I have had a chronic pain in my upper back right above my right shoulder blade, below my neck, and a little to the right of my spinal cord (the area is about two square inches in size). I got this injury from (surprise surprise) a marathon coding session (40 hours straight) sitting in an uncomfortable chair without taking enough breaks, and it has been plaguing me for about six years now. It used to be a very sharp shooting pain, but now the area is somewhat numb and mostly gives me sharp pains if I do certain awkward motions (like turning my head too rapidly), lifting heavy objects using that particular part of my back, or coding for long stretches of time.

I have tried just about everything from traditional back exercises to acupuncture to cure this, and up until recently, nothing really worked. I finally went to some doctor in India who gave me a different type of exercise that made a lot of sense. Normally, chiropractors will tell you to do things like rotate your head or stretch your neck by looking up and down for 10 seconds at a time - basically minor motions that put minimal stress on your back in the hopes that it will strengthen the back. The doctor in India said my problem was not that my upper back muscles had grown weak from RSI, but that my particular injury had caused some muscles to start pressing down on a nerve there, which is why I have such a local pain and why that area has started going numb. So, exercises putting more strain on that area were in fact worse for me.

To get to the point, the "exercise" works as follows: 1) Stand up straight and straighten up your neck. 2) Gently press on your forehead with your two hands such that the force is pointing behind you. While doing so, press forward with your head against your two hands so that your neck stays straight (very important that the neck stays straight the entire time). 3) Do this for 30 seconds (I started off with 10 seconds). 4) Repeat steps 1-3, but instead of pressing on your forehead, I press on the right side of your head, the left side of your head, and then the back of your head. 5) Repeat steps 1-4 three times, and then do the whole thing 3-5 times a day.

This has helped tremendously in getting feeling back and reducing pain. Apparently, this part of your back is usually under some minor stress from holding up your head (and this strain is increased when you hunch). So, after my muscles started squeezing down on my nerve in whatever awkward way, this minor stress that is otherwise normal was pressing down on my nerve all the time, causing it to hurt. This exercise will, five times a day, take the pressure off my back and into my hands and let the nerve have some time to slowly get back into place.

Also, I have started using a standing desk for at least some time a day and it has done wonders to keep me from hunching while working (which in turn has also made my back feel much better).