Upper back strengthening?

[blind_otter]

For the first time in my life I am having chronic back pain (upper back), and I think it's directly related to two things:

 

1. I am hunched over holding a 20 lbs baby all the time

2. My breasts are much bigger than they were prior to having my son - I went from a B cup to a DD cup - 3 full cup sizes.

 

I thought that I would just naturally get stronger as my baby gained weight but it's not really working out that way. And even when I am not holding him, I find myself hunched over a lot due to the whole breast issue.

 

First off, which muscles should I be trying to strengthen, secondly what exercises are best to strengthen those muscles? Should I just be doing good old fashioned push ups?

[ShoeGirl]

I'm not sure where exactly your pain is, but pain in your thoracic spine (the middle of your back) can be caused partially by tightness in the neck or cervical spine and vice versa. So your best bet is to try loosening up and strengthening both areas. You can do that with simple exercises at home, here are some links to exercises that you can do.

 

http://www.des.umd.edu/os/erg/neck.html

http://www.nevdgp.org.au/info/murtagh/Musculoskeletal/Ethoracicspine.htm

http://www.necksurgery.com/articles-exercise.html

 

If you have light weights around 3-5 lbs or so you can hold the weights and do sets of shoulder shrugs, sets of raising your arms out to the side up to about 45 degrees then out to the front to 45 degrees.

 

Push ups and situps are also good.

 

You can do strengthening for the muscles that support the spine by using a theraband (a long piece of elastic material) or something similar to do rowing motions, close the middle in the door, hold one end in each hand and keeping your elbows as close to your side as you can pull back until your hands are about even with your stomach, stop before that if it hurts. You can buy therabands online, not necessarily through their website for around $3-5. If you decide to I would buy a green or blue one. If you decide to buy one let me know I can find more specific exercises specifically for therabands, there are entire home physical therapy programs using them. They have recently put out a kit for neck pain, I haven't seen it myself but if you are interested it might be worth looking into.

[alphamale]

1. I am hunched over holding a 20 lbs baby all the time

2. My breasts are much bigger than they were prior to having my son - I went from a B cup to a DD cup - 3 full cup sizes.

hmm i would think those would affect your lower back more since it does most of the work. but your local interal medicine physician should be able to shed more light on it. s/he may refer you to a specialist if they don't know...