Can't Figure Out the Pain in Your Back?
As we continue our trigger point journey down the back, I thought it pertinent to talk about the mid back. Besides trigger points (TrPs) along the spine referring localized pain, there are a couple of overlooked TrPs in neighboring muscles that refer pain to the mid back (thoracic region).
Two Funky Back Pain Causing Muscles
I’m calling these muscles funky because we just don’t think of them as possible culprits in back pain.
Rectus Abdominus
And because of pain in the back, we often only focus our attention there. It is rarely that simple. Besides lengthening the front of the spine, treating TrPs in the rectus abdominis, aka your abs, can provide great relief for mid and low back pain.
I have seen a few clients leave with so much relief for their back that they didn’t need their original scheduled surgery! All because this ab muscle was not checked. If you’ll notice in the picture, there is also a low trigger point that refers pain to the low back.
These abdominal points are not as common as trigger points in the QL (quadratus lumborum) or back muscles. I’ll get to those in our next article 🙂
Treating trigger points in the rectus abdominus can be a bit tricky on your own.. Sometimes doing some upward dog (stretching the front of your spine) can help. Generally, lengthening the front of your body can help with a host of issues, including back and neck pain. This is because we are so often hunched while we sit, drive, watch TV… So our tendency is to have shortened tissues in the front of our spine, along our sternum, neck and/or belly.
If you are having pain patterns like the picture to the right, a massage for your abs, is probably the best thing you can do to relieve the pain. You’d be surprised at how much tension we hold in our bellies.
Lats Lats Lats
The other often forgotten muscle for mid back pain is latissimus dorsi, aka your lats.
When this point becomes chronic or over-activated, you will also feel achiness or pain down the back of the arm, as the red stippling in the pic shows. But the main pain is felt around the bottom of your scapula. Sometimes this muscle gets strained during pullups, so if you’ve got this pain pattern showing up after a good pullup workout, chances are you just aggravated your lats.
Treatment for Latissimus TrP
The latissimus TrP shown (that’s just behind the armpit) can be addressed with a foam roller- You’d lie on the roller on the affected side and roll up towards your armpit. Find a nice tender area and hang out there for a min or so. This is a great technique if you just want to improve your overhead reach because chances are, you have short lats.
And then there’s always pain relief from a specialized massage.
As always, if you can’t figure out how to relieve your aches and pains, please see a professional. Doctors will most often tell you to take pain meds, and sometimes they’ll have you see a physical therapist or chiropractor, but around 85% of pain is from soft tissue issues. And a skilled massage therapist, who works with soft tissue and clients in pain, should be one of the first people you see.
Stay tuned for the next trigger point article on low back. It’s sure to be a doozy!
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