back pain cause

[Wynton]

Yesterday, while playing tennis, I developed a new back pain. Though I occasionally pull a muscle in the upper, middle part of the back, underneath the shoulder blades, this pain is in a different location and doesn't feel like the type of pulled muscle I am familiar with.

Specifically, I feel strain in the very lower part of the back, from the tailbone and up a few inches, and not centralized to a particular spot. Its fairly stiff and uncomfortable when I lay down totally flat (though not when I sit).

So I'm wondering how this might be diagnosed. While I know this pain began while playing tennis, I don't remember it starting with any particular trauma or action, which I would associate with a pulled or sprained muscle. And I'm not even sure if there are muscles in that region of the back. I don't think it's a slipped disc, because I would have thought that would be accompanied by more acute pain. This is more generalized.

Anyone here experience something similarly? Are there particular stretches that help this? Since yesterday, I've been applying heat (which has helped my back in the past) and using anti-inflammatories, but the condition is unchanged.

[cbloom]

Some things that a personal examination would reveal :

When you relax are you leaning to one side or the other, and is your spine curving front-to-back correctly?

Have you got muscles around that area which are seized up tight?

Is there any tenderness to palpitation?


Without that, I can guess - the most likely cause of pain like this is that you moved the lumbar spine in a bad way, which caused the vertebrae to compress in a way they're not supposed to. This then pinches the nerves coming out of the spinal chord between the vertebrae (most likely) or the spinal chord itself (less likely). When this happens your body feels a sudden sharp acute pain, and tries to stop it by seizing up the muscles around the vertebrae, which then holds you in a bad position. The tight muscles and inflamed tissues or nerve roots will continue to apply pressure to the nerves which causes pain.

If this is the case, the treatment is to get those muscles to relax, restore the spine to proper posture, and just try to keep good relaxed posture and let the inflammation go away.

Probable treatment :

anything to relax the back muscles (massage, hot baths), resting in good posture, very gentle stretching

anything to reduce inflammation (gentle cold packs, NSAIDs like advil)


Strongly contraindicated :

vigorous stretching, "cracking" the back, exercise, long-term sitting



Pain in the low back like that is almost always caused by rounding of the lumbar spine under load. It can be prevented by strengthening the low back, good stretching before workouts, and just being careful to bend at the knees and so on.

[Wynton]

Thank you for all that info.

I would say that the nerve compression sounds like a decent guess, except that I never experienced any sharp, sudden acute pain while exercising. It was more like I just gradually noticed a tightening sensation, which has worsened since then. Heat makes it feel better temporarily, though.

I'm also not aware of any tenderness.

Of course, I will get it checked out if the discomfort persists for more than a few days.

[jogsxyz]

I've had better luck with ice than heat.

[Wynton]

[ QUOTE ]
I've had better luck with ice than heat.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have a different experience, maybe due to the injury. As I mentioned before, aside from this particular injury, I semi-regularly aggravate or pull a muscle in the middle of my back, near the shoulder blades. This feels clearly like the muscle tightening. And I find heat really helps that injury, though I'm not sure it's helping the current one.