Upper Trapezius SA Static Stretch

Upper Trapezius SA Static Stretch is a simple stretching exercise designed to help improve mobility and reduce tension in the areas of the neck, upper back, and shoulders. It involves gently stretching the upper trapezius (the triangular muscle on the back of your neck and shoulders) by raising the arms out to the side and slightly up in a “Y” shape. When done correctly, this stretch provides a comfortable, moderate stretch and increases range of motion, flexibility, and overall

Transcript

00:00:0200:00:07
This is Brent, President of B2C Fitness, and
00:00:0200:00:07
in this video we're doing our static,
00:00:0700:00:12
self-administered, upper trap stretch. Now, the stretch is going to involve the neck
00:00:1200:00:16
and just like what we talked about in the levator scapulae video, anytime we
00:00:1600:00:22
are stretching the neck there are some very sensitive structures in the neck
00:00:2200:00:27
that we need to be aware of. The brachial plexus, the little fine muscles that help
00:00:2700:00:33
stabilize our cervical spine, as well as the vertebral foramen which house
00:00:3300:00:37
are our nerves that are coming out there, as well as the transverse foramen which
00:00:3700:00:42
has our vertebral artery. All of these things can be affected in a stretch, and it
00:00:4200:00:47
could have a very negative outcome. Now, with all that being said, this is very
00:00:4700:00:53
safe providing that you are aware, you're cautious, and you use a very small amount
00:00:5300:00:57
of force when creating over pressure to take your muscles into a lengthened
00:00:5700:01:03
position, providing you don't yank on the neck like you yank on a hip (you
00:01:0300:01:07
shouldn't be yanking on a hip), but you're using less force on the neck than
00:01:0700:01:12
you are on the hip, this technique is totally safe. I'm going to have my friend
00:01:1200:01:17
Laura come out and I'm going to help you determine how we're going
00:01:1700:01:25
to stretch our upper trap. Now, first things first, the upper trap is accused
00:01:2500:01:32
way more than it is guilty of being short and overactive. It will anteriorly
00:01:3200:01:35
tip our scapula which could be part of our upper body dysfunction, but
00:01:3500:01:42
generally this muscle is weak. What most people accuse of trap tightness, is
00:01:4200:01:47
actually our levator scapulae trigger points and tightness. So we need to be
00:01:4700:01:53
kind of aware, maybe try our levator scapula stretch first, see if we get
00:01:5300:02:01
improvement, before we accuse and assume that the trap is guilty of also needing
00:02:0100:02:09
a stretch. Now, the trap itself goes from lateral clavicle, the lateral portion of
00:02:0900:02:15
the spine of your scapula into you're ligamentum nuchae, as well as your
00:02:1500:02:20
external occipital protuberance up here in your head, and the spinous process.
00:02:2000:02:24
That has a very important effect on how we're going to stretch this muscle as
00:02:2400:02:28
opposed to the levator scapulae. In the levator scapulae it was the transverse
00:02:2800:02:34
process, so to lengthen that muscle we had to turn her head that way, that would
00:02:3400:02:38
turn the transverse process away. In the case of the spinous process, to get
00:02:3800:02:42
lengthening, we have to turn her head toward the same side as the muscle
00:02:4200:02:49
we're stretching to get the spinous process to turn away. This setup is
00:02:4900:02:52
almost identical to the levator scapulae stretch, so if you are comfortable
00:02:5200:02:56
with that technique, this is going to be a breeze, we just have to remember the
00:02:5600:03:02
rotation is in the opposite direction. So, I'm going to have her stabilize. Once
00:03:0200:03:06
again, we stabilize the scapula to make sure that we posteriorly
00:03:0600:03:12
tip, depress the scapula, make sure she doesn't go into an extension here at
00:03:1200:03:16
the lumbar spine, she's still keeping drawn-in. We're not grabbing really
00:03:1600:03:19
hard here, we just either grab the back of our thigh or the bottom of our
00:03:1900:03:24
gluteal fold there just as a little bit of stability, I don't want everything active here.
00:03:2400:03:30
She's then going to pull herself into lateral flexion, a little bit of flexion
00:03:3000:03:35
this way, and then if this is the side that we're stretching she's now turning
00:03:3500:03:41
this way. So in the levator scapulae stretch I had her hold here and push
00:03:4100:03:45
that way. I'm going to have her take her hand and kind of cup the back of her
00:03:4500:03:52
head a little bit so that she can she can push into
00:03:5200:03:57
lateral flexion and flexion this way, but also help with the rotation this way. Now,
00:03:5700:04:01
if you do these two stretches you should feel a difference. Levator
00:04:0100:04:07
scapulae I should be here, it's a long thin muscle this way, the trap
00:04:0700:04:14
should be more anterior and should be felt more diffusely across the top of
00:04:1400:04:19
the scapula. You feel that? -Yeah definitely. Good. So I'm going to show you a couple
00:04:1900:04:26
more angles so you see how the stretch works out. So, if I have her
00:04:2600:04:31
stabilize this side, set up just like the levator scapulae stretch, make
00:04:3100:04:37
sure she's drawn-in, not pulling herself into extension, she's going to laterally
00:04:3700:04:43
flex, she's going to flex a little bit, and she's going to rotate, once again,
00:04:4300:04:48
towards the side of the muscle that we're stretching, that's ipsilateral
00:04:4800:04:54
rotation. So I'm going to have her, once again, grab the back of her head towards the top
00:04:5400:05:01
so that you can turn this way and still pull in lateral flexion and flexion.
00:05:0100:05:06
And then the last view I'll give you is the lateral view here. So you're going
00:05:0600:05:12
to pull down into depression and posterior tipping, go into lateral
00:05:1200:05:16
flexion, that is probably still the most important joint action, the second most
00:05:1600:05:19
important joint action is going to be that rotation, but I let her go into a
00:05:1900:05:25
little flexion first, and then once again cup the back of her head towards the
00:05:2500:05:30
top so that she can still push into lateral flexion and flexion, but then help
00:05:3000:05:35
aid in rotation towards the side of the muscle. Now, with all static stretches,
00:05:3500:05:41
you're going to hold for 30 seconds to 2 minutes waiting for that golgi tendon
00:05:4100:05:46
organ to override our muscle spindles, create something called autogenic
00:05:4600:05:52
inhibition and get a release so we can then lengthen that fascial network that
00:05:5200:05:57
is part of our muscular system, and get this muscle to adaptively lengthen,
00:05:5700:06:01
fixing, hopefully, the postural dysfunction that we've assessed, and
00:06:0100:06:04
we're now trying to improve upon. I hope you enjoy the stretch, I hope you
00:06:0400:06:08
get some great results, and I hope you see a big change in your movement