How to release neck or shoulder tightness in the car

Have you ever been in traffic, on a long road trip, riding in a train or bus and experienced neck or upper back tightness or pain? That unfortunately is not an unusual occurrence and recently happened to me. We have been painting our newly rebuilt porch and the 10am to sunset work for multiple weekends in a row was starting to rear it’s ugly head.

So, I started to experiment.

What could I do, essentially stuck sitting in traffic?

Well, I have an exercise I like to use standing up, with my palm flat on the wall. You anchor the palm to the wall and relax your shoulder, and rotate your elbow. I call this exercise Chest Openers.

The goal is to get your shoulder blade to rotate as that is one of it’s three main directions to move….in and out, up and down, and rotate.

The rotational component of shoulder blades is one of the trickier directions to identify, but if something pinches as you lift your arm or when you reach overhead, chances are your shoulder blade’s ability to rotate is compromised. Also, if you have any sort of elbow problem like golfer’s elbow or tennis elbow, all that says to me is that your elbow is being forced to do what the shoulder blade should already be doing.

Don’t worry, it’s very fixable!

The trouble is, the upper trapezius muscle feels like it needs to help and that’s where the tightness and pain can originate. So, in the video below, you’ll see me compress the upper trapezius muscle to disengage it as I try to re-engage the lower trazpezius muscle.

My favorite combination: a little release, and a little engage.

Get that upper trap out of the way and let the lower trap join the party!

Watch the video below and let me know in the comments below if it helped! I love hearing feedback on what works and what doesn’t!