Your Chronic Pain is Likely Not In Your Muscles: Debunking the Myth

When your upper or lower back hurts for an extended period, it’s natural to think it’s a problem in the muscles. After all, when we work out or do a strenuous activity, our muscles are often sore for a few days afterward. But that pain and discomfort generally goes away because muscles have excellent blood circulation that helps them heal quickly. Your chronic pain, as it relates to previous injury, is likely not in your muscles, though, and today, we’ll be debunking that myth.

 

What is Chronic Pain?

First, let’s get clear on the definition. When I refer to chronic pain on this blog or throughout this article, I am referring to persistent and long-lasting pain that typically stems from an injury that never healed correctly. I am not referring to neurologically based chronic pain syndrome that is associated with diabetes, shingles, multiple sclerosis, stroke, spinal cord injuries, etc.

 

 

Where Does Chronic Pain Actually Come From?

Now that we have a definition, we can start debunking the myth of chronic pain.

 

Say you feel pain and discomfort after an activity, and it lasts for months and months. You would normally think it’s because your muscles are injured, right?  It’s not usually a muscle problem, but it can be a tendon problem. Tendons attach muscles to bones, and they have very little blood circulation. So, when they get injured, the discomfort can last for months or even years.

 

 

Your pain and discomfort could also be a ligament problem. Ligaments hold your bones together. They have a limited blood supply, so they take a long time to heal without appropriate treatment. For example, if you have long-lasting pain in your neck or shoulder blade area when you turn your head, it’s likely not your muscle but the ligament that is injured.

 

A good first step is watching my five-minute video called Basic Anatomy You Should Know. This will give you an understanding of all the different parts of your body, other than muscles, that cause pain.

 

 

What is Referred Pain?

Most people are unaware that when ligaments and tendons are injured, they often make you feel pain in a different area than your actual injury. This is called referred pain. So, if you have injuries in your neck ligaments, your shoulder, arm, chest, or upper back can hurt. Or you might feel pain at the inside edge of your shoulder blade.

As you can see in the picture, each neck ligament refers pain to different and distinct areas of the upper body. Something that is typically confusing for most people is finding out that an injury in your neck or shoulder can refer pain all the way down your arm. So, if you experience pain in your arm, it can actually be from a neck or shoulder injury.

 

 

Injuries in the lower back can also refer pain. The muscles of the lower back are very rarely injured, but the ligaments often are. And they refer pain in many different directions. Sometimes, the pain or discomfort is felt straight across the lower back, and at other times, the pain travels into the buttock, the groin, or down the leg toward the foot.

 

 

Is This Persistent Pain Permanent?

So, what do you do when you have chronic pain from a poorly healed injury? If ligaments and tendons are the source of your pain, they need therapeutic intervention to get rid of the pain. And sadly, most people decide to just live with pain or discomfort because they don’t know that, with the right treatment, they could be pain-free.

 

Let me give you an example of a client I had, who thought her pain was permanent. She came to me with pain in her neck, shoulder, and lower back that plagued her for the past ten years. She was convinced that she was just getting older, and she had to live with it. When I assessed her, we found that she had ligament injuries in the neck, an old frozen shoulder that never got better, and some injuries to the ligaments in her lower back and a muscle in her hip. We now knew exactly what was causing her pain, but she was pretty skeptical that these aches and pains would improve because she had had them for so long and had tried all sorts of things years ago that had failed.

 

It took a while, but her pains began to fade. We worked on the scar tissue in her neck and back. For her shoulder, I referred her to a doctor for an injection that targeted the entrenched scar tissue within the shoulder joint. After five months of treatment, she was pain-free and could not believe it.

 

All that to say that no, persistent pain doesn’t have to be permanent if you find the right massage therapist to treat your old injuries.

 

 

Why Is It Important to Find the Right Massage Therapist?

Not every massage therapist is skilled in assessing and treating injuries, so you have to make sure you go to someone who is. When they identify exactly what the source of pain is, they then know the type of treatment that will help.

 

For example, if you have a chronic injury in your shoulder, that massage therapist could find the adhesive scar tissue that has to be treated. If the scar tissue is located in the tendon, your skilled massage therapist can perform effective hands-on treatment.

 

But if that scar tissue and pain is coming from the shoulder joint or something called a bursa in the shoulder is inflamed, then the skilled massage therapist would refer you out to a different professional. Because that type of injury needs a medical intervention of a special kind of injection, which gets rid of the pain very quickly.

 

That’s why it’s important for you to find someone who knows what they’re doing.

 

 

How Do I Find a Massage Therapist Who Can Help My Chronic Pain?

Try searching for “orthopedic manual therapy,” “friction therapy,” or “chronic pain.” Don’t be afraid to call or email a business or massage therapist to ask if they offer this type of assessment and treatment.

 

If you’re in the Boston, MA area, I have been treating chronic pain for decades and am also available by appointment. If you’re not in the Boston area, I can still help by conducting a remote evaluation session, where I walk you through a series of assessment tests. You’ll need either your current massage therapist or someone I can direct to perform the assessment tests. You can also email me or call my office to see if this is a good fit for you or ask any questions you might have beforehand.

 

 

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If you are experiencing calf pain and live in the Boston area, schedule an appointment or a complimentary 10-15 minute phone consultation.

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Ben E. Benjamin holds a Ph.D. in Sports Medicine and was the founder and President of the Muscular Therapy Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  He is the author of dozens of articles on working with injuries and chronic pain as well as the widely used books in the field, Are You Tense? Exercise Without Injury and Listen To Your Pain: The Active Person’s Guide to Understanding, Identifying and Treating Pain and Injury. Dr. Benjamin has been in private practice for over 50 years and teaches therapists throughout the country.

 

 

 

Your Chronic Pain is Likely Not In Your Muscles: Debunking the Myth FAQs

 

• What is chronic pain?

When I refer to chronic pain on this blog or throughout this article, I am referring to persistent and long-lasting pain that typically stems from an injury that never healed correctly.

 

• Where does chronic pain actually come from?

Not usually from the muscles, chronic pain typically stems from tendons or ligaments that were strained and healed poorly.

 

• What is referred pain?

It’s pain that you can feel in a place that’s different from where you were injured. For example, your injured neck ligaments can make you feel pain in your arm, even though your arm isn’t injured itself.

 

• Is persistent pain permanent?

With the right professional, a poorly healed injury can be properly treated, eliminating pain.

 

• Why is it important to find the right massage therapist?

You have to find a massage therapist skilled in assessing and treating injuries because they will know how to pinpoint the source of your pain and correctly treat it. And the right massage therapist will also refer you out to another professional, if needed.

 

• How do I find a massage therapist who can help with my chronic pain?

Try searching for a massage therapist who specializes in “orthopedic manual therapy,” “friction therapy,” or “chronic pain.” You can also see me for an in-person appointment in the Boston, MA area or for a remote evaluation.