Trapezius muscle tightness
Your Terrible Trapezius
Musculoskeletal disorders are tissue dysfunctions in the musculoskeletal system that arise as a result of continuous exposure to sh#t positions. Most are office-based workers, however, there is the exception some are because of steady and repeated movements.
#TheAnatomy
The trapezius is one of two large surface muscles that extend from the occipital bones (where the head mets the neck) to the bottom of the thoracic vertebrae of the spine (thats the mid back area) and laterally to the spine of the scapular (shoulder blade). It moves the scapulae and supports the arm.
The importance that surrounds the trapezius, is that it is made up of three functional areas:
The upper (descending) part which supports the weight of the arm.
The middle region (transverse), which retracts the scapula.
The lower (ascending) part which medially rotates and depresses the scapular.
As you can see this muscle is big, but typically most people attribute the trapezius muscle to just the upper portions and the shoulders. A common theme I hear when people are talking about this is
“I feel my shoulders are up around my neck”
Most people just want someone to get stuck into them and help “loosen” these muscles off. How your therapist does this is up to them. I’m bias I think soft tissue massage in the form of myofascial release should be employed. Kojidi, Okhovatian, Rahimi, Baghban, Azimi (2016) suggested that both passive and active soft tissue therapies have positive follow on effect for neck pain associated with the upper trapezius muscle. Although, there are multiple techniques which might be used to assist with trapezius issues. One other techniques that I might use is the IASTM (instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilisation technique).
One study examined the use of IASTM technique over a six treatment process period seemed to reduce the intensity of pain, increase the PPT (pressure pain threshold), and decrease the patient’s disability (NDI). Additionally, this technique had a positive change on the muscle fiber thickness (Emshi, Okhovatian, Kojidi and Zamani, 2018). However this study had its limitation. Further studies did not support these claims and the efficacy of IASTM in chronic neck pain (Elserty and Galal, 2020). Thus suggesting conflicting evidence, however, this only depicts that one form of treatment doesn’t necessary work for the everyone.
#Thegoodstuff
Heres what they can do to help that out for some simple relief. Yes that is a video to my Youtube Channel and no I’m not trying to scam you out of some money, by getting you to sign up for some program.
There are plenty of other techniques that can be used to help, this will get you started.
#Referencelist
Elserty, N., and Galal, D, O, S, M. (2020). Influence of instrument assisted soft tissue techniques versus active soft tissue therapies on latent trigger point of upper trapezius muscle: Randomized clinical study. Physiotherapy Research International 1(1). Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/pri.1859
Emshi, Z, A., Okhovatian F., Kojidi M, M., and Zamani, S. (2018). The Effects of Instrument-Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization on Active Myofascial Trigger Points of Upper Trapezius Muscle. Journal of Clinical Physiotherapy Research. 3(3). Retrieved from https://journals.sbmu.ac.ir/physiotherapy/article/view/22593
Kojidi, M, M., Okhovatian, F., Rahimi, A., Baghban, A, A., and Azimi, H. (2016). Comparison Between the Effects of Passive and Active Soft Tissue Therapies on Latent Trigger Points of Upper Trapezius Muscle in Women: Single-Blind, Randomized Clinical Trial. Journal of Chiropractor Medical. 15(4): 235–242. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5106440/
#this is not medical advice.