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Upper back pain
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That’s also called Eagle Pose in Yoga. The website instructs you to raise your arms in that position, but I would also add bringing them back down while drawing your shoulders down & engaging the lats. It’s a great stretch.
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Thanks for the link! I went to the ostheopethe yesterday, he did some pretty heavy massages, it really hurt, I'm not sure that I'm feeling that much better today but I'll try to rest a bit and hopefully the pain will go soon.
I love stretching so I'm definetly adding this one to my routine!
Thanks again!
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I have been having similar upper back pain, but I only assumed it was nothing to worry about and kept going – it's been hurting on and off for about 3 months now, but I can't afford physio or anything like that! It only just occurs to me now, reading your posts, that the pain started when I was doing this same inverted V! I do not recall any specific back positioning instructions in my class either, my focus was just on getting into the move and holding it!
It is very frustrating – if you touch the vertebra bump on my spine it feels like I am being punched there, instead of gently touched! Now it hurts (on and off) when I pull my shoulders back and down (as I should be doing), and it flares up after inverts!!
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You need to REST Ekinkah! Sounds like you were not strong enough to be doing inverted Vs yet. I have some great lessons for strengthening if you interested. They include proper positioning for your shoulders to help prevent issues like this. Feel better soon.
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Oh one more thing….be careful of squeezing the shoulder blades TOO much, this is a common mistake!! You want the shoulders in an engaged position, but if you are over doing the squeezing you can also cause problems!!! https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_sad.gif
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That would explain the pain I get sometimes when I squeeze them back! =D Thanks for the tip! I will get straight onto those strengthening lessons. So glad I signed up!
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Ekinkah or anyone else https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_flower.gif Here is the lesson that will really help you get a feel for neutral Scapula which is what you want when you invert. https://www.studioveena.com/lessons/view/0225276c-b90a-11df-856f-001b214581be
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I too have suffered from this injury.
It's definately a problem that pole teachers need to be aware of, because the studio where I injured myself only had inexperienced teachers who were 'natural' at pole techniques, ie, they already had good upper body strength, but no awareness of their bodies. I was brushed off when I told them about the problem.
Since, I have talked to a lot of women, and it is a very common problem, basically due to a lack of upper body strength and inverting too early. I inverted 'too early' because I am fit and strong-looking and advanced quickly in other pole techniques.But because I am tall and have narrow shoulders, they were too weak to safely invert.
I got treatment from a physiotheropist for it, and rather than stretching it which aggravated the symtoms, we worked on strenthening the area – through arm weight exercises, and most importantly, getting those muscles between the lower shoulder blades and spine to actually do some work by pulling back and holding the entire shouder blade using them (and trying not to use the shoulder itself.)!
To begin with I could not even 'twitch' these muscles, but now after months of practise isolating them, they are nice and strong and the pinching pain has gone.
To reiterate, for me it wasn't about resting the injury, it was about exercising and strenthening it correctly while continuing to pole.
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The other thing that I found really helpfull while working on strengthing my upper back, was to start inverting on my left side as well. (You need to start carefully with this, using the correct engagement of your shoulders otherwise the same thing will happen on this side as well.)
Now I invert equally on each side every class. It not only strenthens your body evenly, but it gives your sore side a rest from inverting over and over!
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It's great to read this,
It's not until you read things like this that you realise you are not the only one! My back was strong enough to cope with the forces put on it while doing the inverted V but I am now suffering the same type of pain while trying to do the pole split. Because I am not able to do the splits I am so far away from the pole to hang on that it is really over extending my upper back. Sounds like the same type of problem that many are having. However, mine is so much about flexibilty -it bugs me that although I do lots of stretching I just seem to maintain the status quo rather than make any gains on my splits. No doubt there is a thread on here about this…I had better search!
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I just had to add that although strengthening exercises are vital to recover from any back injury, it is very important that we stay away from doing the move that caused the problem in the first place, at least until the pain has gone away.
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