Nope, not going there, not a good idea.
I've been hesitant to share this with a potentially indefinite audience, because I'm still feeling a little ambivalent about this thing myself. But your back is important and you have to take good care of it. Back muscles are one of the fastest muscle group to grow, but still many people fatefully neglect their backs.
Why am I so concerned with this?
When I was nine years old, I broke my T5. That's the fifth vertebra in the thoracic spine.
I was on bed rest for four weeks, causing the muscles in my legs to deteriorate to the point where I had to learn walking again. The memory was there, but the muscles weren't. It was a scary experience that I wish on nobody, because well, as a toddler you don't get the process, it's nothing you do consciously. Plus, the floor is closer if you fall. But that's a whole other story. Fact is, when I was walking again and living life like nothing happened, I had passed this one on to the closed files. It was something that had happened to me a long time ago and sometimes in "what if..."scenarios I'd realise just how lucky I had been.
Fast forward ten years. The edge of my left trapezius muscle starts getting stiff on some days. Whenever I move my shoulder blade in an up and down motion, it makes an ugly sound. It's only the left one, though.
Another few years. I start working out. It's more often than not these days that my shoulder blade catches on the edge of my trapezius and my upper back is tense most of the time. Working out releases some of the tension. Sometimes when the tension lessens, I get aural migraines and have to puke from the pain. Probably just bad posture. Still only the left side.
Another few years later. I start MMA. I'm a leftie. The catching of the shoulder blade on the edge of the muscle, the reduced movement radius and the pain make things a little harder, but not unbearable. It works okay. Not well, but okay. Some days now, my right side starts to show symptoms, too. I've been having this for so long, it can't be that bad.
Summer 2014. Made a strange move with my head when I tried looking over my right shoulder. Can't move without pain. Have to sit down. Go to work where my boss asks me why I'm so pale. Tell her I'm not feeling well. Am sick to my stomach from the pain. After a few hours I cannot sit anymore because it hurts. Decide to stand up. Cannot support the weight of my own head with the muscles in my neck because it hurts so bad. Sit down again. Start crying when the pain comes rushing in in waves. My boss tells me to go to the doctor. Now. Like: NOW! Cannot get up. My boss sends someone to buy pain meds. After I took two 400 Ibuprofens I am able to make it to the doctor's office. Which was about 500m from my workplace.
The doctor looks at me. Sits behind her desk and looks at me. Asks me where it hurts. Asks me to turn my head. Cannot physically turn my head. Pain. She says I should probably stretch more, go get a massage when everything's a little better. I don't tell her that I do yoga and go see a sports masseuse every other week. I would have probably shown these symptoms earlier if not. She prescribes me muscle relaxants and strong pain meds. As I get up to leave she asks me what I do for a living. If I needed sick leave. I considered it for a moment, then said no. I was part-time cleaning and part-time doing office/human resources work for the same company. I wanted to believe her, when she said, all I needed to do was stretch more. But. It didn't really help.
The residual pain got stronger. I've never hat acute pain like that after this incident, but my upper back hurt. Every. Single. Day.
A couple of months ago I realised I was eating pain meds like other people eat candy. I thought about going to the doctor again. Decided against it and stretched more.
Then, one day, the feeling in my left hand left partly. There was a tingling sensation where I still felt something. I called my boss and asked her to see our work physiotherapist. And Wednesday I went. I finally got to go. She was nice. Asked lots of questions. Told me if she did not know I was in pain, she would have never seen anything. My posture is better than average and outwardly there's not much to see. Then she bend and shaped me a little. Tried the flexibility of my muscles, limbs, how my arms move, everything.
Finally she said: "There's a slight disturbance somewhere around your C5. And your spine from there down to T5 is really rigid. I believe that this stems from the same trauma that caused the breaking of your T5, but because everybody was focused on the broken vertebra, they might have easily overlooked any trauma in the soft tissue surrounding your spine."
So there it was. My ghost had come back to haunt me again. And it had brought friends.
It is a strange feeling when you've been dealing with something a long time ago and have actually found closure, just to find out that nothing is as easy as it seems. I got some spine mobility exercises from my physiotherapist and now - only one and a half day later - I am pain-free for the first time in ages!
I have to do an exercise similar to this, just a little higher. This mobilises the thoracic spine, if you put the resistance across your shoulder blades, and bend your head back in a half-circle, you mobilise your cervical spine.
There are two things I am feeling right now:
1: relief. Constant pain is something you learn to live with, but you are always kind of strung out, weary, there's always this voice in the back of your head: "It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. Acknowledge the pain." You only realise that when you're pain-free. It's like Bucky Barnes once said: "Worse off became the new normal", but that doesn't mean that worse off is good.
2: anger, frustration at myself for not seeking help years earlier. For letting it come so far.
So, take good care of your back. Keep old injuries in mind whenever there are symptoms close to them. Go to the doctor on time. Here are some great exercises for spine mobility:
Utthita Trikonasana expands your chest and shoulders, increases neck mobility and stretches your spinal muscles. Plus many other things.
And this is one of my favourite exercises to help thoracic mobility.
And here's kind of a cheat sheet for quick spinal mobility exercises and better posture.
I hope you got a little bit out of my experience and maybe a little inspiration to give your back a little love <3
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