I'm glad to see you're back! Yay! I like reading and participating in this community and was worried you had gone for good.

Hi Camille,

I have do similar work and have been doing for over 20 years. I have found that adding some weight training has helped a lot with any back pain or soreness. Along with exercising other parts of my body, I do these to strengthen my back:

https://exrx.net/WeightExercises/GluteusMaximus/BBDeadlift (Don't go heavy at first)
https://exrx.net/WeightExercises/BackGeneral/DBBentOverRow
https://exrx.net/WeightExercises/LatissimusDorsi/BWPullup
https://exrx.net/WeightExercises/E***torSpinae/WtBackExtension

and some abominal work like crunches.

I have found that as my body strengthened, my posture and pain and soreness improved.

Along with this some active exercising like walking, jogging or biking also helps.

Some stretches that may help:

https://exrx.net/Stretches/E***torSpinae/Lying
https://exrx.net/Stretches/RectusAbdominis/Kneeling
https://exrx.net/Stretches/E***torSpinae/Cat

Some supplements that may help are Taurine, Vitamin C, Vitamn D3 and Glucosamine W/Tumeric.

Hopefully, this helps give you some ideas. I'm sure there are others on here that have good ideas also.

Here's a link to an image to the spine:

http://www.biokineticspt.com/blog/uncategorized/neck-pain-and-the-thoracic-spine.html

I get some good ones in my back around the thoracic area when I stretch in the morning.

Hi Dr. Wander! Welcome. I'm a long time reader of this forum, but haven't posted in a while. I'll start with a question. This has been discussed before, but I don't recall ever having a Dr. of Chiropractic here before. About once a day for as long as I can remember, I notice that if I stretch my arms and shoulders towards the middle of my back, my sternum cracks. It feels good, but am wondering if that is something to be concerned about?

Thanks You.

Hi all! It's been a while since I last posted. Lately, as I have been going to the gym, I've noticed that both my shoulders click when doing shoulder presses:

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/DeltoidAnterior/LVShoulderPressH.html

It happens on the way down when I return to the starting position. There is a click and a slight hint of pain in both shoulders.

I have been trying to strengthen my internal shoulder muscles by doing external and internal rotations:

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/Infraspinatus/CBStandingExternalRotation.html

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/Subscapularis/CBStandingInternalRotation.html

But I haven't been at it long enough to really, notice if that helps with the clicking.

Any of you have this happen? If so, have you found anything that helps?

Having a migraine after an adjustment or cracking the atlas sounds scary. Maybe, it's letting the signals through the nervous system through that were restricted before the adjustment and it's causes the headache? I had a friend who would have headaches after getting his neck adjusted by the chiropractor afterwards. You may want to consult a doctor about that to make sure you aren't doing any damage when cracking. I don't know if other's can do it. I'm sure there are some out there who can.

The first vertebrae below your skull is the Atlas. I can't crack it myself, but there is a treatment I posted about, a while ago, that chiropractors do called Atlas Orthogonal that's supposed to adjust it:

http://www.jointcrackers.com/ftopict-610.html

Does anyone else get this pop in your chest?

Yes. I can crack it by doing a reverse butter fly motion stretch. That's a nice one. I've never been able to crack my sacrum. Although, I've never really made an effort to crack it.

My neck pops occasionally, when I stretch it. It feels nice when it does, but I don't try cracking it on purpose.