Help with an injury

[Brak]

I have this extreme pain in my back. The first time I felt it was over a week ago. It is in my upper back in this muscle that runs close to the spine and kind of under the inside portion of my shoulder blade. It hurts like crazy when I tilt my head down, like to look at my chest. I didn’t have this problem on my 1st cycle, but have on this, my second cycle. The change from this cycle to last is this time I added a neck exercise. I lie on my back with my head off the bench, put a plate or several on my face (protected by a towel) and lower and lift the weight. I suspect it is this movement causing the pain, because, like I said, I didn’t have this problem on my 1st cycle and it also hurts in my back when I move my neck. But when I am doing the exercise I don’t feel any pain in my back, like I pulled something and it seems like a strange place for the pain, if it is the neck exercise. I did feel some pain in my back while doing barbell shrugs. I still have a hard time with shrugs, the weight it takes to challenge my traps seems to be too much for the rest of my body, especially my back (it’s kind of an un-natural feeling to hold the barbell down in front of me like that with that much weight). And I can’t load that much weight on dumb-bells so I can stand in a normal position.

So what do you think? Is it an injury caused by the neck work and I should drop them or is the injury caused by poor form during shrugs, if so, should I just use dumb bells and not worry about the weight being lower than it is with the barbell?

Brak

 

[Brak]

Bump...help please.

 

[BIZ]

My wife gets those trigger points every now and then. Rest and massage tend to be her best relief. She gets them when she works with a heavy patient, which is similar to shrugs. I can't imagine neck flexion would hurt your upper back unless you are flexing too far and over-stretching. The shrugs sound like the culprit, which means laying off them for a while and see if the condition improves. If no improvement, then lay off the neck exercises and see if that helps. Still no improvement, time to get professional advice.

 

[Old and Grey]

You can probably relieve that contraction via some accupressure. Just have your wife, girlfriend, pet mouse, et al, push their thumb into the knotted muscle for a few minutes. It may release. If not, then probably best to see a chiro or massage therapist.

It sounds like the shrugs could have done the damage. I never do BB front shrugs. I either do DB, shrug bar or behind the back shrugs on a Smith Machine. Holding that weight in front of you is not good for your lower back. Also, traps, like forearms and calves can benefit from lighter weights and higher reps. I go as high as 18 reps. Below 8 reps doesn't seem to do much for me except put in line for a potential injury.

 

[BIZ]

Quote[/b] (Old and Grey @ Jan. 03 2005,6:25)]You can probably relieve that contraction via some accupressure. Just have your wife, girlfriend, pet mouse, et al, push their thumb into the knotted muscle for a few minutes. It may release.

You'll love it. It feels so good. NOT!!!

 

[Brak]

Thx for the replies. The Shrugs huh,...ok. It's just that it hurts so terribly much when I move my head forward, yup, hurts in my back when I move my head. So I just assumed that it had something to do with the neck.

It was wierd how I worked out on Thurs. then when I went to work out Saturday, it was kinda sore, just a little, so I decided not to work out Sat. give it a rest. Then Sunday, with no workout since Thurs, the pain got much worse, and now today it is almost unbearable, it even hurts to move my left arm. The tiniest of movements that I apparently take for granted in my chair at my desk makes it hurt...even taking a really deep breath hurts.

If I tore something or did something horrific like that, wouldn't it have hurt really bad right when I did it? It hurts so badly now, I am just looking for re-assurance that it is just soreness or at least something that will heal given some time off. Severe pain tends to make me paranoid.

Brak

 

[BIZ]

Endorphins tend to play tricks on your mind, liek when I partially tore my hamstring in football practice as a junior and thought it was just a slight pull. The adrenaline and endorphins of a hard practice wore off and the next few days were an eye opening experience. The pain got so bad I could barely sit down or get up once I had sat down. I broek down, went to the doc and got the bad news, out 3 months, no activity that involved my hamstring except walking (even that hurt). I would say get it checked out before you start having complimentary problems from protecting your upper back. You could have a vertebrae out of allignment...who knows.

 

[Brak]

Just what I was hoping not to hear. Oh well, gives new meaning to "the truth hurts".

 

[Ryan]

It sure sounds like the scalenes but it could possiblly be a trigger point in the rhomboids.

I suggest you buy The Trigger Point Workbook.

 

[imported_haskan]

Sorry I didn´t see this in January, but I figured I´d post a reply now in case anyone else get similar problems. Being a physical therapist I see people, although they mean well, giving incorrect advice all the time on boards like this.

Quote[/b] ]It is in my upper back in this muscle that runs close to the spine and kind of under the inside portion of my shoulder blade.

This is a very common place for the lower cervikal column to refer pain. Without understanding REFERRED PAIN one cannot diagnose properly.

Quote[/b] ]It hurts like crazy when I tilt my head down, like to look at my chest.

This is a dural sign. If you have a cervical posterior disc protrusion pain is likely to be reproduced during neckflexion because of movement of the dura mater. The dura mater is the outer layer of the spinal cord and is highly sensitive.

Quote[/b] ]I still have a hard time with shrugs

Shrugs can put stress on the neck, likely through disc compression. Shoulder elevation without weight that REPRODUCE the pain can also be a dural sign of the thoracic column.

Quote[/b] ]My wife gets those trigger points every now and then.

Trigger points is a symptome, NOT a cause. Treat the CAUSE of the pain. The cause of pain from the vertebral column is almost always disc related. When the cause of the pain is treated successfully the trigger points go away.

Quote[/b] ]Severe pain tends to make me paranoid.

Fear of pain and fear of moving is the biggest enemy one has to getting better. It is VERY UNLIKELY that pain from the cervical, thoracic or lumbar column is due to a serious condition (fracture, tumour etcetera)

Quote[/b] ]If I tore something or did something horrific like that, wouldn't it have hurt really bad right when I did it?

Except patients that have been subjected to extreme forces (for instance whiplash injuries) I have never had, or heard of, a patient TEARING something in the vertebral column. Disc protrusions can happen very quickly or slowly increase over time.

Quote[/b] ]You could have a vertebrae out of allignment

The only time a vertebrae is out of alignment is if you have a spondylolisthesis and they rarely cause any problems whatsoever.

Quote[/b] ]It sure sounds like the scalenes

I have yet to see any patient with neck originated pain were a muscle is the pain producing tissue. If the scalenes were the culprit then tension of those muscles would be the only thing to reproduce the pain.
Treatment options:
Manipulation/mobilisation
Traktion
Extension exercises (McKenzie)
If a spinalnerve is affected the treatment options drastically changes, but that is not the topic of this thread.

 

[Fausto]

Brak

I have had a similar pain to this before, and it was definitely my Rhomboid (right side) fortunately there is a guy at work who is a sensei (Shotokan) and he sorted me out by kind of cracking my back, just like the chiros do, lay on the floor and someone (must be knowladgeable) will stand over you and kind of twist as you breath out first one way then the other.

It worked as thepain almost immediatelly disappeared, however it was a different exercise that caused it (hack squats with a barbell) and that is why I knew it was the rhomboid, the pain was right under my shoulder blade in the bottom part of it

Askan could also be right, if I were you I'd go and see a therapist, there is nothing to loose, maybe with the xeception of a few $$$.

Kate is pretty knowledgeable about this stuff too, try her out!