A small bit of anecdata in favor of the vasoconstriction mechanism:
I’m about two weeks into a flare up of upper back soreness/tightness/yeck. It’s been a bit chronic/mild for… maybe six months, but I did some stuff that flared it up to… 1.3/10ish two weeks ago. Uncomfortable, and concerning, but not crazy. What was worrying was that it didn’t seem to be resolving. Sitting at the computer definitely made it worse. I tried some alternations to my seating (currently not very ergonomic for logistic reasons that are taking time to fix). Adding lower back support pillows didn’t help. I tried a bunch of self massage; possibly made it slightly worse. I tried a bunch of gentle mobilization and some moderate weight resistance training. Possibly made it slightly worse. I tried walking a lot. That… tended to make it slightly better, but the effect went away quickly if I spent time sitting. I read this post and tried shoving a hotwater bottle down the back of my t-shirts while working at the computer. That produced a large improvement gradient. I guess you could tell the story that the heat is counter the vasoconstriction. The effect doesn’t seem to be present if the water bottle is room temperature, but I also haven’t tried that much.
It’s not the most practical solution—I just got a kneeing chair, and have a proper office chair en-route too. But it’s def been helpful.
Healing Back Pain makes a claim along those lines (p62):
One body of evidence that the physiologic alteration in TMS is oxygen deprivation is clinical. It has long been recognized that heat, introduced into muscle by diathermy or ultrasound machines, will relieve back pain temporarily. So will deep massage and active exercise of the muscles involved. All three of these physical measures are known to increase blood flow through muscle. Increased blood flow means more oxygen, and if that relieves pain it is logical to assume that oxygen deprivation was responsible for the pain.
Yeah, as a 1.5 week follow up, the heat treatement has continued to has continued to be effective, with the sense of tightness continuing to resolve. But it’s also required a fairly high dose: probably several hours a day sitting with the waterbottle shoved into my t-shirt. I have a more ergonomic chair arriving tomorrow, G-d and B-zzos willing.
4 month follow up: a lot of heat was very helpful, but underpowered to fully deal with this problem, and also inconvenient to constantly have a hotwater bottle in the back of my sweater like a hunchback of Notre Dame. Gently ramped up, progressive upper back strengthening has been very helpful for getting to a much more sustainably comfortable point. There’s still some lingering issues in the spot between the shoulder blades and occasionally I do still treat with heat, but it’s much much better now.
A small bit of anecdata in favor of the vasoconstriction mechanism: I’m about two weeks into a flare up of upper back soreness/tightness/yeck. It’s been a bit chronic/mild for… maybe six months, but I did some stuff that flared it up to… 1.3/10ish two weeks ago. Uncomfortable, and concerning, but not crazy. What was worrying was that it didn’t seem to be resolving. Sitting at the computer definitely made it worse. I tried some alternations to my seating (currently not very ergonomic for logistic reasons that are taking time to fix). Adding lower back support pillows didn’t help. I tried a bunch of self massage; possibly made it slightly worse. I tried a bunch of gentle mobilization and some moderate weight resistance training. Possibly made it slightly worse. I tried walking a lot. That… tended to make it slightly better, but the effect went away quickly if I spent time sitting. I read this post and tried shoving a hotwater bottle down the back of my t-shirts while working at the computer. That produced a large improvement gradient. I guess you could tell the story that the heat is counter the vasoconstriction. The effect doesn’t seem to be present if the water bottle is room temperature, but I also haven’t tried that much.
It’s not the most practical solution—I just got a kneeing chair, and have a proper office chair en-route too. But it’s def been helpful.
Healing Back Pain makes a claim along those lines (p62):
Yeah, as a 1.5 week follow up, the heat treatement has continued to has continued to be effective, with the sense of tightness continuing to resolve. But it’s also required a fairly high dose: probably several hours a day sitting with the waterbottle shoved into my t-shirt. I have a more ergonomic chair arriving tomorrow, G-d and B-zzos willing.
4 month follow up: a lot of heat was very helpful, but underpowered to fully deal with this problem, and also inconvenient to constantly have a hotwater bottle in the back of my sweater like a hunchback of Notre Dame. Gently ramped up, progressive upper back strengthening has been very helpful for getting to a much more sustainably comfortable point. There’s still some lingering issues in the spot between the shoulder blades and occasionally I do still treat with heat, but it’s much much better now.