Upper back/neck pain

I've dealt with quite a bit of upper back and neck pain since I began climbing, and it has only been getting worse over time.  The pain is most severe in the muscles adjacent to the spine (e.g. rhomboids). If I understand it correctly, this seems to be a fairly common problem among climbers, since climbing tends to develop muscles unevenly, contributing to muscle imbalances and poor posture.  I'm concerned that I'll irreversibly damage my body if I keep doing this, but I'm not going to stop climbing permanently.

Do any seasoned climbers have tips for preventing/treating this sort of pain?  Stretches, exercises, etc?

Antagonist exercises and posture correction exercises are common advice.

Belay glasses actually helped my neck pain significantly.

I've been doing antagonist exercises and posture correction exercises for a few years, but perhaps I just need to do more.

X-rays; possible arthritis, how's you're mobility?
Do you find yourself hunching your shoulders?

Hunched shoulders, yes, unfortunately.  I'm trying to correct that with some neck and rotator cuff exercises.  Luckily, my mobility is still good

I have torn my rhomboid muscles a couple times, so there's a bunch of scar tissue in there that tends to get inflamed pretty easily- it would be great if anyone has some tips on managing the crunchy knots that tend to form in the damaged areas.

Hi Mark, sounds like you and I have similar issues. I've found dry needling to be very helpful, as well as a good massage. Just be careful who you go to for dry needling, have heard some horror stories about punctured lungs. Cheaper, more frequent options that have helped are a theracane, rolling with a tennis ball, and re-strengthening the rhomboid through consistent PT. I added 4 PT sessions to my training per week, and thoroughly rolled/stretched afterwards. This all may be redundant, however for me the consistency was what helped in the end. I've dealt with this problem for a while now, and it took about 6 months of consistency to feel no pain/tenderness/tightness back there. Hope you turn the corner soon!

Thanks for your advice David!  I've never heard of a theracane before, but it looks quite useful.  Tennis/lacrosse balls and PT exercises for rhomboid strengthening exercises are a part of my system, but I think I need to be more consistent rather than sporadic.  

How do you find a massage therapist who will actually work on the knots?  Massages are quite expensive so I can only afford a couple per year (usually through Groupon or similar), and it seems that no amount of communication can convince most therapists that I actually want a very hard massage.

Mark Straub wrote: Thanks for your advice David!  I've never heard of a theracane before, but it looks quite useful.  Tennis/lacrosse balls and PT exercises for rhomboid strengthening exercises are a part of my system, but I think I need to be more consistent rather than sporadic.  

How do you find a massage therapist who will actually work on the knots?  Massages are quite expensive so I can only afford a couple per year (usually through Groupon or similar), and it seems that no amount of communication can convince most therapists that I actually want a very hard massage.

Look for someone that specializes in neuromuscular massage.  "Sports massage" is more common and they should easily be able to work on trigger points.  Keep in mind that very hard isn't always the answer.

I have upper neck and back pain every day of my life due to climbing trees professionally and rocks recreationally for 20+ years. I'm 38 yo.

I neglect doing oppositional exercises regularly, have scoliosis and bad posture yet still climb 2-3 days a week.

Hot showers, ibuprofen, and beer has been my go to's. Also got a skinny pillow because I sleep on my stomach/side.

Some day I's Y's and T's will prevail....

The Superman pose helps for back pain if it’s done religiously, mostly for the lower back, but the spine and surrounding muscles all benefit. 

I use this little device for self- massage. I don’t know what it’s called. I put it on the ground and lie my back and neck on it. You have to do a bit of contortion to get the upper regions by yourself but you’ll figure something out.

I have to say, I have very knotty muscles and the thing that keeps me mobile is deep tissue and sports massage. I go for an hour and a half twice a month. It is expensive but it’s a huge priority for me. I have a subscription to Massage Envy.

I also see a chiropracter who does Shiatsu on my back and neck. It’s quite painful but very effective at releasing knots. 

I’ve got xrays showing stage 1 arthritis at the base of my neck. (Edges of vertebrae are round instead of square and sharp) I’d be interested in exercises that strengthen the muscles that lead to good posture.  
The pains been getting worse and I’ve been thinking I am developing cell phone neck from looking down at my phone more than I used too in the pre smartphone era.   

