A partial tear can heal itself if you take the pressure off the muscle. (Please remember I’m not a doctor, I’m a muscle therapist, and this is a long-distance “guess.”)
If it is a “stability issue” the question is: Why? As a fit, strong woman, it seems likely that you use ALL of your muscles and that is as it should be. Instability would indicate that you are using some muscles more than others.
Since this started, more and more of your muscles have joined in to cause pain. Why? Because they are all attached and when one is in spasm it will pull on others. It’s a domino effect.
Physical Therapy will work best AFTER the spasm(s) is released. Here’s where I think the problem started: There are muscles called teres in your armpit. There is a muscle called subscapularis which is sandwiched between your shoulder blade and your ribs. A skilled massage therapist can release these muscles.
Please check out the Massage Category here at Simple Pain Relief. Just scroll down on the right hand side to the Categories. There are several articles including how to find a massage therapist who can help you.
Another suggestion would be to buy the blue trigger point book (find it in the right hand side, also.) It is a great self-help book which explains very well where to press to relieve pain…yourself.
One more thought: It could be the muscles in front on your chest. The scapula has some attachments in the front toward your arm, above your collar bone, that are reachable. The pec muscles also can pull on the back. Your problem may have started in the front–those muscles usually don’t complain; they just cause pain elsewhere.
I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any other questions about this and how you are doing with this pain around your shoulder.
Best,
Kathryn
I just found this page on google,this page was very helpful! I just wanted to say,Thank You for the information.
Michelle, thank you. I appreciate you taking the time to let me know. My pleasure to help.
Kathryn
hi there this is a very up to date and informative can i put a link on one of my blogs -regards Angela
Hi Angela, Thank you for asking. I would be honored.
Kathryn
Kathryn,
Somewhat similar to the others, I have a severe knot like pain which starts in my left shoulder blade and if I don’t lie on my stomach it will spread across to my right shoulder blade. A trigger for the pain is simply holding anything in my left hand, even something as light as a quart of milk. If I hold my 7 lb dog for a couple of minutes the pain becomes severe and it takes lying down on my stomach for approx. 1 hr. for the pain to somewhat diminish. I have an MRI scheduled later this week but I’m afraid the physical therapy that will follow may not be the answer – based on what I read on your site. Strangely, lifting weights – very controlled but including military press on a machine (pressing weights overhead) doesn’t hurt. I stopped all exercising 3 weeks ago thinking that was the problem. I have been taking muscle relaxers and pain relievers in an attempt to resolve the problem. The MRI is the next step recommended by the spinal specialist I’m seeing. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Hello Keith, Thank you for asking this question.
Of course I cannot see you and don’t know anything else about you but here is my best long-distance guess.
When you are lifting with your left arm, I’m thinking one of two things happens: (1) Either you are contracting your latissimus muscle on the outer side of your back and that is pulling on your shoulder blade (because it is attached.) In turn, that causes the pain on the inner side of your shoulder blade near your spine. (2) You may be hiking your shoulder. That can aggravate the scalene muscle in your neck (which may already be “on overload”) and that muscle can harbor trigger points which cause pain in the same area of your back.
When you lift weights, you are using your body in a balanced way; neither hiking a shoulder, or bringing one shoulder forward, or contracting the “lat” muscle.
An MRI might show that you have bones which are “out of place.” But the question always (in my mind) is Why? And the answer is: muscles pull bones out of alignment. Also, bodies change all the time. Just because a test shows a certain result today doesn’t mean the result will be the same tomorrow. Releasing the muscles that are pulling the bone out of place will allow the bone to move back into its normal location.
Of course, if the spinal specialist you are seeing is a surgeon, be prepared that he or she may suggest surgery. That’s what they know best and offer most often. Is it needed? Will it help? Is it possible that muscles are actually causing this pain? Are there any non-invasive treatments to try first? Those are some of the questions you might ask.
Physical therapists (just like massage therapists) can be terrific or not help at all. It all depends on their training, etc. I have taken classes in St. John Neuromuscular Massage Therapy with physical therapists who were there to learn more “tools” to help patients with. Some understand how bodies work and what causes pain and how to correct it; some don’t.
Medications won’t resolve your problem; they just mask symptoms a bit. Go to “Categories” here on the right hand side of the page and look for the “Massage” category. You will find an article about how to find a massage therapist who can truly help you. The same questions from that article would also apply to a physical therapist.
I hope this helps with your shoulder blade pain. Please feel free to write again. I’d love to know how close my guesses came to being correct.
Kathryn
Hola! I happened upon this web site while I was researching several wellness related terms in google earlier today. Given that I ended up here I thought why not stick around and read a couple of your posts… nice stuff. I am going to make sure to come back in the future some time and get up to date.
Thank you for visiting! I love it that google shares my articles so I can help more people.
Kathryn
I stumbled upon your site while searching about spasms between your shoulders radiating to the base of the skull.
At 5 am this morning it was my first experience and somewhat scary.
I was dreaming a weird dream and I squeezed my shoulder blades together. Right when I did this I woke up hurting. It is on my dominant right side and it radiated into the base of my skull. I was very aware of every heartbeat then and felt a little twinge in the front chest wall on the right side also. I laid there wondering what have I done….I got up and rotated my shoulders, stretched my back and even hung onto the door frame while stretching the shoulder muscles but it still was aching and hurting; even a slight burning sensation. I laid back down and started praying for it to go away and I was able to fall back to sleep.
When I got up a couple hours later it wasn’t hurting as bad but it feels like sore and overstretched muscles by the shoulder blade, right side of the neck and base of the skull. I took two Doan’s pills hoping that will alleviate it soon, but if it still persist by the time I get off work I’m going to see the massage lady in the mall.
The only thing I can think of that could have trigger this, is exercising on my Cardiofit last night. I haven’t used it in awhile but I wanted to start using it again to help lose some weight. I didn’t want to overdo it and work up to 30 minutes, so I only used it for 15 minutes and felt the workout all over. Could this have caused it? I do a lot of lifting anyway so I feel my back and shoulders are already pretty strong. Can this happen by putting your shoulders in an awkward position like I did in my sleep?
Hi Cindy, Good questions.
By now I hope you are starting to feel much better. My best long distance guess is that you were in a strange position in your sleep. Sometimes we do things like that. And when your moved and squeezed your shoulder blades together a muscle spasmed.
There is a muscle on the sides of your neck called the scalene. It will create chest pain as well as a knot in your shoulder blade area near the spine. I think you did all the right things. Maybe it was from the workout, especially if you were straining your neck muscles during the workout. Sometimes we move our heads forward when exercising without being aware of it. But I’m leaning to sleeping in perhaps a “forward head” or head tilted position.
If you were sleeping in an awkward position that may have caused the weird dream. Pain butts into our dreams.
I hope you felt the massage was helpful if you ended up going but if not ask the therapist if she knows how to treat the scalene muscles. This is not done by stretching them but rather by pressing into them to release any trigger points.
I hope this helps and hope you are already feeling much better.
Kathryn