The scalenes are a group of muscles that attach to the sides of your neck vertebrae and to your top two ribs on each side of the neck. The muscles help to balance and support the weight of the head along with raising the upper two ribs each time you inhale. They are active in each breath you take and work especially hard during vigorous activities.
There are many normal activities that cause pain when the muscle is overworked. Working on a computer, driving a car, or operating equipment with arms lifted for hours can be troubling. Carrying a heavy backpack or purse will stress these muscles as they remain contracted for long durations. If you have ever been in an auto accident or had a fall will also bring on trigger points to these muscles.
You rarely feel the pain in the scalenes themselves because they send referred pain down to the shoulder, upper back, chest, arm, and hand. They can be the real source of carpal tunnel symptoms. The pain sent to the chest from the scalenes can be mistaken for angina. Referred pain sent to the shoulder is usually mislabeled as bursitis or tendonitis. When these trigger points persist, they can shorten and contract the scalene muscles, squeezing the nerves that pass through the area down the arm causing swelling, numbness, and tingling called thoracic outlet syndrome. Once you understand that these problems could be coming from the scalene muscles in your neck, the solution is very simple.
If you know where the sternocleidomastoid muscle is it is easy to locate and treat the scalenes. (Learn where at Mastering your SCM muscles – Tom Spiros TPS Wellness ) First grip your sternocleidomastoid between your fingers and thumb like you would massage it. The anterior portion of the scalene muscle lies beneath the SCM. You can press with paired fingers as you push the muscle down and across the neck about an in, then release the pressure and repeat the stroke. Feel around for any areas of pain as this is an indication of a trigger point.
The middle scalene is more exposed directly on the sides of the neck. Continue to press down and across the muscle for five or six strokes, moving the skin below up to an inch or so, then repeat the stroke.
To treat the posterior scalenes use the hand with the best access and pair your fingers. You can work down where the trapezius attaches to the collarbone and all the way up behind the ear. Press down with your paired fingers searching all along the muscle for tight sensitive areas. Pressing for 30 seconds then moving on along the muscle.
Just do what feels right and massage the whole side of the neck feeling and pressing out any tight bands of muscle. You will notice that trigger points here make you cringe and duck or can even bring on referred pain to another area. You don’t need to worry these muscles can have strange pain signals. Stay clear of the front of the neck as there is no reason to put pressure on anything in front of the SCM. Use a steady pressure of 7 or less on a scale of 1-10, where 1 is very light and 10 is very painful pressure. Continue with these treatments several times per day for a couple of minutes until the knots are gone and you will find pain problems in the shoulder and upper body will diminish.
