The cause of your muscle pain or spasms may be one or more trigger points. Your health care provider may decide to inject the painful spots to relax the muscle. This can help relieve your pain. Relaxing the muscle can also make movement easier.  You may then be able to exercise and strengthen the muscle and promote healing.

Epidural steroid injections are injections of a short-acting local anesthetic and a long-acting steroid into the epidural space of the spine. These injections are usually used for pain from herniated intervertebral disks (radicular pain), spinal canal stenosis and some mechanical back pain. Epidural steroid injections may help decrease irritation of the nerves within the spinal canal, which can both decrease pain and improve mobility, allowing some patients to participate in physical therapy and other therapeutic programs.