Do You Have That Nagging Knot in Your Neck?

Do you find yourself ever rubbing the top of your shoulder because you feel a knot of tightness or discomfort?  

Do you feel a need to stretch this area because it feels tight or feels like your shoulders are in your ears?

Let’s take a look at what is causing that knot in your neck!

We have several muscles that attach our neck and shoulders to each other. Today we will take a look at two.

1. That sits right where you feel the knot.

2. One that we are often told is the problem and we need to stretch it.

   
   

The muscle highlighted below, is the levator scapula muscle.  It attaches high up on the vertebrae in you neck, just behind your ear.

As the name suggest it attaches to the top of your shoulder blade known as your scapula.  This is where you feel that knot in the top of your shoulder.

The other muscle below is know as your trapezius (trap) muscle.  It has three sections, upper, middle, and lower.  The upper part attaches to the bump on the back of your head, the back of your neck , outer part of the collar bone and the top, outer part of your shoulder.

Why is it important for you to know about these two muscles with regards to that knot?

When you know where these muscles are and relate them to the posture and activities that we do that create the knot, then it is easier to change the discomfort that knot causes.

Consider the pictures below.  Our shoulders should be like hangers that hold our shirts up.

(Picture on the left.) However, posture, exercise, etc., has taught us to pull our shoulders down and back, thus giving us long sloping shoulders.

Now, think of what you know about those two muscles.   The muscle called the levator scapula attaches on the top of your shoulder blade and to your neck behind your ear.  If you look at the slope of the shoulders this posture is pulling the to ends apart or stretching them out like a rubber band.  

This overstretching gives you the sensation of your shoulder(s) being stuck in you up by your ear.  Because it is literally pulling on the bones next to your ear.

Often, when we express we have this feeling of tightness, we are told to stretch out our traps.  The trap muscle with this posture is overstretched as well.  Recall, the two ends of these muscles are the bump on the back of your head and the top of your shoulder.

Our brain perceives the tightness but, the tightness is like that stretched-out rubber and not a tightness of a short, tight muscle. 

So what causes that knot feeling if the muscle is not short and tight? It is the muscle trying to bring the shoulder back up to where it should be.

So what can you do?

Rather than down and back with your shoulders, ‘imagine’ your collarbones being long from the center out to your shoulders.

Another favorite is to imagine helium balloons under your armpits.

These are much softer cues and can be challenging as they are more ’think’ about versus ‘do this’.  

Try these new cues this week when you would normally want to pull your shoulders down, back or together and let us know how you do.

In our next installment, we will look at how we add these softer cues to common exercises.