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 “surrounding the dragon” will relieve the pain.  The “dragon” is the painful area.  If you pinch, roll, press or massage the latissimus or “lat” muscles on the outer sides of the back, that may help because they may be pulling on the “dragon.”  The dragon cannot relax and go to sleep while those muscles continue to pull on him.

And, there can be other causes for knots and pain between the shoulder blade and spine.

There is a 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 your posture. Also, stretches to open and relax the muscles in the front of your chest and arms will help, too.

And, if you go to http://KnotsInYourBack.com you can claim a free report about how to get rid of the miserable knots in your back.

At the same time, the muscles in your back get overstretched 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.

Watch this whole video through to the end before you try this movement.  At the end, the teacher will demonstrate how to come out of the movement.

You can use a towel rolled into a tube and folded towels for supports for your head.  If you need to adjust the size of your “tube” it’s easy to just unroll the towel a bit.

Oh Boy!  It surely can!  In fact, it does.

Poor, or collapsed, posture can cause pain in your head, neck, feet, legs, hips, upper and lower back. Why?  Because being out of muscular “balance” means that you are using muscles to do the job of bones.

With poor posture, your muscles are trying to hold you upright, but that’s the job of your bones. Muscles are for moving.  Bones are for supporting.

All of your muscles attach to bones.  When a muscle is overworked or overstretched because of poor posture, it causes pain.

Poor posture can even cause your organs–heart, lungs, intestines, stomach–to have difficulty functioning.  Why?  Because you are collapsing forward.  As you bend forward, all of your organs are compressed, or squashed.  It is much harder for your organs to do their best job when they are squashed.

What can you to to correct your posture?

One important thing is to get arch supports (orthotics) for your shoes if your feet are “flat.”

How can you tell if your arches are flat?

Stand up with your weight the same on both feet for 5 minutes.  Then assess:  Do you feel that most of the pressure on your feet is in your toes?  You need arch supports.  Get a pair with a “real” arch, something that will truly support you.

Feet are supposed to have arches.  They are the foundation of your skeleton.

Just like a building, we need a solid foundation.  If our foundation flattens, or collapses, the integrity of our building–our body–is compromised.  We get into trouble, and the trouble starts with poor, or collapsed posture.

A good pair of arch supports may feel as though you have a boulder under your foot.

Try to get a pair that actually fits to the shape or your foot.  You want them to put your feet into the arched position they used to have.  Take time to adjust to them.  Start with just an hour a day, then 2 hours.  Work your way up to wearing them all day.

Massage your feet by pressing the sole of your feet against a tennis ball, or golf ball, and rolling it back and forth, width-wise and length-wise.  Do this for 5 minutes for each foot.  After you do the first foot, you will have one happy foot.  You’ll have to do your other foot so it will be happy, too.  This helps relax your muscles and tendons and make it easier to adjust to your new arch supports.

There is more to do to correct your posture and get you back to feeling and functioning well, but arch supports are a good place to start.