Chronic mid and upper back pain

[Wardzig1993]

Hello everyone,

I have been dealing with chronic back pain for over four years now. I am a 27 year old male from Canada, around 6 feet tall and 240 lbs, and I have experienced tightness in my mid and upper back between the shoulder blades and I always have the urge to pop it.

Once I pop my back it becomes inflamed and it feels like it has to be consistently popped to get relief. The more I pop it and twist around the mid back area I start to get sharp pain. I am an avid weight lifter and have been lifting since I was around 21 and truthfully I don’t remember how the pain started.

I have been to my chiropractor a ton since I’ve had pain and he says it has to do with loose facet joints. Going to the chiropractor helps and he told me to just stop cracking it and it will get better, but the constant urge to crack it just overwhelms me and I can’t break the habit. My doctor just says it’s nothing too serious and recommended physio but I would like to get an MRI done or some sort of injection.

the pain isn’t severe necessarily it’s just extremely annoying and I’m so aware of the cracking and cannot seem to break the habit. Sorry for the long read I’m just so sick of dealing with this. Any ideas of how I can overcome this and slowly start to get better? I’ve considered trying yoga, and I stretch a lot which seems to help, inactivity and sitting makes it worse.

Thank you.

[ridge_forrester]

I often get tightness in my mid back. When I pop it my back feels better as well. I sometimes even get some cracks out when I foam roll my back.

For me, it's just something I've learned to deal with. It's definitely better than having to put up with tightness there.

Sorry I can't think of anything else.