cause of back pain | SIMPLE PAIN RELIEF with Kathryn Merrow, the Pain Relief Coach

Six Reasons for Painful Muscles between Your Spine and Shoulder Blade

Miserable Upper Back Pain — Without even seeing his face, you can tell this man has pain! Does it look familiar?

Arrrgh! Do you hate having that upper back pain? Those muscle spasms between your spine and shoulder? Those miserable knots in your back?

I hated having them, too. But that was a very long time ago.

I got rid of the knots in my back naturally and you can, too. 🙂

So many people just don’t understand how bodies work and why we get into pain! It’s something they don’t teach us in school.

But there are perfectly logical reasons you have that pain in the rhomboid area. (Poor rhomboids–they get blamed all the time and it’s just not their fault!)

If you’ve got “knots in your back,” or if you know someone who does, I wrote this post for you! Or them!

So here we go:

Sometimes muscles complain. When you get “knots” or muscle spasms in your upper back, that’s one of the ways your body says, “Hey, pay attention! I’m not happy!”

Knots in your back muscles are symptoms that there’s an issue somewhere—a cause. The knot aren’t the problem.

They are the result of ‘something.’

There are common causes of one-sided pain between your shoulder blade and spine and we’re going to talk about them right here. When you discover those causes, you’ll be on the road to get rid of your painful knots.

So, what causes one or more muscle knots in your back?

1. Thyroid. Thyroid or other immune system dysfunctions can cause a tendency to have muscle spasms (knots.) I’m not a doctor and you may need to work with your doctor if you have this diagnosis but natural therapies can still help you, too.

2. Posture. If you have a “forward head” posture or rounded shoulders the muscles in your upper back get stretched and strained and complain. They get into spasms or “knots.” Slouching or even straining to see the computer screen can be a cause.

3. Weak back muscles. If your back muscles are weak, the stronger, shorter muscles in the front of your body will pull you forward. This can be a cause or a result of poor posture. It strains your back muscles and causes muscle knots in your back muscles.

4. Holding an area of your back in contraction (shortened) for a long time. Perhaps you work with your elbow behind the midline of the side of your body? Muscle contractions that continue for a long period of time make your muscles think they are supposed to be in that position all the time. You get lopsided. Perhaps you lean on the armrest of your chair, couch or in your car? Or, always cross the same leg over the other leg?

5. Tilting or rotating. This can happen due to habit if you always stand or sit in the same off-balance position. It can be caused by such things as stretching to keep your hand on a mouse or leaning to one side a lot. Scoliosis (curvature of the spine) can also cause tilts and rotations. Scoliosis can sometimes be corrected naturally, by the way.

6. Mineral deficiencies. Muscles really need to have certain minerals in order to function their best. Magnesium, potassium and calcium are big players in muscle health.

Minerals help prevent miserable muscle spasms.

Now you know the most likely possible causes of those nasty knots in your upper back naturally. If you get rid of the causes, you’ll be rid of the muscle knots.

If you’d like, I can help you do that. 🙂

If it’s okay with you, I’d like to invite you to discover an online course I designed just for you! https://www.KnotsInYourBack.com

Knots In Your Back has all of the information you need to get rid of the gnawing pain between your shoulder blades and spine from a trusted, reliable source (me!) in just one place. You won’t have to search the Internet trying to figure out what’s actually helpful and true and what’s not.

I’ve done all the research for you and have over thirty years of experience helping people get out of physical pain.

Upper back muscle spasms? I’ve helped lots of clients get rid of them and I’ve gotten rid of my own miserable knots in my upper back, too!

Check it out and see if it sounds interesting to you.

And thank you for reading! https://www.KnotsInYourBack.com

May 30November 5

What Causes Back Pain

We humans get back pain when our muscles get out of balance. How does this happen?

Well, we are supposed to move, run, jump, climb, roll and continue doing all of the cool, fun things we did as young children.

But most of us do not. 🙁

So, we get back pain.

Why? Because we are no longer using our muscles in a balanced way. We use the same 60 or 70 or so each day and the rest of the 600 muscles are ignored. When those muscles get unhappy, you Continue reading “What Causes Back Pain”

February 14November 6

You Don’t Have To Have Back Pain Forever!

