Mid-back pain may not be as common as lower back or neck pain, but it can negatively affect your life in nonetheless.  Mid-back pain occurs in the thoracic spine and is often described as pain between the shoulder blades.  It is often caused by overuse, poor posture or injury to the muscles, ligaments, tendons or discs in the middle of the back.  These injuries can cause misalignments in the bones in your back, thus causing pressure on the nerves.  Since the bones in the middle of your back are connected to ribs, these misalignments can cause the ribs to become misaligned as well.   This can cause a sharp pain that is often described as “having a knife stuck in the back” and makes taking a deep breath difficult. Top Wichita chiropractor provides 3 tips to help overcome back pain.

3 Tips to Helping with Mid-Back Pain at Home

1. Practice Good Posture – When you are sitting or standing with poor posture, this causes strain and tension in the muscles in the middle part of your back. Try to practice sitting or standing up tall with your shoulders back and your head directly over your shoulders.
2. Cat/Camel Exercise – Get on all fours and push your midback up towards the ceiling and then let it sink down towards the floor as far as you can while keeping your arms straight. Do 3 sets of 10-15 reps, 2-3 times per day.
3. Foam Roller – This is a great tool to mobilize the midback! Lay on the foam roller so it is positioned in the middle of you back.  The foam roller should be perpendicular to your body and long enough to extend out past your sides.  With your knees bent, slowly use your legs to roll your body over the foam roller.  Make sure you only use this in the middle part of your spine and not into the neck and lower back.

3 Ways We Help Treat Mid-Back Pain

1. Adjustments – At Optimal Wellness in Wichita, we look to treat the cause of your mid-back pain by correcting the misalignments in the bones of the spine and their connections with the ribs. Chiropractic adjustments correct the misalignments that are causing pressure on the nerves leading to pain, tension, stiffness and even radiating pain around the ribs.
2. Intersegmental Traction – We use roller table to help mobilize the spine and to help add extension in your mid-back. Extension is something most of us need due to prolonged sitting in a flexed forward position.
3. Posture Rehab – Our trainer works with our patients to stretch and lengthen tight muscles caused by poor posture and to strengthen the weak muscles that support good posture. Poor posture is one of the main reasons for mid-back pain so it’s imperative that we address it.

If you or someone you know is dealing with mid-back pain or if you have additional questions please give us a call at Optimal Wellness in Wichita at 316-425-1911 to see how we can help.