Have you ever had a pain that’s right behind your neck and just behind between your shoulder blade and your spine?

It the type of pain that makes most people go crazy trying to reach their hands behind their head to rub their neck and shoulder.

While the pain is commonly associated with the levator scapula muscle, it’s not always the root of the problem.

Serratus, Rhomboid & Trapezius: The Real Causes of Your Pain

The pain in this area is not usually caused by the levator scapula, but from three other muscles.

The area between the shoulder blade and the spine is a very complicated area. This is where three separate muscles all lay on top of each other. If one of the muscles is irritated, then they all are:

1. Serratus Posterior: The bottommost muscle of the three, connecting the shoulder blade to the spine and ribs.
2. Romboid Major & Minor: These muscles lay on top of the serratus posterior, and connect the shoulder blade to spine.
3. Trapezius: The large, major back and neck muscle that is the outermost of these three muscles. The trapezius attaches to the base of the skull (the occipital ridge) in the back of your head, the spine in your neck, out into the back of your shoulders, and down into the middle of the spine in your back.

This is part of the reason why shoulder muscles can give you neck pain, and vice versa. It can be next to impossible to figure out which specific muscle is irritated.

Treatment for Neck & Shoulder Pain

The good news is once you know how to treat them, relieving your neck & shoulder pain is simple, quick and easy!

They are treated in the same way as the infraspinatus muscle.

Place a tennis ball or a lacrosse ball on the floor or hold it onto the wall behind you.

If your right shoulder, upper back and/ or neck are bothering you, place your right hand on your left shoulder.

Sandwich the ball between your back and either the floor or the wall. While keeping your right hand on your left shoulder. Get the ball into the sensitive area between your right shoulder blade and your spine.

And lean into it.

Between the top of the shoulder blade and the spine, near the bottom of your neck, there will be a very sensitive spot.

This trigger point is where the rhomboids, serratus posterior, trapezious and levator scapula all arelocated. You can hit them all there.

Lean into it and enjoy the exquisite pain.

There will also be more sensitive spots as you roll the ball farther down along the inside border of the scapula.

Have a pain free day.