I have had Upper-Trapezius Pain for over a year now, and the pain, no matter how much I stretch, worsens.What should I do?
All good answers. Chronic pain in the upper trap region can certainly be debilitating. As suggested, if you haven’t consulted with a medical professional, it’s definitely time to do so. Keep in mind that some stretches, various modalities and exercises can exacerbate the condition or minimize the process of healing.
Good luck.
Hey Theresa……
I am not sure what you have tried to resolve your pain but a typical treatment involves a systematic approach to find the potential sources. Chronic pain is usually related to microtauma caused by repetitive movements or postural strain. So, take a look at the things you do and the postures that you maintain.
The textbook will say that the traps elevate the shoulder girdle. This is a typical stress related posture to assume, as well as the position most people will adopt behind a steering wheel or at a computer desk. So with that being said we may need to work on stress relieving practices as well as adopting new shapes that you hold your body in. I know from clients in the past, one biggie is trying to reduce your number of pillows that you use. Ideally, you only want enough to support the curvature in your upper neck area.
Anyways, as far as treatment goes. Once you have determined the areas of pain, you can follow these tolerable steps:
1.epsom salt bath
2.heating pad
3.foam rolling associated areas
4.stretching
5.strengthening
hope this helps,
Jeremy
I hope you have had some success with the above mentioned ideas. Did anything help so far?
Mac Dodds M.A., CSCS
Live Your Best Years Now
Goodlifefitness.biz
[email protected]
Hi Theresa. I hope that your pain has been resolved by now, but I recently answered a similar question to yours and so thought that I’d take a moment to reiterate what I said there.
How you should proceed and what you should do about this pain (or any pain for that matter) will depends on several factors including the source/cause of the pain. The first thing that I always recommend to a client experiencing pain of an unknown or persistent origin is that they see their physician. This always beat ‘guessing’ and or self-treatment that may or may not work over the long term.
I hope that this helps.
LaRue, CSCS
www.lecfitness.com
[email protected]
