There are a multitude of reasons why an individual may experience neck pain or headaches. Whether sitting at your desk, driving in your car, cooking, or working out, the forward rolled shoulders and anterior head carriage is a commonly adopted position. The pain in your neck could be stemming from various areas and the origin of the pain is multifactorial. I commonly treat this condition by assessing your neck, mid back, and shoulder ranges of motion. Often times after massaging the upper traps, the pain can return. This is because the pain stems from an issue elsewhere in the body. 

 

Here is the most common example:

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For those who work at a desk, you are usually sitting for prolonged periods of time with your shoulders in a fixed position. This leads to tightness of the shoulder capsule and the surrounding scapular musculature. You rush to the gym after work and try to squeeze in that upper body workout; some bench press, shoulder flies, shoulder press. Not surprisingly, your upper traps have to help out to compensate for the decreased range of motion of the shoulder joint from being stationary all day. As a result, when I treat trap tension I always get the shoulder capsule moving better through acupuncture, soft tissue therapy, and shoulder mobilizations. If you have persistent upper trap tension come in today to get assessed. The problem is easy to fix; it's about preventing it from re-occurring!

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Check out my Neck Pain channel under Rehab Videos!