Neck Exercise - Upper Trapezius Stretch

Commonly Used For: Shoulder pain, neck pain and headaches.

Video Transcription: I'm going to show you how to do a stretch for your upper trapezius muscle, which is along here. it connects from your shoulder blade up into your neck here and is a common cause of shoulder pain, neck pain and headaches. So what you're going to do is if you're sitting, you can grab onto the bottom of the chair or if you can't reach that far, you can also sit on your hand. I prefer to hold on if I can though. You're going to tuck your chin back, kind of giving yourself a double chin there and then slowly tilt your ear towards your opposite shoulder, maintaining that chin tuck. You should feel a stretch right along the side of your neck here. This should be a gentle stretch. You don't want to pull it. This is a very sensitive area. Again, keeping that chin tucked. If you let it tilt outwards, you're not going to feel the stretch in the right position. So keep that chin nice and tucked. Hold it for 30 seconds to a minute and that's your upper trapezius stretch.