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Monday Move
Instantly Release Shoulder and Neck Tension With This Counterintuitive Move
It looks a little weird but feels amazing — and could even help you feel less stressed.
Over the course of a stressful day, I can often feel my shoulders start to creep up toward my ears: I tend to hold a lot of tension in my trapezius muscles (they’re also always full of knots on the rare occasions when I treat myself to a massage). I sometimes notice this sneaky-shoulder trend in my personal training clients, too: When they’re working hard, their shoulders start to shrug up, up, up.
It’s always good to remind yourself to relax the shoulders, or let the shoulder blades glide down the back, but sometimes you need something a little stronger to get those trapezius muscles to let go. I’ve got just the move: a shoulder shrug with a forceful, strong release/drop. It may feel a little strange intentionally shrugging your shoulders when they’re already tense, but taking the muscle into full tension and then full relaxation will help train your body to notice when tension is sneaking in, and make it easier to release the tension in the future. All of this can even reduce the feeling of stress by mitigating one of the physical symptoms. (It’s sort of like very targeted progressive muscle…
