Has anybody read "pain free" by Pete Egoscue? His aproach is that due to the continuous bad position certain back and shoulder muscles become weak and the other (not properly suited) have to make the force of the original ones. They finally contract or create pain due to the forced possition( take this explanation with a grain of salt as is from memory). He gives some easy exercices to recover the possition and strengthen the muscles. It is very straight forward.
BTW he is no MD, but the system seems to work. Just as a note my wife is reumatologist and used to be very sceptic of this kind of "structural" theories, as there is very little of this on the medic literature. Now acter trying some of them herself, she thinks they have their place for some kind of pains. ( caveat this only a n=1 enviroment). I think is worth a shot.
I haven't read this book, but had terrible back pain due to these very issues. Certain muscles in my back had atrophied to the point that I could not hold my shoulders down and back without a lot of strain to do so. This resulted in a great deal of tension in my neck and other muscles that had to take up the slack. I went through physical therapy to strengthen the back muscles that had atrophied. The exercises were very hard and rather painful, but after several months, they worked like a charm.
Egoscue's work is referenced in "Four Hour Body" by Tim Ferriss. I've not tried it myself, but it sounds like an interesting alternate therapy - definitely worth a look.
