I have nagging pain in my right upper back area, where the scapula is. I feel like my scapula is digging into my back on the right side. I can't do pulling movements because it will start to hurt. Also when this started I began having a lot of neck tension leaning left or right. What I have done so far is warm up with bands doing rows and also icing it, that's about it. I am not sure what's causing it, but it's annoying.
I used to get the same type of pain. It was right along the inside vertical edge of my left scapula, ( AKA "shoulder blade"). It would sometimes last for months and the pain was often accompanied by neck pain on the same side. One day I decided to go to a chiropractor for this nagging problem...
When he had me face down on the chiropractic table, he began digging his finger tips real hard into that area of my back between my upper spine and the inside edge of my left shoulder blade, ( in the Trapezius muscle which as I'm sure that you know is shaped like a kite) and he stopped and squeezed a small chunk of flesh between his thumb and index finger. I was wondering what the heck the guy was doing, and then he said to me: "Do you feel that?" as he held a marble sized round chunk of flesh between his thumb and index finger, (which was actually a piece of my Trapezius muscle)...
.... I said..."yeah I feel that...what is that?".... He said..."That's a muscle spasm"..."one that you've probably had for a long time".."It has knotted up your muscle like a small tight marble.".....he continued to squeeze it and then he began to massage it very hard as if though he was kneeding a clump of dough with his finger tips.
What he did that day began the healing process, but it made me aware of how much pain a muscle spasm can cause, and how long a muscle spasm can last for, (months in some cases). Since then, I've done the following several things to prevent that from occuring again, and I've been successful in avoiding it...
#1. I developed a specific stretch for the Trapezius muscle which I usually perform daily: in a standing position, I bring my elbows together as close as i can get them to touch each other, with my arms bent in a 90 degree angle with my palms facing my forehead, ( kind of like being in the Mohaamad Ali "Rope-A-dope" position).. I do this while also looking downward with my chin tucked into my chest and I hold it there for 30 seconds while breathing normally and in a relaxed manner. If you think of the Trapezius muscle as a four pointed kite shaped piece of meat, which by the way runs in between your shoulder blades and attaches at the top point to the bottom of your neck, you will understand how this stretch movement that I perform can and does expand and spread out this muscle in all directions simultaneously.
Performing this stretch on a daily basis will help to prevent any portion of the trapezius muscle from knotting up into a muscle spasm, as well as help to flatten out and relax any existing spasms that you might currently have in that muscle.
#2. I perform bent over barbell rows which have also helped to keep my trapezius muscle healthy, while at the same time, I have eliminated dumbell shoulder shrugs which I used to do, and which seemed to worsen the condition.
#3. With a narrow grip, ( about shoulder width) I hang from a chin-up bar with my arms straight and my elbows locked out for atleast ten seconds, twice per week, using my own body weight to stretch and spread out out my upper vertibrae. I do not hold my breath while doing this. I breath normally, and I often hear some cracking going on in my upper spinal area while I hang from the bar, and it actually feels good both during and after. I've been doing these three things for a year now, and I've never had a re-occurrence of that pain between my shoulder blades since the second week in.
