Thread: Trap Imbalance?

Is there such a thing as a trap/upper back muscle imbalance that can cause discomfort? I believe I posted in another thread that pretty much it seems every time after I do overhead pressing, I get this horrible discomfort from the base of my skull to just under my shoulder level, it just feels like all those muscles are just tense, tense, tense, and there is nothing I can do to alleviate it short of taking advil (or of course not overhead pressing anymore, but I don't want that to be the solution)

I do not do any direct trap work, I usually let deadlifting take care of my traps, but now I'm wondering if I should throw in some heavy shrug work, and if that might help?

Shrugs target the upper traps correct? Maybe the overhead pressing is targeting a different area of my traps as stabilizers and they have become more developed/tighter than my upper traps?

does that make any sense?

Don't do shrugs! I had/have the same issue. I went to a new chiropractor (turned out hes a strongman competitor) and he gave me the scoop. I had a slight Rhomboid tear, and after that, was having the same trap issues you have. Symptoms sound identical, but could be from different causes. Take some time off from lifting and do some stretching for the traps/rhomboids/back. When you get back to the gym warm up really well, make sure to stretch before and after you lift, as well as during to keep it from tightening up on you. Go light for a few weeks, and avoid any upright row motions and things that put a lot of stress on those muscle. When you re-introduce those movements keep em light.

What injured mine was controlled range of motion movements (smith machines.. so evil) After I had the rhomboid tear on the smith doing an upright row, I pulled the same muscle doing incline presses on it.. go figure. Steer clear from the smith. This injury takes a while to heal so be patient.

All this of course is just from my experience. My chiro had me making improvements with LOTS of soft tissue work and adjustments. I'd recommend going to see a good sports chiropractor that does soft tissue work, a plain old crack session will not help you for this injury because the muscles are too tight to allow movement of the skeletal structure.

GL