My brother says I have bad posture. I just have this horrible burning sensation between my shoulder blades and I get a stiff neck often, and it is just killing me. I am a 16-year-old teenager, why I got to suffer from this pain at such a young age?
This burning sensation between your shoulder blades is probably the rhomboid muscles being tight and in spasm. The Rhomboid muscles sit between your spine and scapula. The rhomboid muscles attach from C7 to T5 vertebrae to the medial border of the scapula. So the this muscle connects to your neck and midback area. The rhomboids are made up of rhomboid major and rhomboid minor. Also contributing to the pain in between the shoulder blades is going to be the thoracic paraspinals, and the trapezius muscle.
As a student, do you spend a lot of time studying or sitting with your head forward over your books? Inadverdently, you may even be slouching ! Especially if you have upper back sticks out. If you do, you are setting yourself up for bad posture. If you do this everyday it puts a tremendous amount of pressure on your back muscles and even more on your neck. Bad posture can contribute to neck pain, upper back pain, stiff neck and sore shoulders and more.
The good news is that there are some simple things that you can do:
[1] Try not to slouch when you are sitting at school or while studying- make sure your back is straight. A good idea is have a back rest or cushion on your chair- this will ensure that you can sit back comfortably and not slouch. A back rest will also put a slight curve in your spine which promotes good posture. The Sit Back Rest is a good low back rest designed for the lumbar spine. Another good choice for when you sitting in the car or prefer a lumbar support that is slimmer is the SlimBack Rest.
[2] Instead of having to flex your head forward while studying, raise your material to eye level- If you can stand your books up that would really help with the neck and upper back pain.
[3] Exercises are important for your neck and upper back. Here are some good neck exercises. Even exercises like Yoga will help.
[4] Take breaks while you study
[5] Look at your backpack. Is it too heavy? Your backpack should weigh no more than 15 % of your body weight; So for example if you weigh 100 lbs, your backpack should weigh less than 15 lbs. There is a really good backpack called the Air Pack that your parents may want to check out. Look for a backpack that evenly distributes the weight of the contents.
[6] Here is a stretch for your rhomboid muscle and upper back: Cross one arm in front of your body. Now use the opposite arm to squeeze into your body and above or below elbow joint. Hold this stretch for about 10-15 seconds.
Visit Arc 4 Life for your online selection of low back pain relief products, back pack and lumbar supports.
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