West Hollywood Chiropractic: Exercises For Neck And Upper Back Pain Relief

I have been showing you exercises to strengthen your upper back, primarily the lower trapezius muscles.  The trapezius is a large diamond-shaped muscle that connects the neck to the shoulders (scapula or shoulder blades).  Although the trapezius is one muscle, we split it into regions based on the actions each does.  So the upper trapezius shrugs the shoulders, the middle trapezius retracts or pulls back the shoulders, and the lower trapezius stabilizes the scapula by anchoring them down so that the arms can do overhead movements.

When the lower trapezius gets weak, it disrupts shoulder biomechanics and can lead to an upper trap-heavy posture, including neck and upper back pain  One way to correct this is by doing wall slide exercises.  Wall slides are NOT lat pull downs; it is a separate and distinct movement, which requires no weights.  Watch the video below to get an idea of how to do proper wall slides.