Upper Back Conditions
Pain in the upper back or rib cage area is a common one that most people deal and probably just live it with. But there are a few reasons why you want to get it checked out if it persists and here is why. It could be more than just stiffness and posture related. Most of your internal organs radiate pain to your middle and upper back.
As you know we aim to educate you in all that we do, so here is once more another educational page on what can be causing your upper back pain.
Upper back Stiffness:
This is extremely common and one that most people just deal and live with. We see this alot with those who sit all day working at a desk or students who are in class for an hour plus at a time. But let me explain why you don’t want to just deal with it.
Your body is built in patterns. Your joints alternate between stable joints and mobile joints. Mobile joints are defined by those that are built to move in all directions like your hip. Stable joints are defined by those that are built with one primary movement, like your knee. Your knee’s primary movement is forwards and backwards, or flexion and extension. Your upper back, thoracic spine and rib cage, is built to be mobile.
When a mobile joint or region becomes stiff, your body will compensate and find mobility elsewhere. More often than not it’s going to go to the next region above or below. For this case, when your upper back becomes stiff, your body will most likely find mobility in your lower back, neck and/or shoulder blade.
So your upper back stiffness might not seem like an issue now, but if it stays that way, it’s going to trickle to the next region and cause an issue there.
What should you do about it? Don’t sit down for more than 20 minutes at a time in the hunched position. Seek some chiropractic adjustments and constantly stretch your upper back.
Rib Joint Dysfunction/”Rib Out”
This is a condition that we see all too often. This is commonly known as “I have a rib out”. This will show up with pain between your spine and your shoulder blade, on either side. Sometimes this can cause more pain with breathing.
What can cause this? Desk jobs when you sit all day with poor posture and don’t get up to move a lot. Student life when you sit in class and then go sit at the library or home to study. Also traumatic injuries like in football or rugby when you get hit in the torso.
What can be done? Proper stretches and exercises with Chiropractic Adjustment to that rib will help resolve this.
Ribs can be stubborn and somewhat unpredictable. They can either take just a day to resolve or unto a week when it’s really bad.
Cervical disc/facet radiating pain
This is when you have pain between the shoulder blades that feels like a stuck rib, like the previous condition, but it’s actually just referred pain from the neck. This is more common than you think. The discs and joints of the neck have a referral pain pattern to the same areas of the ribs. And without a trained professional this goes missed all too often.
What to expect? Get evaluated for any neck conditions that can be causing this pain. And if so, then treat the neck accordingly.
Digestive organ referral: Gallbladder, kidney, stomach, liver, pancreas
This is similar to the previous condition listed. Any internal organs have a referral pain pattern to some part of the rib cage. So these can be overlooked if not looking for them. Look at these referral patterns.
Gallbladder radiates pain to the right mid back, just under the shoulder blade. Oftentimes there is an increase of pain after eating fatty foods.
Kidneys radiate pain to the lower back and sometimes hips.
Stomach radiates pain to the very middle part of your back right over the spine.
Liver radiates pain to a very similar area of the gallbladder, on the right middle side.
Pancreas radiates pain to the left middle to lower part of your back, near the bottom of your rib cage.
These are all conditions that we need to make sure that we are not missing them. Oftentimes, there is pain in any of these spots that has a happern with any eating habits, we need to check the digestive system out as well.
Golf Swing
Where does this play into the golf swing? You need a lot of rotation in the mechanics of the swing. If you don’t have the mobility to rotate around your spine and rib cage, then we need to work on that, or else you will suffer from lower back pain, shoulder pain, neck pain and yardage pain.
Here are some great stretches to work on the mobility of your upper back.
Please, Please, Please, PLEASE Don’t let this upper back stiffness get worse. Don’t put it off until your lower back gives out. There are many things you can do at home to prevent this, it’s just a matter of doing them.
Golf Injury
Golf swing mechanics that lead to wrist pain: The biggest causes of this among golfers are, large divots and hitting a lot off of turf mat. Those mats don’t have as much give to them and all the force goes through the wrist. Other than those, swing characteristics would be “Casting”, “Chicken swinging” and “Scooping”. This is happening because you are using your arms and wrist too much in your swing. Physically limitations that can lead to this is, shoulder stiffness, upper back stiffness and pelvic motor control.
If you or someone you know is dealing with upper back pain and doesn’t know where to do, we are here to help guide them along the path to recovery .Schedule an appointment today and we’ll get you headed in the right direction. Located in Orem, Utah on the Vineyard border at the Sleepy Ridge Golf Course.