Back (Trapezius) Pain/Injury

[harpua728]

Hi there,

I've had some lingering pain in my back for a while now and am curious if anyone here has gone through something similar.

Back in April, in the middle of a quick range session before a round, a felt a pretty sharp pain in the back of my neck immediately after hitting a shot. Pain was basically on both sides of the spine/vertebrae, where the back of your shirt collar would hit your neck. I should have just called it a day then, but I decided to hit more balls and play a full 18 holes. I surprisingly played well, but was definitely in a decent amount of pain/stiffness during the round, and could barely move my neck while driving home from the course. Over the next few days I was very sore and tight in that general area and within a few days the pain seemed to centralize around a spot that was about 1 or 2 inches below the back of my shirt collar.

The pain lingered for a bit, and continued to 'move down' until ultimately settling further down the trapezius in line with the bottom of by shoulder blades, between the shoulder blade and the spine on my left side (I'm a righty). Fast foward to almost 8 months, and there's still a soreness and dull pain in that spot. Sometimes it goes away for a few days, but then immediately comes back after playing golf (or wrestling around with the kids!).

In order to get a definitive answer as to what's going on, I'll likely need to do the run around with various doctors and get an x-ray, mri, etc. I felt no urgent need to do so because it just seemed like a strain or pull that would heal on it's own, plus, I didn't want a doctor to recommend I stop golfing for a few months mid-summer.

I'm just curious if anyone out there has gone through something similar to this and can share your experience.

Thanks.

[Vintage1976]

I did have something similar a few years ago. A sharp pain developed very rapidly at about the same location you are describing, just below my collar line, but mine was located on the left side only. I went from feeling just fine warming up before a round one day to dull aching during that round and then a distinct stabbing/throbbing afterward. I had to stop playing for a while, and time helped it some but by the end of another round I was always hurting again. Eventually the pain and numbness were accompanied by some temporary atrophy of my left arm which scarred me enough to do something about it.

 

Long story shorter, MRI's revealed that I have some bone spurs on my upper vertebrae and the repeated exercise of swinging a club had irritated the nerves near them. I also found out that it's not that uncommon to have them but often they just don't irritate you so you don't notice them at all.

 

I did some specific targeted physical therapy for a short time with a back and neck specialist, and eventually just committed to improving my health and strength overall which has completely eliminated those particular ailments for me, at least for the last 3 years or so.

 

Good luck to you harpua!

[Socrates]

Backs and necks are funny and complicated. This summer I "suddenly" got a stiff neck followed by pain in my neck and I flinched when I swung. Went for a massage thinking I had strained something. Made it worse. After the next rounds of golf I couldn't get in to see my physio and went to my chiropractor still thinking it was a strain. Made an adjustment to my spine between my shoulder blades and the pain was gone. One more visit after that to make sure it was still in place and everything that had been aggravated had calmed down and I was good to go.

Not saying this is what ails you, but sometimes it's not the obvious that is causing the problem.

[Rosco1216]

A strain or pull(musculature) should only linger around for few days or maybe a week. Could be longer if it’s under a constant stressor. I’d first go for an adjustment through a chiropractor and also a massage therapist. If it’s minor tissue or muscular stress that should alleviate it.

If it doesn’t then you should look at an MRI.

[andrue]

I did something like that many years ago. I reached across a desk at work to pick up a heavy book. It took over a year for the painful spot under my right shoulder blade to go away. I tried sports massage, stretching and Voltarol.

[cardoustie]

make sure you get a MRI to rule out disk issues

[golftrition]

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Edited March 17, 2022 by golftrition
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[RichieHunt]

I had the same issue and started going to a chiropractor and got it resolved. For me, I have issues with rib-outs (ribs getting dislocated) and over time it started to affect my trapezius muscle and then it went to my lower back. I also had and issue with my right leg being longer than my left leg.

 

Obviously, there could be some bigger issues that a chiropractor cannot fix. But based on my experience, I would give the chiropractor a chance first and if it doesn't improve go see an MRI. There's just countless little things that could be misaligned that can cause pain in another region over time.

 

 

 

 

RH

[MK7Golf21]

I’ve had pain between shoulder blade on left side from lifting and golfing a lot. I got MRIs etc and nothing. My biggest problem with it was that it was preventing me from doing deadlifts.

Richie has good advice. Generally these types of internal issues don’t go away on their own, need to be worked out with rolling, stretching, lifting etc over a lengthy period of time. Going to chiropractor could help as well which I should probably do some time.

For me, the best thing I’ve found is rolling and stretching the area in between my lifting sets for back muscles. I do rolling on the muscles between each set that targets the muscle.

[Paddy_2_Iron]

I struggled with this in everyday life for 20 year, in fact quit golf for 9 years just got back to playing in 19.

Most of the time from my research (A LOT as you could imagine dealing with pain for 20 years, 8 of which I couldn't turn my neck hardly) is some sort of trauma. Car accident etc..... Finally went from a classic chiro, palmer technique to a upper cervical finally to an orthogal chiro, who used sound waves to push the atlas back in place. Made all the difference in the world.

PM if you want more details. Really changed my life.

[BirdieDoc]

Likely not a disk issue due to it being bilateral at first. Likely trap as you described as well as rhomboid and bursa pain. The best thing for you is stretching and foam rolling the back. I'm more of a fan of a lacrosse ball on a wall and rolling your back out first since there is not too much pressure. I use the door frame at work when my acts up ?.

Chiro would be a good start and then just Google scapular exercises. Can't evaluate you but so much of this game is scapular motion it would be a good idea to incorporate it into your game.