Back Strengthening Excercises?

[mle_ii]

I'll start out with my problem and perhaps someone can chime in.

I have an injury that keeps coming back. It all started with an overhead shoulder press gone bad. Perhaps it'll be an education for those who are starting out.

I had been lifting for some time and was lifting heavier and heavier. Well one day when I was doing Shoulders I was doing my overhead press with dumbbells. I couldn't find a good bench that had the solid back support so I used one that was adjustable and moved it as straight up as it would go. I start pressing and in the middle of one press up the bench turned to the side and whamo, I pulled/strained a muscle in my back right between my vertebrae and my right shoulder blade.

Ever since then it reoccurs. What's strange is it only starts getting pain after something simple like sleeping in bed, or picking up my daughter. Though they might not be the cause it never really seems to happen when I am lifting.

Anyway to end the story :) I'm looking for some back exercises. Some that are for the major muscles and some that might be for the minor muscles around the area of injury.

Any ideas? I have some exercises, but I'm not going to mention them as to elicit the most response.

Perhaps am I missing some nutrient or supplement? Not doing the right stretches?

The doctors never seem to be helpful; they only fix the symptoms and never find the problem. :( I've gone to my regular Dr., a Physical Therapist, and a Chiropractor as a last resort.

Thanks,
Mike

[mle_ii]

Forgot to add, that I work on a computer all day so my shoulders turn in. I'm trying to work on my posture. Perhaps an excercise to help pull my shoulders back might help.

[adukart]

I can totally relate to the desk job bad posture thing. Hope somebody has some good ideas for this that I can steal.

[mle_ii]

Built, TrainerDan, MPS? I know you guys must have some feedback. :)

[Built]

I can't address the injury in particular, but the desk job, ahhh...yes. I have to fight the forward slump from that.

I do a LOT of rear-delt and upper back work. Face pulls, assisted chinups (mostly lats, but still hits the upper), shrugs, drop sets of various versions of bent-over rows, whatever I can manage that hits this area.

I've backed off chest work a LOT, because it was pulling me forward, and I'm trying to pull everything BACK. I also deliberately correct my posture through the day.

Sorry you're going through this. I got sports medicine to help me out after my injuries (broken right collarbone, broken right shoulder, broken left arm...). Have you spoken to a doctor? The sports med docs are really great where I am in Canada.

[mle_ii]

Thanks built.

I think you're right about the upper back and rear delts. Never heard of face pulls, I'll have to look that up.

Perhaps that might be my problem, not that my chest is strong, but perhaps it's stronger than my back and putting a strain on my back.

I'm constantly tring to correct my posture throughout the day. I'm so used to curling my shoulders inward and slumping forward that it doesn't feel natural to be up straight. :(

"... broken right collarbone, broken right shoulder, broken left arm...)."
Ouch, I can't imagine having to go through that. In fact the only 2 times I've been in the hostpital and stayed is when I was born and when my daughter was born. *Knock on wood*

Perhaps I'll give my new Dr a chance, got rid of my old one cause she kept fixing the symptoms of things instead of finding the problem. I went into a sports dr or phys therapist for a shoulder injury once and they gave me some special excercises that helpt a lot.

One where I would lean on my left side on a bench, with a weight in my right arm, upper arm stationary at side and lower arm perpendicular to my body, I would raise my arm up as high as I could and then lower it. Helps to strengthen some of the internal support muscles of my shoulder.

[Built]

Another one they gave me to do was a sort-of a slow push-up against a wall, with a weird humped-up back stretch in the middle.

The fun one was lying on my back with a 2.5 pound plate in my hand spelling out the alphabet in the sky. Gets the little stabilizing muscles.

And yes, I'm accident prone. The collarbone was on my RD-350 about a hundred years ago, in my youth, and the shoulder and arm were in a bicycle accident in '95.

[LucyLucy]

Hi MLE, greeting from another Seatte-ite.

I don't have a back problem per se, but sounds like you need a lot more flexibility, once the muscle is flexible, it's less likely to pull.

I stand on a weight bench with lighter-than-normal weights (8lbs), I slowly bend over and stretch as far as I can past my feet and hang there, using the weights to hold you down, this stretches the back and shoulder area.

Until you heal, you should probably decrease the weight a bit too. I also lay down on the bench with one 8lb weight and go over my head off the back of the bench, so it's hanging down, if you use too heavy a weight you'll injure yourself, if you use a light weight, you'll stretch the muscle.

I too sit in front of a computer, but get up frequently and do arm stretches, sometimes if I don't catch myself, I start out standing straight & end up all hunched over................

Hope you heal up quick!

LL :)

[LisaS]

if you suspect that your chest is stronger than your back, your rotator cuff might be in danger of injury - so do a search on "rotator cuff exercise" in google - there are 5-7 standard exercises to strengthen (or pre-hab) these muscles before you get an injury.

back exercises:
In Kinesiology_of_exercise, Dr. Yessis says:
"Most sports and occupations require working with the arms in front of the body. In time, this causes round shoulders and in some cases the appearance of a sunken chest. To counteract this tendency and to improve posture at the same time, the lateral prone raise in strict form, also known as the reverse fly, should be done" (pg. 117). He goes on to explain that this is most effective with a straight arm (though less weight can be used), and that the key is how high the arm/elbow gets. Using heavy weights forces you to bend the elbow and this changes the joint angles. He likes to use a high narrow bench so when you lie your arms can start off hanging straight with the DBs clear of the floor. He considers this an isolation exercise companion to compound movements like T-bar rows (chest-supported, neutral grip) and bent-over rows (pronated grip, elbows out). So one would include both/all in a back strenthening program.
This is sort of a picture - but he means w/out incline on a flat bench
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/exercises.php?Name=Reverse+Flyes

[Built]

This is sort of a picture - but he means w/out incline on a flat bench
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/2002/reverseflyes1s.jpghttp://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/2002/reverseflyes2s.jpg

Oh, yeah. Those are LOTS of fun for us ladies, hey? http://www.femininemuscle.com/phpBB2/images/smiles/boobs.jpg:p :lol:

They need to make a bench with cutouts. Grumble, grumble...

[LisaS]

other great exercise for the back (but probably not an injured one) is OverHead Squats (or OHS). It takes awhile to build the flexibilty to do these right and with any more weight than a broomstick - but when learning, even holding/stretching an exer. band or strap instead of a bar teaches you to have a tight torso when supporting the weight.
Here is Dan John's excellent article on OHS:
http://danjohn.org/overhead.html
and here is Krista's description of the lift:
http://www.stumptuous.com/badsquat.html#ohsquat

[Built]

Cool - thanks!

[LisaS]

Oh, yeah. Those are LOTS of fun for us ladies, hey? [..
hehe - have you ever tried to learn a golf swing with a chest? "I'm sorry - my arms just don't swing clearly in front like yours Mr. Instructor <G> "

[Built]

Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

[mps]

I injured my shoulder and it didn't heal for about a year. The interior of my left shoulder (the joint) became inflamed and I didn't cut back on lifts that were hurting it until it hurt so bad that I HAD to let it heal. A doctor gave me a cortizone injection to reduce the inflamation, but this is not a cure... it just relieves the symptoms.
My suggestion is to not do anything that hurts it until it is healed. Work around the injury, find movements that do not further aggrevate it. Be sure to use perfect form and some light weights when working the area to maintain your range of motion. If it is a muscle pull, it will heal, but you'll have to give it time. In my case it took a lot of time.

Good luck!

[mle_ii]

Wow! Thanks for all of the great info Lucy, Lisa, Built and MPS.