Upper Back Pain and the Four Arm Lines

Upper Back, Trapezius Pain, and Shoulder Pain can all be treated with laser therapy, but you have to start with the arms, which you will see quite easily from the fascial images. Pain often comes from sources other than directly where you hurt. People are surprised when I find not only where they hurt, but several other areas that are just as sore, if not more so. Even though these other areas do not cause problems in day-to-day life, they can often be the true source of the problem. These other spots are just tight and dysfunctional areas, meaning they do not feel normal when you push on them.

Here are two of the arm lines. Notice how they feed into the upper back and shoulder muscles. After years of trying to loosen the upper back directly, I have found it much more important to work the arms first to take tension off the upper back and shoulder muscles. There’s no way for me to prove this to you. It must be experienced.

I often work on people’s triceps with the laser and, within 10 to 20 minutes, have them get off the table and, while standing, test their neck. Most of the time, they are stunned by how much more they can tilt their head opposite the side of the triceps that was treated. For example, if I treat their right triceps, they can tilt their head farther to the left afterward because the right side of their neck has been loosened. 

Trapezius and deltoid problems can be worked directly. Still, if the lateral intermuscular septum (the small cord of fascia running down the outside of the upper arm) is stuck and rigid, good luck getting the trapezius or deltoid to relax.

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1: Trapezius
2: Deltoid
3: Lateral Intermuscular Septum
4: Forearm Extensors

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5: Levator Scapula
6: Rhomboid Minor
7: Rhomboid Major
8: Supraspinatous
9: Infraspinatous
10: Teres Minor
11: Triceps

Here are the other two arm lines; although they don’t go directly to the upper back like the prior two lines, they are very important.

If you have rounded shoulders that you have to work to pull back, these two lines are most likely your problem. But very few people ever hurt here, so these areas get missed all the time. The rolled-forward shoulders change a lot when I work the biceps, which takes tension off the upper back muscles.

Also notice #2 Latissimus Dorsi in the first picture. It can barely be seen, but this muscle goes all the way down the spine into the lower back and can actually be a source of lower back pain. I often can treat the triceps and the medial intermuscular septum together when a person is face down, and I’m lasering their upper arm.

Notice #1 Pectoralis Minor in the second picture. This muscle, along with the biceps, is heavily involved with shoulder pain, but again, it doesn’t usually hurt, so it rarely receives treatment.

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1: Pectoralis Major
2: Latissimus Dorsi
3: Medial Intermuscular Septum
4: Forearm Flexors

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1: Pectoralis Minor
2: Biceps
3: Pronator Teres
4: Fascial along outside of Radius Bone

It is really fun to show people these connections. It's one thing for me to explain this to them, and they say, "That makes sense!" It's a whole other thing for them to experience it and then say, "Wow, that really does make sense!" Granted, I don't come close to loosening everything in 10 to 20 minutes, but they get the idea pretty quickly.