Back & Neck Pain Treatment Home Office Ergonomics Guide Home Office Ergonomics Guide Overview Your Back Back Pain Exercises Anatomy General Tips Products Holistic Help Your Neck Neck Pain Exercises Anatomy General Tips Products Holistic Help Your Eyes Eye Strain Exercises Anatomy General Tips Products Your Shoulders Shoulder Pain Exercises Anatomy General Tips Products Your Wrists Wrist Pain Exercises Anatomy General Tips Products Your Hands Hand Pain Exercises Anatomy General Tips Products Your Hips Hip Pain Exercises Anatomy General Tips Products Your Knees Knee Pain Exercises Anatomy General Tips Products How to Self-Massage Your Trapezius Muscle Help relieve stress and tension due to long hours at the computer By Anne Asher, CPT Anne Asher, CPT Facebook LinkedIn Anne Asher, ACE-certified personal trainer, health coach, and orthopedic exercise specialist, is a back and neck pain expert. Learn about our editorial process Updated on February 24, 2022 Medically reviewed Verywell Health articles are reviewed by board-certified physicians and healthcare professionals. These medical reviewers confirm the content is thorough and accurate, reflecting the latest evidence-based research. Content is reviewed before publication and upon substantial updates. Learn more. by Stuart Hershman, MD Medically reviewed by Stuart Hershman, MD LinkedIn Stuart Hershman, MD, is a board-certified spine surgeon. He specializes in spinal deformity and complex spinal reconstruction. Learn about our Medical Expert Board Fact checked Verywell Health content is rigorously reviewed by a team of qualified and experienced fact checkers. Fact checkers review articles for factual accuracy, relevance, and timeliness. We rely on the most current and reputable sources, which are cited in the text and listed at the bottom of each article. Content is fact checked after it has been edited and before publication. Learn more. by Angela Underwood Fact checked by Angela Underwood LinkedIn Angela Underwood's extensive local, state, and federal healthcare and environmental news coverage includes 911 first-responder compensation policy to the Ciba-Geigy water contamination case in Toms River, NJ. Her additional health-related coverage includes death and dying, skin care, and autism spectrum disorder. Learn about our editorial process Print If you work in an office, do manual labor, or simply have a lot of stress in your life, chances are your upper trapezius muscles are constantly tight. These are the muscles that go across the tops of your shoulders. Tight trapezius muscles have a nasty habit of limiting your neck, arm, and upper back movement. When you can soften and release this area, you'll likely find you feel better, you've improved your upper body posture, and have increased your energy. The problem is, most of us don't have concierge massage therapists who accompany us through all we do, for those times when we get tight. So if there's no one around with whom you feel comfortable enough to ask for a massage, you'll either need to take care of it yourself or continue to suffer under the weight of too-tight trap muscles So if you're game to be your own upper traps massage therapist, here's a simple technique that takes less than 5 minutes to complete—and is very easy to learn. Sam Edwards / Getty Images Preparation The first step is to accurately locate your trapezius muscle. This is a big muscle with three different parts in three different areas of your back, spanning the bottom of your skull, across your shoulders, and down most of your back. It is the main focus of this technique. You need only locate the upper portion (again, at the top of the shoulder). This part of the trapezius muscle is called the upper trapezius (or upper traps, for short). To find, cross one arm in front of your body so that you can place the palm of your hand on top of the other shoulder. Next, we'll locate the origin of the upper traps, i.e. where the muscle connects to a bone. The origin of the upper traps is actually a complicated matter, but for our purposes, we'll visit two of its places. The first one is on the bottom of your skull, close to the center of the back of your skull. A good learning experience is to start there with your fingers and trace the muscle down the back of your neck to the place where the shoulders start to widen out. If you get lost, try to locate the vertebra at the base of your neck (in back) that kind of sticks out. That's called C-7 and is another one of the upper trapezius's origin sites. On either side of that bump, you can walk your fingers on either up or down the muscle to re-locate the origin at the base of the skull, discussed above. If you were a professional massage therapist you'd likely want to also locate by palpation (which is what you just did by touching the muscle in specific places) the insertion (other ends) of the trapezius muscle. For basic stress and tension relief techniques such as the one described below, though, this isn't necessary. In truth, the insertion of the upper traps is even more complicated (and therefore difficult to accurately locate) than the origin. Self-Massage Technique So, are you ready to try this? It's a good idea to do one shoulder at a time. Beginning at the base of the neck, use one hand to knead the muscles located at the top of the shoulder on the opposite side (of the hand you're using.) The action is similar to kneading bread dough. Work with a slow, rhythmic action, moving out toward the arm in increments. Use a pressure that is deep enough to make a difference, but still feels good (and safe.) In the field of massage therapy, we call this "the good hurt." Repeat 2 to 3 times on that side and then do it again on the other shoulder. Remember to relax and enjoy! An Overview of Eye Strain (Asthenopia) Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Sign up for our Health Tip of the Day newsletter, and receive daily tips that will help you live your healthiest life. Sign Up You're in! Thank you, {{form.email}}, for signing up. There was an error. Please try again. What are your concerns? Other Inaccurate Hard to Understand Submit 4 Sources Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. Marker RJ, Campeau S, Maluf KS. Psychosocial stress alters the strength of reticulospinal input to the human upper trapezius. Journal of Neurophysiology. 2017;117(1):457-466. doi: 10.1152/jn.00448.2016 Domingo AR, Diek M, Goble KM, Maluf KS, Goble DJ, Baweja HS. Short-duration therapeutic massage reduces postural upper trapezius muscle activity. Neuroreport. 2017 Jan 18;28(2):108-110. doi: 10.1097/WNR.0000000000000718 University of Washington Department of Radiology. Trapezius. MedlinePlus. Palpation.