Hello, everyone. I am a 19 year old male and for the past year or so I have been having pain all over my mid to upper back and my shoulder (the back part of it, near the neck).

It first began when I was going to the gym early in 2007; whenever I would workout, even with light weights, my shoulder and upper back would flare up after only 1 or 2 sets. It was a burning pain, as if my back/shoulder was on fire. At this point I decided to just take a break from the gym.

While the pain wasn't as intense, as I wasn't going to the gym, it was still bothering me whilst doing the most basic of things (washing dishes, carrying a backpack). I started feeling another type of pain as well when doing even less intensive things (sitting down ). This new pain was a tingling/numbness.

I decided to go to a physiotherapist, this was about 6 months after the pain began (I know, I waited a long time). They noticed that my posture was off a little and that my back was extremely tight. They gave me simple exercises and stretches to do at school and at home while sitting at a desk/computer. They told me that they weren't going to give me any strength building exercises until I talked to my GP to see if he felt any x-rays or MRI's or whatever might be necessary to check for a possible stress fracture on my spine (the numbness worried them, I believe).

So I went to my doctor's and he didn't seem to think these tests were necessary and he told me it was simply "paraspinal muscle spasms". He told me massages would help and that I should continue with the physio.

I got a few massages and they helped a bit during and a short time afterwards but not in the long term (I was continuing on with the exercises and stretches).

For the past month I haven't been feeling the pain much at all, as I haven't been doing nearly anything but resting it. No strenuous activities, just the stretches. Today, I went back to the physiotherapist because I'm eager to get back into the gym and wanted their thoughts. They gave me a very light and basic routine and told me that if during the exercises the pain comes back, stop the set and move onto something else. As soon as I got home, however. I started cleaning up the house, doing the dishes etc. (while in my rest phase I'll admit I was extremely lazy and rarely did anything chore-wise). About halfway through the dishes, the burning pain was back, as was the tingling, just as bad as it was at its worst. So I'm back at square one, basically.

I apologize for the enormous post but I don't really know what to do. I already talked to another doctor about it and she said to get rid of the spasms I should take Ibuprofen regularly for a couple of weeks, I did this and it helped for those two weeks then it was back to normal.

Thanks in advance for any comments or help.