How does muscle pain work?

Are you currently hitting a roadblock in identifying where your pain originates? As an example, most patients with neck and shoulder pain report discomfort in the trapezius muscle, which travels from the top of your arm, up into your neck. At the Norman Marcus Pain Institute in New York City, we find that more than half the time the uncomfortable trapezius is not the actual source of the pain. Rather, it is the infraspinatus muscle, which overlies the shoulder blade. So you can imagine how it will not be very effective to treat the trapezius in these cases, since it is only where you feel the pain. Instead, we go directly to the source of the pain and treat the infraspinatus.

The same treatment approach exists for the low back as well. The pain you’re feeling may actually originate in the low back and be felt in the buttock. Conversely, it may originate in the buttock and be felt in the low back.So, how do we know for sure which muscle is causing the pain, and thus help you find relief from back pain?