When your back hurts you might think you will have back pain forever. Not so!

You have a smart body. Your back pain is a message. Your body is telling you that it is not happy about something that is happening.

There are a lot of causes for back pain but most involve your muscles.

Muscles move joints, bones, disks in your spine and press on nerves.

Muscles rule!

My client Sharon said, “My mom’s been having a lot of back pain lately. She tried one massage and hurt more afterward so she’s afraid to try again. She’s going to have hospital tests next week.”

I called her mom and asked her about her back pain. (Pain is a Continue reading “You Don’t Have To Have Back Pain Forever!”

December 10November 6

What Causes A Knot In Your Back?

There are muscles in your back between the shoulder blade and spine called rhomboids. There is one on each side. 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!

People (including professional massage therapists) often massage the rhomboid area trying to release the knot or pain there. If it doesn’t release (relax) the knot or pain, that means the cause is somewhere else.

Let’s pretend your back pain is a dragon. Sometimes Continue reading “What Causes A Knot In Your Back?”

November 15November 6

Got Back Pain? Muscles Cause Pain In Your Back – Here’s How

Upper back pain, mid-back pain or lower back pain all have the same most common cause: Your muscles.

Muscles are the most frequent cause of back pain. And that’s good news! Why? Because muscles can be “released” or treated and get back to their normal healthy state.

Here’s more about muscles:

Muscles move bones.
Muscles can get “trigger points.”

Your muscles don’t usually act all by themselves; they pull all the other parts of your body into the act. Why? Because all of your parts are attached. That means ALL of your body should be assessed to figure out WHY you are having pain in your back.

If you’ve had your Continue reading “Got Back Pain? Muscles Cause Pain In Your Back – Here’s How”

October 27November 7

How to Get Better Posture for Back Pain Relief

Back pain is often caused by posture. When your posture collapses–you “fall forward” with your head leading the rest of the group–the muscles in your chest get short and tight. That makes it hard to breathe, hard to hold your head up, hard to have good posture.

At the same time, the muscles in your back get overstretched and strained and so they complain. (They hate being stretched too far!) They give you pain to call your attention to the fact that something is wrong.

Collapsed posture also causes lower back pain, headaches and migraines, constipation and lots and lots of other problems.

It’s a primary cause of “old age.”

You had wonderful posture when you were very young and with a bit of help from you, you can have it again.

In a very small nutshell, strengthen the muscles of your backside from knees to head. Lengthen (stretch) the muscles of your calves and the whole front side of your body from knees to head.

If you happen to see a baby, a cat or a dog stretching, imitate them. 🙂 They are stretching the correct muscles to be functional and pain-free!

October 22November 7

Walking Can Relieve Your Back, Hip and Pelvic Pain

Does walking cause back pain? You bet it can! It also causes pain in your hips and pelvis IF you don’t move the way your body was designed to move.

Every week I do another episode of Pain Relief Radio. Today we talked about how to walk to prevent or get rid of back pain. We talked about how our walking patterns become faulty and how that causes pain.

We talked about walking with stiff knees and hips. This kind of stiff walk contributes directly to arthritis in your hips and knees and fragile bones in your pelvis. But bones stay strong and healthy when we use all of our muscles as they were designed to be used.

Meir Schneider wrote a great book, “The Handbook of Self-Healing, Your Personal Program for Better Health and Increased Vitality,” and I quoted lots from Meir and threw in plenty of my own thoughts, too.

Meir is a brilliant bodyworker in San Francisco. I’m so fortunate to have taken classes from him. There are people who understand how bodies work and what we must do if we are to be pain-free. Meir Continue reading “Walking Can Relieve Your Back, Hip and Pelvic Pain”

September 28November 7

Back Pain? Your Stomach Muscles Can Cause Pain In Your Back and Massage Can Help!

If you have pain in your back it might be from muscles on the back side of your body.

Or…it may be from the muscles on your abdomen! Your belly is the “front of your back.”

Today a client told me that she had a great weekend stretching and straining and balancing on a ladder to trim, prune and clean up her yard. She said it looked beautiful! And she felt fine until she sat down.

When she tried to get up, her back from hip bones to shoulder blades went into spasm and tightened up!

