Thread: Mid/Upper back exercises

So I go to bed the other night with some mild discomfort in the mid/upper back (Thoracic?). It's something I've experienced every so often and it's usually worse when I wake, presumably from laying on it all night. I've always attributed it to some activity I've done the day before that I don't do very often like painting or landscaping for example. So the other night I wake up in the middle of the night in real discomfort and had to take pain killer to get back to sleep. The only thing I can think of was that the day before I'd done some brushing down of the gutters which involved holding and moving a broom overhead. Does this sound like a likely cause?

It definately feels muscular, though quite deep, like massaging the surface does nothing but if pressure is applied in a general sense I can certainly feel it and if I bend certain ways it hurts more. It's a dull type of pain that's sort of always there but can be intense if I move the wrong way. It is NOT lumbar but higher in the back, and feels strained, not just DOMS.

I do the regular back exercises like hypers, deads, rows etc and know what normal DOMS feels like in the back and nothing I have ever done in the gym has caused anything like this.

My question is, should other back work be incorporated into a routine that involves off-centre exercises like medicine ball work or something? I guess there'll always be something you might do one day that you haven't trained for and your muscles will complain later.

Originally Posted by KarlW

Me too and they are great but they are a 'centred' exercise. No turning or twisting of the spine. What I'm asking is, are there spinal muscles that don't get hit if all the exercises I do are centred?

There are definitely muscles that don't get fully stimulated unless you use rotation, or at least have to resist rotation like in a unilateral bench press with no counterweight or a unilateral bent row.