I had a great question this morning by one of my Core Fit Club (Online Pilates Studio) Members.
How do I get relief for tight neck and shoulders?
It is such a common issue, that I thought I’d share about it today.
The tight sore neck and shoulder area my client pointed out was the area in the image below, called the upper traps.
These muscles often get tight and sore for many reasons.
Some are ;
1. Incorrect desk set up.
If your desk ergonomics are not set up well, it will cause neck tension.EG if your hands are sitting higher than your elbows when you’re typing at your desk and you have to lift your shoulders to type. This is especially important for your mousing hand. Your mouse shoulder may get more tight, if you are lifting the shoulder to move the mouse due to wrong ergonomics.
2. Overuse and lifting the shoulders
This can be due to driving, holding the phone and even general stress can cause the shoulders/upper traps to lift and be overactive.
3. Weak Core
Often this leads to over use of the shoulders. I see this issue often.
4. Injury or overuse
If you’ve had an injury you may not be engaging the correct shoulder muscles which may cause overuse of the wrong muscles, creating imbalance and pain.
How to relieve and prevent this pain?
You can try a few things …
1. Massage the area to relieve the tension.
You can do this with your own hands, or go for a massage (even better), or use a massage ball.To use a ball – stand against the wall , place the ball on the tight shoulder area and lean against the wall so the ball rolls on the wall and your shoulder.If you don’t have a massage ball – which are generally spikey and larger than a tennis ball, use a tennis ball, lacrosse or golf ball.
2. Rearrange your desk set up.
Make sure you’re hands are slightly lower than your elbows when seated at your desk, with feet flat on the floor. This prevents the shoulders lifting to type or use the mouse. Or try changing the hand you use for the mouse. This is tricky at first but it pays off to be ambidextrous for the mouse hand, so you can give your shoulder a break. Trust me it works -I’ve done it!
3. Start to strengthen your middle and lower traps. These are the muscles that will counter balance the tightness. It is important to do these exercises to prevent the tightness returning after you massage and release it.
4. I teach about shoulder health (as well as back, knee, hip, and neck health) in my online studio, The Core Fit Club. You can check out my classes/tutorials there.
I have included one today for you to try to help you learn about your shoulders and help with tension and pain. It is the 1st of a series of 3 classes for the shoulders.
You may also like to check out this blog
>> Stretches to relieve neck & shoulder tension
To learn more about the Core Fit Club click here
Hit reply and let me know if you have any questions at all.
Lots of love
Em
xxx
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