She tried to press into her muscles to relax them the best she could but basically she had spent the last two days in bed. She was very uncomfortable.

I warmed, massaged and pressed into the tight muscles along her spine for a while. They were very tender but they didn’t seem to be releasing or getting better even though she said a few times, “I think you’re on the cause!”

So I suggested we work on the muscles on the front side of her body. The right side of her abdomen was fine; no pain and no referrals.

The left side of her abdomen was “on fire” when I stretched the muscles on the soft abdomen. Her ribs were “on fire” when I pressed into the muscles that ran up from her belly.

For whatever reason, the muscles on the left side of her abdomen had spasmed or “tightened up” and they were causing her back pain. Even though Continue reading “Back Pain? Your Stomach Muscles Can Cause Pain In Your Back and Massage Can Help!”

April 23November 7

Chronic Back Pain and Muscle Strain – Is There a Simple Pain Relief Answer?

You are not alone. Millions of people suffer from chronic back pain.

Sometimes your back pain is caused by something that you do.

Other times, it’s caused by something you DON’T do. Okay, I’ll be totally honest:

There are a LOT of reasons for chronic back pain. It could be caused by:

Foods that causes inflammation (swelling in your muscles and soft tissues.)
Additives (chemicals & toxins) that are in your food.
Vitamin & mineral deficiencies.
Artificial sweeteners (chemicals & toxins) (Oops! Did I already say that?)
Muscles that are “out of balance.” That means muscles on one part of your body are not in balance with the muscles that oppose them. Some of your muscles are “too tight” and some are not strong enough to keep you where nature designed you to be. This creates muscle strain.
Injury to a muscle or area of soft tissue from incorrect use or an accident.
Anger and sadness; strong negative emotions.

Let’s just stick to muscle strain here. We can talk about the other causes at a different time.

Can muscle strain can be caused by doing things over and over?

Yes, and especially when the same movement is done over and over again incorrectly.

Here’s an example:

I was at the airport and I was watching the men who Continue reading “Chronic Back Pain and Muscle Strain – Is There a Simple Pain Relief Answer?”

April 19November 7

How Poor Posture Causes Low Back Pain & How To Fix It

Most of us had good, balanced posture when we were toddlers. We held our little heads directly over our bodies and had nice curves in our lower back.

But, then…we went to school and sat on furniture that didn’t fit us. Sometimes we had to sit for hours at a time instead of running around using all of our muscles.

That’s part of the problem. We stopped using all of our muscles.

Most of us use only the same 60 or so. Since we have over 600 muscles, that means we use only about 10% instead of 100%. That gets us “out of balance.” This creates poor posture and back pain.

Or, maybe you continued using most of your muscles but in ways that caused some to be much stronger than others. Your posture might look pretty good but still you feel strain and pain in your back. That’s a clue that your posture isn’t balanced. This causes back pain.

What causes poor posture?

When you hold your head and arms in front of your body for most of the day, like most of us do, the muscles in the front of your body get short. They pull, or round, your shoulders forward. They pull your head forward and down and make your chin stick out.

When your back muscles get weak because you’re not flexing (strengthening) them, they get overstretched and strained. Instead of holding you upright, your weak back muscles let your spine round at the top and you lose the curve in your low back, too.

Then what happens?

Your bones are the support system for your body.

When your posture gets weak, or collapses, your poor muscles start acting as bones to hold you up. Your muscles are straining to hold your heavy head up while gravity is pulling it down. (Remember why? Because your head has moved in front of your body instead of being held directly over it.)

So what can I do?

There are several natural things you can do to improve your posture and get rid of your back pain.

1. Assess your posture. Have Continue reading “How Poor Posture Causes Low Back Pain & How To Fix It”

April 16November 7

Back Hurts? What Should You Do for Back Pain Relief?

There can be many causes for back pain, but most of them involve muscles and soft tissues (nerves, fascia, and everything except bones.)

When you were little, you used all of your muscles. At some point, for some reason (sitting, sports, injury) you started getting out of muscular balance. When this happened, you were setting the stage for pain in your back.

When all of your muscles were “balanced” (neither too tight nor too weak) you didn’t have back pain. But, now you do.

So, what should you do?

Part of the answer depends on exactly what is causing the pain in your back.