Staying tuned to this thread, can someone explain what antagonist exercises are? I also sleep on my stomach/side and wake up with crooks in my neck and random shoulder pains. Any tips there are appreciated. 

Antagonist exercise are the opposite of climbing. Reverse flys, reverse wrist curls, pronators, dead lifts, shoulder press, push-ups....

bus driver wrote:Staying tuned to this thread, can someone explain what antagonist exercises are? 

Climbing tends to overdevelop certain muscles, e.g. trapezius, so antagonist exercises work the muscles that are underused in climbing, e.g. pectorals.

Thanks everyone for the responses. 

Very good advices were given above. I know from my own experience that professional massage and control of loads on the spine help. Even when I came to the doctor with pain in my neck, he asked me about the pillow on which I sleep most of the time. I had a regular pillow from Ikea. The doctor said to replace it with an orthopedic one.

When I began to look at prices on the Internet, such pillows seemed to me quite expensive. But among all the variety and hundreds of reviews, I found a more or less good value for money. With my new pillow, back pain became at least not regularly. Therefore, I will now try to remember the "name" of my pillow and share with you.

Edit: So, my orthopedic pillow is EPABO Contour Memory Foam Pillow. It's Provides therapeutic relief for all sleepers and neck pain. Proven contour design perfectly supports and aligns your head, neck, shoulder and back. Breathable memory form provides better air circulation to keep you cool and dry. Hypoallergenic rayon/polyester proprietary blend pillow case feels silky soft and smooth while provides dust mite protection. All material are chemical free for better health. (this information I took from Amazon. Also, good description is gave here )

By the way, information about your orthopedic pillows would also be useful to me.

My mom also suffer from neck and back pain. She takes too hard bags and stays on foot for a very long time. I love her and decided to try solve the broblem. I started surfing the Internet and fortuned jonsguide.org   There is a review about mattrasses and I easely made a choice.  It's Puffy mattrass. Now mom feels better and her sleeping became helthier. So, I am very glad and can recommend it to you.

For the crunchies.  Hot shower, topical cannabis tincture, and deep tissue massage.  Wash rinse repeat every morning, add appropriate stretches and exercises as prudent.  If it's just scar tissue motion is the lotion.   It's done wonders for me for long-term pains post injury (feet, ankles, neck, back, shoulder), eventually, once the crunchies are gone, so too will the pain.  

I also have back pains after climbing, but what helps me is the massage and yoga exercises. You can try it, but in case the pain is getting worse, maybe you should make an appointment with the doctor, in order to find out what causes your pain. I have a friend that for a long period of time suffered from neck and back pain and nothing helped him to release the pain. He suffered from a disc herniation and I helped him to find a good doctor. Finally, we came across this site drtonymork.com and Dr. Mork prescribed the treatment to my friend and now he feels much better. Maybe, this doctor can help you, too. 

I'm also part of this club. 15+ years of mountain biking (hunched over) and PC games in high school did a number on my back, and I also separated my R shoulder and badly broke my L clavicle which required two surgeries (MTB really got me good). I have a pretty decent kyphotic curve, and I get real real tight the first day back at work a day or two after hard climbing. It's just a massive activity level imbalance. 

Back when gyms were open, as long as I made the effort to show up, I would end up doing 2-3 hours of rehab/climbing/whatever exercises almost every day. Now I'm lucky if I force myself to take a yoga class at my house twice a week. 

Anyone have suggestions for adding some structure during the week to balance out the activity level, or things to help my tight/sore muscles heal after climbing whilst I am confined to my desk? My job is pretty flexible, I just need to get my crap done. 

I'm jumping in here too. My symptoms are major inter-scapular (rhomboid) pain, tightness a little higher, below the base of my neck. It's the worst when I climb hard, or work those muscles hard, and then use my phone or a computer afterwards.  It's been 2 years off and on. Trying really hard to figure it out. 

The best things for me so far are thoracic mobility exercises (cat cow, and something similar but you spread your shoulders apart at the top), deep massage with a lacrosse ball, and, possibly lat stretches? And consistency. PT every morning, stretching every night. (well, like 6 days a week). 

I'll report back when I get to the bottom of my pain