Back Pain and Pulling

Hey guys

Wondering about advice re therapy or supplements. Here is the issue.

Whenever I add a lot of pulling exercises in (especially rows, inverted rows and pullups), I irritate my upper left back near the spine. One physio has said it is due to the joint where the rib meets the spine being inflamed and not very mobile. I had this before when I was doing a lot of inverted rows and recently I have started doing pullups every morning and it feels like it is coming back.

I am going back to physio today and going to start ball rolling and foam rolling it. I was thinking maybe ostarine or a cissus product would help as well ? Prolotherapy? Cortisone shot ?

Any ideas / suggestions?

I'd stay away from cortisone as it can negatively impact the surrounding muscle.

Focus on posture and strengthening the stabilizer muscles. Do you by chance work at a desk/seated job?

I'd recommend incorporating more movement activities such as swimming, yoga, or martial arts.

Do a lot of dynamic stretching and flexibility work and focus on the self-myofascial release (foam roll) and get a deep tissue massage.

I'll chime in on this. First and foremost, it is critical to find out exactly what the problem is. I suffered from significant back pain that continued to worsen for about 10-12 years. I tried everything from chiropractic, to physical therapy, visits with multiple medical doctors, orthopedic surgeons, etc. Had various x-rays, MRI's and examinations done. Wasted A LOT of money on treatments that didn't work. I was eventually told more or less I would just have to live with the pain. I ultimately resulted to self-medicating with high daily doses of anti-inflammatories which led to its own problems eventually. The condition progressively got worse to the point it was completely debilitating, to the point I could barely walk, sleep, or function at all in daily life. It wasn't until I finally met with a rheumatologist that I discovered I had a type of spondylitis (similar to arthritis), or inflammation of the nerves and tissues around the spine. That is why it never showed up on imaging, because there was nothing wrong with my spine or other vertebrae structurally. It was all inflammation. After a long frustrating journey I was put on a TNF inhibitor and within a few days all pain was gone. I had my life back, and as an added bonus I could lift like a monster once again. Anyway, just a little input. There can be so many things wrong that can cause back pain, all of which can require much different treatments that are worthless unless they match the condition. It could be a life savor to find out exactly what's causing it, and also save you a lot of pain, and money, in the long run.

Thanks for the feedback. Foamrolling does seem to help. I am an idiot when it comes to that and do it until the pain goes away and then stop - and then the pain comes back. So will try to incorporate that into daily regimen regardless. I am travelling next week and did pack foam roller to bring. And bang on regarding desk job.

The spondylitis thing is interested. The current talk is that the joint between the rib and the spine is where I get my issue, and that gets inflamed, and sub-scapular and rhomboid tighten up hard to try to prevent it moving. Current physio thinks the rib is slightly misplaced against spine and wants to work to try to move how it is seated. Will talk to MD regarding issue as well.

Thx again