What are those muscles called again? The ones right between your shoulder blades?
It’s called your ‘trapezius and rhomboid muscles’, but most commonly called your ‘traps.’ These muscles play a key part in keeping the shoulder blades (the scapula) down and pulled back. If stretched in the wrong direction too often, by heavy lifting or poor posture, the muscles begin to feel sore and tight. If the tightness doesn’t want to go away, like it often doesn’t, you may start to feel pain between shoulder blades.
This pain between shoulder blades often starts in the upper back and moves its way down the body, from the middle and lower back all the way down the legs. Feeling this pain can have multiple causes like the ones stated in this article. Some of the most common causes of pain between shoulder blades are related to muscle strain, over use, or herniated discs. These can happen in everyday activities and sometimes can’t be avoided. So, we must find a solution that works.
Your back is like a spring.
The spine has a natural S-curve when looked at from the side. With four different sections (cervical, thoracic, lumbar, sacral), from top to bottom, the spine has both concave and convex curves. These curves enable mobility and support your weight by subduing pressure from targeted areas of your spine along with your hips and knees.
Your spine is like a spring. If the spring’s wire gets kinked in the wrong direction, it may not support any pressure placed on top. Your back is the same. When you kink it in the opposite direction of its natural S-Curve you may start to feel added pain to our back, hips and knees. This may cause an incredible amount of strain from the added compression that can lead to pain between shoulder blades.
Stated in our previous blog post, as your upper back is being forced to curve outward (the wrong direction) from your poor habits, the rest of your body doesn’t receive the amount of support and mobility it needs to handle the physical stresses of the day. The thoracic nerves are connected to many parts of your body and if those nerves are signaling pain, then you may start to feel pain in your hips, lower back, chest, shoulders, knees etc.
SO, how do you help pain between shoulder blades?
The answer is: A daily habit of good posture, and exercises that will correct the muscle memory.
This all sounds simple, right? Yes...until you forget about your resolution of good posture and start to hunch over your screen at work, or forget to squat heavy weights or items with your legs and not your back, or even get too tired of the stretches your physical therapist taught. Let’s face it. It’s hard to correct bad habits. Especially when your muscles have a stronger memory than your mother's. Yes, a physical therapist and chiropractor can help some of this back pain. However, when you get home from the doctor visit, the pain between shoulder blades comes back and you either don’t remember or don’t want to do the exercises.
Plexus Co. recommends using the Plexus Wheel for guidance and support in this difficult process of helping pain between shoulder blades. A solution that works in your own living room! That’s right, you don’t have to wait another week to go to the chiropractor or physical therapist. The wheel will do the same, but at home.
Here are 5 reasons The Plexus Wheel will help the pain between shoulder blades.
- Corrects bad posture
Upper back pain between shoulder blades can be helped by correcting posture. Dropping the shoulders back will help the posture, but also open the chest. The width of the plexus wheel was designed to help your shoulders naturally drop over the wheel and open the chest.
- Targets the muscles between the shoulder blades
Tension in the muscles in the upper back can cause pain and what better way to fix it, than with the Plexus Wheel. Why? It fits between the shoulder blades and targets the muscles perfectly along the upper spine.
- Creates thoracic spine mobility
Thoracic spine mobility will greatly help with pain between shoulder blades. The region from the base of the neck to a few inches below the shoulder blades is the thoracic spine. This is a main source of pain that is caused in other parts of the body, and ultimately helps us be mobile. Creating that mobility will help ease that pain.
- Opens chest
Opening the chest can allow the shoulders to have better posture, give a stretch in the abdomen, and help your breathing. Slowly the ribs will begin to stretch and you will be able to breath better, help bad posture and relieve pain between shoulder blades.
