Question
Hi Mr.Gold I am 16 years old and for the past 2 years I have had constant back pain, at times it can get very difficult to sit and stand up.
I have been to a physio about this who gave me some exercise and have been told to work on my posture, I do this but despite that I still get it and is starting to effect my breathing.

Its been checked just once and I was told it was to do with posture but it isn't getting better at all, keeping my back straight seems to hurt even more if anything,
I get this constantly and sometimes every day for a week or more. I cannot sit down and bend for too long as this triggers the pain and so does standing up for too long.

I am not really sure what to do, it hurts in different places each time, its always constant towards my shoulder blades and lower right hand side of my back and today its the whole of the middle all the way to the top as usual.

I'm hoping you can help me out here as I don't know what it is or what to do anymore.

Thank you in advance,
Aly

Answer

Hanna Somatic Educatio Hi, Aly,

The pattern of back pain you describe fits a typical reflex pattern of stress and it comes from tight muscles.  It's muscle fatigue.

I've done some write-ups that explain more and what you can do.

http://somatics.com/back_pain.htm
http://somatics.com/chronic_back_pain.htm

In brief, you can do certain slow-motion movements that free you from the grip of those muscle tensions (without stretching or strengthening, which don't work that well).

One of the write-ups has a link to get the exercise by download. See the bottom of How to Self-Relieve Low Back Pain.  It's different from the usual physio exercises.

regard,
Lawrence Gold