Member-only story
The Forgotten Muscle That’s Directly Connected to Your Shoulder Pain
If you do these exercises, your chances of pain relief will soar!
The shoulders are one of the most stubborn and confusing areas of the human body. One moment they feel great, and the next moment you’re locked up in pain. One of the reasons for this is we get hyper-focused on training the major deltoid muscle at the shoulder while neglecting stability work. In other words, we prioritize aesthetics over function.
To fix this, I want to zoom in on one muscle that is being severely overlooked in the context of shoulder training. I’m talking about the trapezius. This is a broad, flat muscle extending from the upper to middle regions of the back aspect of the neck and trunk. For our purposes, I want to zoom in on the fibers of the lower trapezius due to its key role in protecting the shoulder from below.
This muscle is often undertrained and overlengthened due to rounding and protraction of the shoulders. This can be caused by poor ergonomics at work, chronic postural rounding while driving, excessive screen time, and more. Over time, this can become a major source of tension headaches and pain around the neck and shoulder regions.
Fortunately, this issue is very preventable with strategic movement.
