Sue Falsone: Shoulder and Neck Tension
A clip from Sue Falsone’s The Cervical Thoracic Junction
Shoulder and Neck Tension
The scapulothoracic area is where a lot of people carry their stress. This is an area where a lot of people carry their tension. They have tension headaches. They get pain in the back of the head. They’re always rubbing in this area. I remember growing up, my mom would always say, “Rub my shoulders. I’m so tense in this area.”
When people are sitting on airplanes and when people are sitting at their computers or whatever it may be, the shoulders and neck are areas of stress and tension. The body likes homeostasis, so keep in mind the other things that are going on in the front of the neck.
We have the esophagus that runs right down the front of our neck. When we start to talk about tension, think about the long tube that goes all the way from your mouth, the esophagus, into your stomach, into your intestines, the rectum and the anus. That’s one big, long tube and what happens is this area starts to create a lot of tension.
But, the body likes homeostasis, so what happens? The stomach area—the core area—gets a little bit more flaccid. How many of our patients or how many of our athletes have what we would consider a flaccid core or an inactive core, and yet carry a lot of their tension in their shoulders?
When we’re dealing with the scapulothoracic area, we can’t just help decrease tension in the shoulders if we’re not giving the system some stability somewhere else. We have to give the system stability somewhere lower in order to help balance out the homeostasis the body is constantly trying to seek.
If you are interested in Sue’s work with athletes, you can learn more in her book, Bridging the Gap from Rehab to Performance.
There’s much more on the neck and shoulders in Sue’s videos and talks:
The Cervical Thoracic Junction – video
The Cervical Thoracic Junction – audio
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