How We Get Rid of Upper Back Pain

Upper back pain is one of those things that a lot of people have experienced at least once in their lives. What’s really tricky about it is that it can be caused by so many things! It can be both structural issues within the body along with muscular imbalances. 

The hardest thing about upper back pain is not knowing how to get rid of it. I’ve dealt with upper back pain a lot, especially with my history of racing motocross and riding motorcycles. It takes a lot of upper body strength when you’re doing those sorts of things. When I would experience upper back pain I would try massage guns, trigger point work, stretches…and nothing seemed to help. 

What Causes Upper Back Pain?

As mentioned above, upper back pain can be caused by structural issues along with muscular imbalances. From what we’ve experienced at The Specific Chiropractic Centers – Naples it is often a combination of the both of them, one usually causes the other! Now obviously there is usually something someone does or a habit they do that flares the discomfort up but these are the root causes.

The structural issues can be due to your skeletal system or your spine being out of alignment. Especially if the top 2 bones of your neck are out of alignment it throws off the rest of your spine and musculature. The body always wants the head to be level, not tilting to one side or the other. When the top two bones are misaligned suddenly this can cause the head to sit crooked on the body. 

When this happens the body engages a bunch of muscles to pull the head back to its straight, upright position. The body may get used to this tension and misalignment overtime but when something happens that puts more stress on the body as a whole this can cause a flare up. 

The Nervous System’s Role

Oddly enough the nervous system has a role in upper back pain as well. How does increased stress to the body is what usually flare up people’s upper back pain? This is due to the nervous system already being overworked or over stimulated. Any extra form of stress can cause our pain receptors to start to fire. This can also be caused by poor posture for prolonged periods of time. 

The nervous system is in charge of coordinating everything that happens in our bodies. So when the system is already stressed from having to engage a bunch of muscles that shouldn’t be engaged to begin with, then extra stress is thrown into the system, something’s got to give. I’m sure you have been in the position where you have a lot of stuff going on in your life, you’re more stressed than normal, and you begin to physically not feel the greatest either. This is an example of the nervous system breaking down and you experiencing it through physical symptoms. 

A lot of times people will think of this as a superficial, quick fix problem. Since something relatively simple caused the pain it seems that the same should be expected for how to get rid of the pain. Usually the cause of this pain is something that has been ongoing for a long time but it doesn’t show itself as pain until a bombardment of stressors sets it off. 

Other than things like massage, trigger point work, stretching, and medications might you be able to get rid of upper back pain?

How can Chiropractic Help?

At The Specific Chiropractic Centers – Naples we see people all the time struggling with upper back pain, along with a myriad of other issues. Our goal is to balance the nervous system and allow your body to be able to adapt to stressors. Like we mentioned, stressors are what usually cause people to have upper back pain in the beginning….and our inability to adapt to them! 

We are also focused on making sure the structure is in proper alignment. We take a series of very specific x-rays at everyone’s initial testing visit to see if there is any structural imbalance. The head and neck is put into motion which helps us study the biomechanics of everyone that comes in. 

By studying the biomechanics we can determine if certain areas of the body aren’t moving how they’re designed to move. This can cause fixations along with making the head not sit on the body straight, which as we learned above, can start to cause issues further down the spine. When we see that there is a problem with the biomechanics we can determine how we need to specifically adjust the spine to fix this problem and allow the nervous system to be in proper working order. 

All in all I believe that the Chiropractic Care we offer at The Specific Chiropractic Centers – Naples is the perfect solution for people dealing with upper back pain. Not only do we address the muscular tension that is going on but we also look at the neurological issues that may be causing the pain in the first place. This isn’t a quick fix solution but is usually something that takes months to actually get figured out. The initial upper back pain will usually go away relatively quickly but our goal is stabilization of the spine and nervous system for the long haul.

We don’t want you continually experiencing upper back pain, or really any pain whatsoever that you shouldn’t be experiencing. By working with the nervous system we are able to get the body adapting to stressors you may be experiencing much better. By doing this it allows everything to be more stable and not throw you into a feeling of overwhelm when you do start to experience more stressful situations. If you are interested in what we do at The Specific feel free to click that schedule button on our website. We’ll get back to you within 24 hours and will set up a time to have you come in for a complimentary consultation where you can see the office, we’ll do some simple tests, and see how we will be able to help you along with determine what care will look like.

Learn more.

Here are a few more posts on how chiropractic care can help those who suffer from headaches and/or migraines.