Trapezius muscle

[julie1435]

I am new to this board and I am wondering how many other people have problems with this muscle? My neck and top of my shoulders get so tight I have gotten cortizone shots, trigger point shot, in my trapezius muscle. I am prescribed a muscle relaxer and a anti anflammatory on top of my xanex and zoloft. Nothing is helping me with the tightness and pain. The first cortizone shot I had worked perfectly and I felt relief for abot a month. I had to wait the full 3 months before I could get another one. The second one didn't help as much and I still felt very tight and sore. I have woke up with a locked jaw from the tightness in my neck and shoulders. I would say out of 4 weeks in a month I am unable to fully turn my head or lift my arms 2 weeks. It isn't everyday but probably a whole week of pain then a few days without and so on. Does anyone have a solution for this? Besides stop being so stressed, or relax, or breathe? Thanks for any help.

[Andy_14]

What kind of shape are you in?
If you have postural problems you will need to address them. Go see a physical therapist. The upper back and neck are definitely places where the body accumulates stress, so it is vital to keep that area and the rest of your body in good shape. Working out will release a lot of the stress in your back. I do shoulder presses, lat pulls, bent over rows and a set of excercises called Blackburn or Hughston excercises. You can also do reverse shrugs (behind your back). Do you experience any pain or discomfort in your chest or around your sternum? If you back is weak the muscles up front will contract and pull your shoulder out of alignment causing pain around your sternum and possibly your bicep. No doubt that your problem is anxiety related but it is also probably postural. If you have had bad posture for a number of years you will have weak abdominal and upper back problems. You can take as much dope as you want for stiffness and soreness but if your skeletal muscles are not strong enough to do their job you will not get much relief.
Sorry to say but if you really want relief from this problem you are going to have to come to terms that it is not going to be something easy to fix. I have been going to the gym and working on my problem with my left Trap for over two years and I still have problems with my trap and neck although I am thousands of times more comfortable now than I was before I started.

In my opinion you will need to hit bottom on this. When I was finally sick of having back pain I started forcing myself to sit up straight and practice good posture all day long. I was in burning agony. My back hurt so much all day long but I wanted good posture and freedom from back pain more than I wanted to avoid the pain. After a few months I started going to the gym and working out the specific weak muscle groups. Now I only have some problems with the muscles that weave the spine together and a few other deep layer muscles. These are hard to target effictively without special equipment, so my progress is much slower now. But since I do not want to be hunched over and in extreme pain as an old man I keep going.

If you have a big gut you are going to have to address weight loss if you have back problems. Weight up front will pull your lower back forward and cause your shoulders to slouch. Bad posture results.

So, it sounds like its physical therapy and the gym for you. It sounds like the doctors have already loaded you up on dope and its not working. I am not a physical therapist, so you should not take my advise as anything more than advice to see a specialist in these types of problems.