Sitting at a desk, lifting heavy things or improper posture can cause a tightening of the shoulder muscles. The trapezius muscles that run from your neck down your shoulders and across your upper back can atrophy after years of seated office work, causing muscles to seize up when they are overworked. Tight shoulders pull the bones they're attached to and other muscles out of their normal position, which causes them to spasm and form a knot. For instance, tight shoulders may be caused by over tight chest muscles that are pulling your shoulders forward.
To appropriately treat shoulder knots, you must stretch the muscles to put your bones in the correct position. That done, you can massage the knot itself and get relief. This article explains how to work out any shoulder knot.
Stretch your shoulders
- Do some shoulder circles to warm up your chest and shoulder muscles. Swing your arms back and forth, moving the muscles around for three to five minutes.
- Find an open doorway. Stand with your right shoulder touching the right hand side of the doorway.
- Take two steps straight away from the doorway. Tall people or people with long arms should take an extra step forward.
- Stand up straight, with your shoulders back and your neck straight.
- Reach your right arm back, and grasp the inside edge of the door frame with your fingers. Keep your arm straight at shoulder level.
- Turn your body to the left until you feel a pull in your right chest muscles. Hold for 15 to 30 seconds, and then release the stretch.
- Repeat the shoulder stretch with your left arm on the opposite side of the door frame. Repeat once more on each side if your chest muscles were very tight.
Massage your shoulders
- Sit in a comfortable position with your back straight.
- Reach your shoulder with the opposite arm. You can do this by either putting your hand under your opposite arm or across your chest and facing down on your shoulder on the opposite side of your neck.
- Massage the area around the knot by pressing the shoulder with your thumb in slow, firm strokes. This is called cross-fiber friction.
- It is important to avoid pressing on the knot immediately because knots can easily become inflamed and get worse if you apply immediate pressure.
- Work the area for at least 5 minutes.
- If your shoulder knot is very hard to reach, ask a friend to perform the cross-fiber friction massage on your shoulder. Make sure they do not try to press their thumbs deep into the knot when they start the shoulder massage.
Massage the shoulder trigger point
- Move your thumb across your back to identify where the knot is. Do not press on it yet.
- Lay on the floor with your back flat.
- Place a tennis ball right beneath your knot and lay directly on it. You should feel some pressure as your body weight is placed on the ball.
- Lay on the ball for five minutes. This may be uncomfortable at first, but at the end of the five minutes, you should stop feeling the extreme tightness. Your muscle may even feel slightly numb.
- Move the tennis ball to another knot in your shoulder and lay on it for five minutes.
- Repeat as many times as is necessary to get to all the knots in your back.
- Repeat the stretch, massage and tennis ball procedure three times per day, until the knots are removed.
- The best way to avoid shoulder knots is to make sure you have strong shoulder muscles. Do shoulder exercises such as squeezing your shoulder blades together once per day.
- Shoulder knots happen on the side of your dominant hand. Try to relax that arm or share the burden of lifting, pulling or movement with the other hand while you have a shoulder knot.
Edit Things You'll Need
- Door frame
- Tennis ball
- Floor space
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