How to Release Tension in the Upper Back

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Gretchen Rivas with Relax To The Max Massage Therapy and today we're going to talk about relieving tension in the upper back. The upper back is where most people carry and store a lot of their tension from work, from family, from life, from stress, everything that comes our way seems just to get lost in the neck and the shoulders these days. So what you want to do is come through and really want to open up this area between the shoulder blades, 'cause this seems to be where a lot of people hold a lot of their stress and tension. You can often find some little knots and muscular spasms in here. So you can warm this area up first and then when you come back up through here, when you feel some specific knots, if you just press on those and stay on those for a little while, oftentimes, they'll release. If they're real painful for the person you're working on, make sure that you take your time, go in slow and get feedback from them as you go along. Another thing that really helps too is if you come of the spine and towards the scapula, this is the rhomboid area and this is where a lot of people hold everything. You can always oftentimes feel a lot of tension and knots in this area. You can open that up, rub the shoulder blade itself and then this area in the shoulders here where it connects to the neck, all these is really helpful for relieving tension in the neck and shoulder area in the upper back. And if, when you're done working on this area, make sure that you do some nice reconnecting strokes so that the person feels safe and soft and relax. And that's how you release tension in the upper back."