Question
Hi,

I have been a competitive female boxer for about 5 years. I am now 25 years old.

I am fairly strong compared to most women my size but despite doing some weight training for back strength my chest muscles are probably much stronger.

I train two hours 6 nights a week in the boxing gym holding a stance with my elbows in, hands touching my temples and chin down. I spend a lot of time doing push-ups and while boxing I use the same muscles. My shoulders slope foreward. My back muscles are often sore to touch, tight and feel restrictive when I try to extend my arm to full stretch.

For about 8 months now i have been feeling upper back discomfort. I often 'click' my own back into place by straightening up and pushing my shoulders back. It will then feel better temporarily for about 10 minutes and then I need to do it again. Sometimes I do it by bending back over a chair with my hands behind my head. Sometimes I reach up to hold the top of a door frame (which is full stretch for me because I'm short) and push my chest foreward.

I have seen a chiropractor a couple of times who doesn't inspire my confidence much. He is gentler on my back than am and I feel his treatments don't achieve any improvement. He spends most of his time cracking my neck which has no pain at all. I know that pain is often deffered but since I hear audible cracks when I adjust my own back I tend to believe the problem is there.

Do I simply have muscles which are unequally developed and require a killer back weight training program or could there be more to it? Should I be seeing a chiropractor or just getting lots of massage to loosen up my back muscles.

What do you suggest?

Thanks,
Sharla

Answer
It is funny that you seem to have aswered most of your own questions, but let me reiterate.

Tension in one area is often resultant from overtightening in the opposite i.e. the chest muscles pull the upper traps and back.  You do need to stretch the pecs, but you need to do so in two angles: straight out at 90 degrees and up at 45 degress to hit the pec minor.  Do this in 2 second increments.  You probably also need to strengthen the back---rows will do this nicely. I highly recommend precisiontraining.com for their method---which will get good results fast.

As far as your chiropractor is concerned, you are probably seeing the wrong guy for you.  I hate to knock any doc out there, but we are not made the same, and sometimes its just the wrong guy.  I have often referred patients to other chiropractors that did much the same thing that I would have, but it worked better for the patient.  Sometimes their technique is different: there are over 200 systems of chiropractic out there. The mistake that people make is that they try chiropractic, but not chiropractors, and if one guy does not work, they don't ever try someone else.  Please don't make this mistake.  Find someone who does inspire your confidence.  The guy you are with may be good for one of your friends, but just not for you.  As far as massage goes, it works best in conjuction with chiropractic and I would advise that you do both.

Concerning your neck--it also sounds like your chiropractor did not explain himself well.  We do not adjust where the pain is, we adjust where the subluxation is.  Sometimes it is the same, often it is not.  When you 'crack' your back, it feels good for a few minutes because it releases endorphins, but it does not fix the problem, it just moves everything that can move now.  The chiropractor does not indiscriminately adjust anything, but rather looks for the places of fixation and releases those places.  It too should feel good, but for much longer.  If it does not hold, he needs to find out why.

Also, several studies have shown that chiropractic can seriously advance your game---ask Evander Holyfield.

Good luck,

Dr. P