Strained mid back/lower lat muscle

[mikez]

A couple of weeks ago I came out of the shower and my back was really stiff. I used a hot pack to try and loosen the back muscles, it didn't help. The pain is in my lower left lat muscle and radiates around to my rib cage. The pain is their constantly, standing, sitting laying doesn't matter. What I really struggle with is sitting, this is where the pain is most severe. Went to my family doctor, he said my back is aligned and it seems like a muscle strain. Gave me some muscle relaxers and sent me off. The muscle relaxers don't seem to help. My wife has been rubbing the painful area and mentioned there was a tennis ball size knot at the lower lat muscle. Over the last few days the knot is gone but the pain remains. I've been trying hot/cold packs which relieves the pain while applying, but once the cold/hot pack is removed, the pain is back. Any thoughts or maybe comments of what I could try.

[Heidi]

Hi
This just came on out of the blue? No incident you can remember in the few days laeding up to it? No change in activity levels or sports etc?

I would advise you to visit a sports injury professioanl for a thorough assessment. Whilst many Doctors are very good, they are not specialists in this area. An assessment to make sure there are no structural problems and then presuming all is well, probably some deep tissue massage and exercises to loosen the muscle will help.

[mikez]

Thanks for the info. I'm a regular at the gym, not a heavy lifter by any means but I do push myself at times. Not sure if I exerted my muscle over time and it decided to lock up in this particular instance. What happened directly before the muscle tightening was I took my kids to the pool and stayed in the kids end with my youngest, didn't do any laps or aggressive swimming. I took a hot shower after the pool and that's when it tightened up.

I'll go a step further, I went to a sports specialist for a partial bicep tendon tear a few days after my back tightened up. He look at my spine and said I was out of alignment. A chiropractor at the office aligned my back but no change with the pain. I guess I go back to the sports specialist and have him look at the muscle.

[mortirius]

Do you still have the pain? I have had the same exact pain for about 3 years. I just started going to the chiro, msg therapist and accu, plus adding ice for 10-15 min once a week. My pain is still there but not as bad at it used to be.