Do you have trigger points? Trigger points are hyper-irritable places in muscles which refer, or “fire,” pain elsewhere (sometimes far away.)

Does your back hurt simply because of tight muscles or muscle strain?

Is it due to the positions or furniture you spend a lot of time in? Or your mattress?

Could it be poor posture or habits? A rotation in your torso? A “slipped disk”?

The first part of the answer is to stretch the muscles which have become shortened. These muscles are most likely at the root of your back pain, and Continue reading “Back Hurts? What Should You Do for Back Pain Relief?”

September 19November 7

Can Your Back Heal Its Pain?

We have really, really strong backs. Really, we do!

But, sometimes when something happens, like a spasm or a “catch”, we start to think that our back is frail, or fragile. We think we have to “baby” our back.

When we start to baby our back, or move tentatively, we are setting ourselves up for injury. We start to move stiffly, instead of smoothly. We are more likely to get hurt when we move stiffly instead of gracefully.

The bones of the spine are called vertebrae. They are built in a way that allows them to bend, twist and move in a variety of ways. The vertebrae in the neck and upper part of the back are smaller, but the lower back bones are larger and sturdier.

Pads of tough tissue, called disks, cushion the bones and separate them from each other. The disks give us more ability to move.

Long, strong muscles run the length of our spines. They secure each bone to the rest of the spine bones so that the spine acts as one long unit. Muscles allow us to move. Muscles move bones.

Sometimes we panic when our back hurts. Sometimes we become afraid it will always hurt. We may make an appointment with a doctor or surgeon, hoping they will “fix” our back.

Now, I will admit, occasionally someone does have a back problem which requires surgery. For instance, a chip may have broken off a bone, maybe through an accident. If the bone chip presses on a nerve, it may require surgery to remove it from the nerve. That should correct the pain.

And, thank goodness that doctors and surgeons are available for the times when we truly need them.

But, can your back pain heal naturally? You bet!

Think about it. If you cut your finger, does it heal by itself? If you scrape your knee, does it heal? If you break a bone, will it heal? (If it’s a bad break, it will require repair, but the bone will heal, with or without repair. The repair will help the bone heal in the correct position.)

Our skin heals itself. Our bones heal themselves. We get germs, and get sick, and we get better again.

So, please don’t panic.

Ice helps muscle spasms. The rule of thumb is ice for the first 48 hours, and then you can switch to heat, or alternate heat with ice. Ice for 20 minutes on and 20 minutes off. Do this several times in rotation.

Take an anti-inflammatory like ibuprofen. If there is inflammation, or swelling, in the muscles, an anti-inflammatory is supposed to help reduce the swelling. Reducing the swelling may take pressure off a nerve, if you are having nervy pain.

Keep gentle movement going. Move with as much fluidity as you can. Try to be graceful, not lurching. Gentle movement keeps the muscles warm and keep fluids moving through our tissues.

If you have extreme pain, or lose control of your bowels or bladder, see your doctor immediately.

But, even with extreme pain, if you are patient, your body can usually heal by itself.

I had a client who had such pain that he could only kneel on the floor with his upper body supported on the bed for two days! He crawled to the bathroom and crawled back to his bed. Kneeling helped him feel a little better because with his belly supported on the bed, it took some pressure off whatever nerve was getting aggravated.

It took several weeks for him to feel well again, but it did happen. He resumed walking, but it was from picnic table to picnic table at the park. Eventually, he could walk normally again.

Lots of manual muscle therapy, or therapeutic massage, helped his tight muscles relax and took pressure off his nerve.

When he was first injured, his doctor said, “Well, you could have surgery, if you’d like.”

The problem is, sometimes surgery helps and sometimes it doesn’t. Back surgeries are done less now than they used to be, because often they didn’t help.

Often muscles are the cause of our pain. Really often.

And muscles are really good at going into spasm, but they are not so good at releasing their spasm. If we keep moving gently, use ice and an anti-inflammatory on a consistent basis, and get manual muscle/massage therapy if possible, our backs can get better.

Posture plays a big part in back injuries. If you suspect that your back is not as strong as it should be, that would be a good thing for you to work on.

You can find more information about getting a strong back at Simple Strengthening

Strong backs rule!