Upper Back Pain

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DirtyCrabcakes

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I started BJJ classes about 2 weeks ago, going twice a week. Ever since my last class (on Thursday) I have started to experience a weird pain in the center of my upper back. When I lower my head to my chest, I feel slight pain. When I do jumping jacks, I feel pain. I have lifted weights twice since my last class and have been able to do deadlifts, romanian deads, good mornings, reverse incline crunches, chin ups, military press, dumbell bench press, rows, etc. with little-to-no pain.

I know the first response is "go to a doctor," however I was recently diagnosed with arthritis in my back, but with an overall healthy spine (the doctor said everything looks great, and I will likely never need any type of back surgery in my lifetime).

Has anyone experienced a similar type of pain? Does this sound like an injury or just soreness?
 
With jiu jitsu, you will always feel pain and be sore from something. Only the longer you practice the less you notice injuries, you kinda just expect them and know they're there.

If you pinched a nerve, however, you need to go to a massage therapist and get them to help relieve the pain.
 
You'll always feel a little stiff after class in the beginning, and sometimes a few days afterwards. To me, it's like weightlifting. Unless you have a few days off, you're going to feel sore, but you get a lot better with dealing with the discomfort with time. You're probably not used to getting stacked. It takes a little while to develop that flexibility; it took me about 2 months to not feel totally destroyed after class.
 
DirtyCrabcakes said:
I started BJJ classes about 2 weeks ago, going twice a week. Ever since my last class (on Thursday) I have started to experience a weird pain in the center of my upper back. When I lower my head to my chest, I feel slight pain. When I do jumping jacks, I feel pain. I have lifted weights twice since my last class and have been able to do deadlifts, romanian deads, good mornings, reverse incline crunches, chin ups, military press, dumbell bench press, rows, etc. with little-to-no pain.

I know the first response is "go to a doctor," however I was recently diagnosed with arthritis in my back, but with an overall healthy spine (the doctor said everything looks great, and I will likely never need any type of back surgery in my lifetime).

Has anyone experienced a similar type of pain? Does this sound like an injury or just soreness?
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This is totally normal m8 , you use muscles and make movements that you never used before. People puthing alot of pressure on your body , you just have to get used to it.
 
even the worst 'tweaks' seem to go away after a while, always try training through things for several months before complaining.
 
Pinched nerve sounds right to me. I get it somewhat frequently. A few days of rest or even just light training and start to feel better. At least in my experience
 
This pain doesn't feel like normal muscle soreness, which I am quite accustomed to. I think it is the pinched nerve. If my head explodes or falls of at class tonight, I will know I was wrong. :icon_chee
 
DirtyCrabcakes said:
This pain doesn't feel like normal muscle soreness, which I am quite accustomed to. I think it is the pinched nerve. If my head explodes or falls of at class tonight, I will know I was wrong. :icon_chee
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I seriously doubt it's a pinched nerve. a pinched nerve is a very serious ailment. you probably wouldn't be able to lift any weight without being in extreme pain. It's just a muscle strain most likely. you're now using muscles that you have never worked before. eventually you will adapt. try icing it and using an anti imflammatory like ibuprofen or Motrin
 
if it was a pinched nerve , the pain would be pretty horrible.

I have the same problem as you , when i touch my chest with my chin it's has a feeling like a rubber band pulling.

I just live with it , when i warm up i don't have any problems.
 
I had a pinched nerve a few months after I started, and I was out of commissions for 6-weeks. My mistake was that I trained too intense to begin with, and did not allow my body to get progressively used to rolling.

I doubt very much you have a pinched nerve; if you had one, weight training would be impossible, as would simple things like laying on your back. However, you need to be sure that your soreness is nothing more than normal "aches and pains." Remember to go slow, particularly as you're new to BJJ.
 
Is the pain in the upper back, but to one side or the other? I've had a muscle strain on the area between the shoulder blade and spine 5-6 times now over the last 10 years from kickboxing and grappling. The pain and discomfort travel up my neck so that looking down (like you said) is painful, as is turning my head to the side. Can make getting in and out of the car a pain in the neck (lol!) as is making blind-spot checks.

The longest it ever stuck around for was about a month and I would usually take a week or two off before trying anything again. I now warm up my neck thoroughly which seems to help.
 
I've had similar pain. For me, it was a combo of muscular imbalance between my weak upper back and chest with a strain of my rear neck muscles. Haven't had since I did a lot of work stretching and getting my upper back/rear shoulders stronger.
 
DirtyCrabcakes said:
I started BJJ classes about 2 weeks ago, going twice a week. Ever since my last class (on Thursday) I have started to experience a weird pain in the center of my upper back. When I lower my head to my chest, I feel slight pain. When I do jumping jacks, I feel pain. I have lifted weights twice since my last class and have been able to do deadlifts, romanian deads, good mornings, reverse incline crunches, chin ups, military press, dumbell bench press, rows, etc. with little-to-no pain.

I know the first response is "go to a doctor," however I was recently diagnosed with arthritis in my back, but with an overall healthy spine (the doctor said everything looks great, and I will likely never need any type of back surgery in my lifetime).

Has anyone experienced a similar type of pain? Does this sound like an injury or just soreness?
Click to expand...

JohnnyBuddha said:
Is the pain in the upper back, but to one side or the other? I've had a muscle strain on the area between the shoulder blade and spine 5-6 times now over the last 10 years from kickboxing and grappling. The pain and discomfort travel up my neck so that looking down (like you said) is painful, as is turning my head to the side. Can make getting in and out of the car a pain in the neck (lol!) as is making blind-spot checks.

The longest it ever stuck around for was about a month and I would usually take a week or two off before trying anything again. I now warm up my neck thoroughly which seems to help.
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If it is the pain Johnny is talking about it's from when you are tired after a long day and you start to hunch over. This over stretches the muscles in your back. It is a simple but pain in the ass fix, just be aware of your posture and if you feel you are hunching over just try and straighten up. I had to deal with this when I got back in to sports from a few years break. After a practice in paintball I would be tired and start to hunch over and after awhile I would get that pain. Doctors just told me to be more aware of my posture and sure enough the pain went away. What ever you do though if it is in pain do not stretch it. It has already been stretched to much and you can risk damage to the muscle that can put you on the sideline for a bit.
 
The pain you're describing is possibly a disk issue (pain with touching your chin to your chest). It is very hard to strain your traps, rhomboids or any other muscle in the upper back due to their huge insertion points.
 
Holy Roller said:
I doubt very much you have a pinched nerve; if you had one, weight training would be impossible, as would simple things like laying on your back. However, you need to be sure that your soreness is nothing more than normal "aches and pains." Remember to go slow, particularly as you're new to BJJ.
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You can still exercise with a herniated disk (it's part of the healing process), it just depends on what position provokes the pain and how severe the herniation is.
 
Foam roll and go get some therapy on it. Massage therapy or some even art or mat.
 
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