Daily Mobility Exercises by Dr. Kelly Starrett › Forums › General › Tight Muscles on the Spine › Re: Tight Muscles on the Spine

04/12/2017 at 5:50 pm #76880
AvatarJulie Daugherty
Participant

Thanks Kaitlin.  I’ve had this looked at by probably 10-15 PT’s, Chiros, LMT’s, Rolfers and Docs at this point.  I’m seeing a chiropractor right now who is having me build core strength and stability as he says the brachial plexus is being impinged somewhere in the neck; I think he is hoping that by strengthening the core it will take the pressure off of my neck so it can all heal up.  We’re almost 5 weeks in and I’m not much different than I was when I first started with him (going 2x per week for 5 weeks..  it’s adding up).


I saw an osteopath/physiatrist two weeks ago and he brought up the dorsal scapular nerve and said he thinks it’s possible the muscle is choking the nerve or the nerve is flaming up the muscle.  He said it’s a chicken/egg scenario so we’re doing needling and an EMG next Friday.  I never got a chance to ask him, though, if a really tight muscle can pull that hard on the cervical spine to trap nerves like that.  I was always under the assumption that nerves get pinched by bones and nerves cause muscles to spasm but can’t find really anything online that talks about nerves being pinched by tight muscles – as in you release the muscle and the nerve will heal.

I’d LOVE to see KStar talk about this but I can’t find anything on it.  He discusses levator in one episode and the symptoms he talks about in the episode are consistent with mine for the most part but it isn’t as in-depth as I would have hoped (not his fault, obviously).

Main symptoms:

– Very ropy levator on both sides (you can feel a rope of muscle as you run your fingers over the part of my upper back)

– Side of neck pain with any activity of arms in front of me or over my head

– Shoulderblades look hunched and elevated, especially when doing crossover symmetry type stuff

– Rhomboids feel completely shut off (could be low trap or mid trap but rhomboids are my guess)