The Muscles In The Back Of The Neck

This muscle is the most difficult of all to feel, but it is also the one most frequently used. While there are two muscles back there, we are concerned with only one (the trapezius) but we will test it at two places.

First we test the shoulder muscle directly. Here you pinch the shoulder muscle between the thumb and the first finger. This can be painful. Press as hard as you can without too much pain since the pain alone can influence your breathing. Now take a full breath and see if you can feel any tensing of the muscle. Do it a few times to be sure. This is shown in Figure 43, left.

Figure 43

Finally we need to test the same muscle at the very back of the neck. Here you cup your hand and press your fingers into the back of your neck just to the side of the spine. This would be hard to see if I took a photo of the position with the model lying down, so I show you this in Figure 43, right, with the model standing. Your little finger should be slightly below the base of your skull. This will work for people with both short and long necks. Take a few full breaths and try to feel for any tensing. Then move your fingers a little bit to the edge of the back of your neck and feel again for any tensing.

You can find drawings and discussion of the trapezius muscle starting on page 169

By now you know three things: (1) is the chest expanding or is it either just rising or not moving at all; (2) are you using your diaphragm to move the chest; (3) are you using the accessory muscles of respiration. If you are using any of the accessory muscles then you will want to use the appropriate exercise below to correct the problem.

Working On The Accessory Muscles Of Respiration

Arms Over Head

This one is designed to work with the muscles at the top front of the chest (the pectorals). If they are chronically tense (more common in the chest held high position) then you need to get them to relax. This is best done with pressure. Use the pads of your four fingers to press into the muscle on the opposite side (Figure 44 on page 138, left). Press only as hard as you can tolerate without excessive pain. If you can hold this pressure for about 10 minutes (on each side), it should leave the muscles slightly sore for a day or two. You keep doing this session after session until the tension is minimal.

Once your pectoral muscles are relaxed then the issue is to not use these muscles during the inhale to the chest. This is easy to stop simply by placing your arms all the way over your head (not toward the ceiling, but toward the end of the bed, Figure 44 on page 138, right). Breathe with your arms in this position. This position of the arms prevents the pectoral muscles from having much effect on the breathing.

Figure 44

Head To Chest

This one is designed to help with the problem of using the accessory muscles at the front of the neck and also slightly one of the three accessory muscles at the side of the neck.

Recall from the previous discussion that this can be done two ways. One is to use pillows under the head to force the chin onto the breast bone (Figure 39 on page 132, right). The other is to place your head against a wall or a bed board, again so that the chin is forced onto the breast bone.

In this head-flexed position, breathe chest only. The goal, in the end, is to be able to expand the chest just as much with the head flexed as with the head in the normal lying down position.

While this head-flexed position takes care of the muscles in the front of the neck and has some effect on the muscles on the side of the neck, it still allows use of the muscles at the back of the neck and the muscle at the back part of the side of the neck.

Side Head Posture

We have looked at the muscles in the front of the neck and at the back of the neck, but we also have the group at the side of the neck. Here we have a bit of a problem.

The head to chest exercise has had some effect on the use of the muscles at the side of the neck for inhaling. However, we have not really stopped their use, only made them less effective in producing an inhale by raising the chest.

In this exercise you bend your head to the side so that your ear is touching your shoulder (or as far as you can go). This does not stop the use of the muscles on the stretched side, but it does stop them on the bent side. Obviously then, you are going to breathe for a while (let's say five minutes) with your head on one shoulder and then switch to the other shoulder.

Since this exercise does not completely stop the use of the muscles on the side of the neck opposite to the bent side, how can you tell if you are using those muscles?

Surprisingly, there is a simple way. With, for example, your head against your left shoulder, place the first finger of your right hand in the middle of the side of your neck

Pressure is not needed. If you are breathing properly with the muscles between the ribs you will feel a slight relaxation of the muscle when you inhale. If you are using these muscles, you will feel a slight tensing of the muscles, the more so as the inhale proceeds to the deepest degree.

Figure 45

Then the question is what do you do if you are using these muscles to breathe? The answer here is to use pressure on the muscle. Use the pads of your fingers (using the end gets the nail biting in and produces unnecessary and non-functional pain). Place your four fingers in the middle of the side of your neck with your little finger near your jaw and press in to the level of pain tolerance. Unfortunately, I don't have a photograph of that so a description will have to do. If, as you are sitting reading this book, you place your right hand against your neck such that you little finger is against your jaw, then the pads of your four fingers will be against the neck and ready for the pressure. Hold that as long as you can while you breathe. It does not hurt the process to remove your fingers for a while and then return to the pressure. Do not use so much pressure that you can hold it only for a few breaths, that is too much pressure. Use as much pressure as you can tolerate but still continue your breathing. The longer you can do this, the better.

This process will take quite a few sessions to have its effect. Obviously you would do the same on both sides. You can know you are doing it well if your muscles are a bit sore the day after you do your breathing work

Head Off Bed, Breathe Chest Only

Now we can take care of the muscles both at the side of the neck and at the back of the neck. We will simply stop them from doing much work by the same kind of trick, in reverse, as we did for the muscles at the front of the neck.

Move to the head of the bed and keep going. Your legs are still bent in the normal working position, except now you are going to hang your head over the end of the bed. This is not a partial hanging where the bed crosses your neck. No, it is all the way. The end of the bed is where your shoulders are and, in fact, even that might be a little short. Keep moving toward the end of the bed until your head is just totally hanging down. See also Figure 98 on page 231.

Figure 46

Now breathe with the chest only. Go for the complete expansion, just as if your head were still on the bed. Dizziness and even slight nausea are not uncommon in this body position. Unless you have problems with your spine in the neck area, the dizziness and/or the nausea are unpleasant but otherwise harmless. If you do have problems with your spine in the neck area, check with your chiropractic physician, osteopathic physician, or orthopedic specialist before you do this exercise.

For people who use the accessory muscles of respiration at the back of the neck (and this is the most common form of accessory muscle use) this exercise proves tiring very quickly. Go for as long as you can and stop. There is always the next time. If this exercise is difficult for you it only serves to show you how much you are using these muscles to raise the chest rather than the intercostal muscles to expand the chest.

Arms Over Head, Head Off Bed

This is an advanced form of the "head off the bed" exercise just described. Here, in addition to having the head off the bed, you also raise your arms all the way and let them also hang off the bed.

Figure 47

What this adds to the exercise is that now you can also not use the pectoral muscles (the breast muscles) to raise the chest instead of the muscles between the ribs to expand the chest.

Since we are always interested in getting the chest to move with the proper muscles of respiration (the muscles between the ribs), use of this exercise is put off until you have that part mastered. Use the tailor's tape measure to see that the chest is expanding. What you do here is use a paper clip to hold the tape measure at the full exhale position and then do the hands over head and breathe to see if the chest diameter increases.

Figure 48