Muscles are what we call the flesh of our bodies. Body builders develop them to show them off. Maybe we don`t want to show them off, but we all need to move. It is muscles that make us move when we run after a bus or play the piano or perform any movement at all.

When we move, a muscle is made to work. To do so, it becomes shorter and harder. It is contracting and it becomes tense. When a muscle becomes shorter it moves the bones and so the limbs and the body move. All this movement of the muscles is consciously controlled by us. We know we want to move an arm, run for a bus or play the piano. In normal circumstances these actions are not painful.

However, muscles can also contract or tense without our control when we are not moving, such as happens in Body Language. Muscles which are tense are not, at first, painful. However, it is when they remain tense that they become painful. When this pain happens in the back and the neck it can become exceedingly severe.

Quite often these tense muscles may be visible. When the whole muscle is tense it `stands out`, such as a frown. On the other hand, it may only be part of a muscle which is tense , so it does not `stand out` and it looks normal.

The pain is predominantly of an aching variety, whether it be short sharp stabs or a prolonged dull ache.

When people suffer from pain in their backs , they think of slipped discs. “It is so painful, it must be a disc”, they say. They cannot believe that muscles could be so painful. But they can. think of cramp. When you have cramp, you can think of nothing else! We are not discussing cramp here, as the cause is entirely different, but it does show just how painful muscles can become.
The term `slipped disc` means that the disc between the spinal vertebrae has slipped and is putting pressure on a nerve. However, pressure on a nerve does not produce aching pain; it produces, temporary, or ultimately permanent, paralysis or loss of normal sensation. Think what happens when you are sitting and you cross your legs. The knees press on a nerve and your foot `goes dead`. It may be uncomfortable but there is no pain.

We are talking about aching pain - the aching pain of backache and neckache.

These tense and painful muscles causing back and neck pain can be made even more tense for example, when we bend down to pick something up, or when we turn our head. The muscles become more tense by the movement and therefore become even more painful.

When, however, with treatment, we can relax the muscles, the pain goes.

Go to Referred Pain