Health Fund Rebate Massage Cairns

Health Fund Rebate Massage Cairns – Neck Tension and Pain

Most People suffer from neck tension and those unwanted knots in the neck/upper shoulders.  This is largely due to a muscle known as your trapezius muscle.  It is the one that you often push on when you are stressed or have a headache.  It is a large, kiet-shaped muscle covering much of the back and posterior neck.  It commonly contain muscle knots or trigger points, and referred pain form these knots causes people to seek help more often than for knots in any other muscle.  Trigger points in the trapezius muscle are a major contributor to headache pain.

 

Common Symptoms

There are three main parts to the muscle : the upper, middle, and lower trapezius, and each part has its own actions and common symptoms.

 

Health Fund Rebate Massage Cairns – Upper Trapezius Knots produce the following areas of pain in your neck area

• Headaches over the temples and/or tension headaches

• Facial, temple, or jaw pain, or pain behind your eye
• Dizziness or vertigo (indicates simultaneous involvement of the sternocleidomastoid muscle)
• Stiffness, limited range of motion, and/or severe pain in your neck

Middle Trapezius knots in this part of this muscle gives you the following pains and aches

• Upper midback pain
• Superficial burning pain close to your spine
• Aching pain at the top of your shoulder near the joint

Lower Trapezius knots in this part of this muscle will give you pain in the following areas:

• Headaches at the base of your skull
• Pain in the midback, neck and/or upper shoulder region
• Possibly referral on the back of your shoulder blade, down the inside of your arm, and into the ring and little fingers – very similar to the referral pattern of the serratus posterior superior.
• Deep aching and diffuse tenderness over the top of the shoulder.

HealthFund Rebate Massage Cairns – Possible Causes and Perpetuators

Postural

• Head-forward posture
• Tensing your shoulders
• Cradling a phone between your ear and shoulder
• Sewing on your lap with your arms unsupported
• Sleeping on your front of back with your head rotated to the side for a long period
• sitting without a firm back suppor (sitting slumped)
• Bending over for extended periods (for example if you are a, architect, draftsperson, dentist, hygienist or have some other job that requires bending over or forwards in the workplace.)

Misfitting Furniture or Clothing

• Sitting in a chair without armrests, or with armrests that are too high
• Typing on a keyboard that’s too high
• Wearing a bra with straps that are too tight
• Carrying a daypack that is too heavy
• Walking with a cane that’s too long

Structural or Medical

• Getting a whiplash injury (from a car accident, or any sudden jerk of the head, falling on your head)
• Suffering from tiredness and fatigue
• Having one leg that is much shorter than the other
• Having sit bones that aren’t level because one side is smaller
• Having short upper arms, which causes you to lean to one side to use armrests.
• Having large breasts
• having tight pectoralis major muscles

HealthFund Rebate Massage Cairns – Sports/Activities

• Sports Activities with sudden one-sided movements, such as tennis and golfing.
• Jogging
• Playing the violin
• Backpacking
• Bike Riding
• Kayaking. Health Insurance Massage Cairns

Hints to help you:

HealthFund Rebate Massage Cairns – Have a massage regularly and look at the above list to see which aspects of your behaviour you could change or balance out in your body –

Putting your hands in your pockets when stanind takes the weight off your trapezius muscle, putting shoulder pads in a heavy coat can help take its weight off the upper trapezius.  If you regularly use a backpack, try to put most of the weight on your hip strap.  If you ride a bike, including a stationary bike, sit as upright as possible by adjusting the handlebars.  If you lift weights, avoid excessive amounts of weight and keep your head straight and in alighnment with your shoulders, not held forward.  If you use a walking cane, be sure it is not so high that it hikes up your shoulder.

Swimming provides good aerobic exercise, but you need to vary your stokes so you don’t unduly stress the trapezius muscle.  Turning your head to one side, as with the cral stroke, can aggravate the trapezius.