Solve Your Shoulder and Upper Back Pain By Fixing Your Posture!
Have you ever had pain in the shoulder or in the upper back? The shoulder is a complex joint with several anatomical features that can cause discomfort if not in the correct position. Posture and positioning are the most important components to improving your shoulder and upper back (between your blades) pain!
A lot of what we do in our current society is with our upper limb out in front of us, for example: driving, working at a computer (especially small laptops), using our phones, and scrolling, cooking... and the list goes on!
Eventually this protracted/rounded shoulder position is going to catch up with us if we don’t do something about it.
A good way to think of it is to ask yourself this question; “How many hours throughout the day have I been in this position?” Then, think about how many hours it would take to undo all the gravity force and load that has been pulling your neck and shoulders forward.
Don’t worry, I’m not going to suggest you lie backwards over a barrel for 8 hours straight, but there are a few simple physio tips that you can include into your daily routine to prevent chronic overload of these joints and any of these painful symptoms occurring for you!
Symptoms
Pain can present as a constant achy or radiating pain, or an intermittent sharp or nervy pain. A common cause for these types of painful presentations is poor posture, which comes down to being a little bit weak in your postural muscles and consequently stiff in your thoracic spine and tight through your pectoralis muscles! The following are anatomical components important for good posture and reduced discomfort include:
1. Thoracic Spine Facet Joints: Stiff facet joints occur when they are not exposed to movement. These joints need to be specifically targeted with rotation and extension to prevent overload, stiffness and consequently pain.
2. Costovertebral and Costotransverse Joints: These joints are where your ribs attach to your thoracic spine.
The pain from these joints presents a little wider than the facet joints and usually feel like they are under the shoulder blade.
3. Pectoralis Muscles: Your pec minor muscle is the small chest muscle that attaches to the top of shoulder blade at inserts at the front of shoulder. When this gets tight it can cause your shoulder blade to be anteriorly tilted. This becomes a problem for anterior shoulder pain and makes it difficult to engage your postural muscles at the back. E.g. rhomboids, middle and lower trapezius muscles.
Pain in the facet joints and costovertebral joints can present as achy, sharp, or radiating. This is because at each level of the spine there are specific nerves that innervate other areas of the body.
Here is a diagram of the pathways, called Dermatomes.
Each level of the spine refers to if the nerve is angry, disrupted or the space that the nerve lives in is reduced due to reduced range of motion.
Solutions
Correct Posture & Ergonomics: You need so ensure that your set up your workstation so that your joints are at an obtuse angle i.e. greater than 90 degrees. Hips, knees, ankles, elbows, and wrists. For the upper back and shoulders, you need to open your collars bones or “make your collar bones smile” ☺
Mobility Exercises:
Long Foam roller series
Pecs release with massage ball or pec stretches
Book openers in side lying
Strength Exercises:
Low row with band or cables
Prone scapular retractions
Banded pull a parts
If this sounds like something you might need help with, book a physiotherapy consultation with Emma to help prevent you turning into the hunchback of Bronte Beach!
