Hi Friends! The holidays are here! With the holidays comes change, stress, but also fun new activities and traditions. We trade quiet evenings for shopping sprees, gentle walks for countless trips to the attic for boxes of decorations, and sitting comfortably on the couch for hours of wrapping presents on the floor or driving to visit family.
All that extra hustle, combined with the usual stress of the season, lands squarely on your shoulders and neck. That familiar tension—the “Holiday Hang-Up”—can turn festive cheer into neck pain and headaches.
I’m here to provide you with some small but powerful tips to keep your holidays magical without – or with minimal- aches and pains.
What Causes the Holiday Hang-Up?
Your body’s natural reaction to stress and strain is to guard itself, activating those “elevator” muscles: the trapezius and the levator scapulae muscles.
The Present-Wrapping Posture
Think about your posture when you’re wrapping gifts on your living room floor:
- Forward Head: Head tilted down to measure cuts.
- Rounded Shoulders: Hunching over the table or floor.
- Shallow Breathing: Holding your breath during ribbon work or when stuck in traffic.
This sustained, hunched posture signals your upper traps to stay constantly activated, leading to a very inconvenient knot or pain right before Christmas dinner.
The Scapula Stability Problem
Your shoulder blade (scapula) and the muscles attached to it are the foundation for your arm movement. When carrying heavy bags or reaching high for ornaments, if your stabilizing muscles are weak or have poor endurance, your neck and traps jump in to help, causing overuse and pain. We need to stabilize the foundation to relax the roof!
Quick & Instant Relief: Release Strategies
Use these simple techniques to interrupt the stress cycle and release tension instantly. Keep in mind these techniques are used to relief in the moment, but these exercises alone will not get to the root of your issues.
Find Your Holiday Calm with Diaphragmatic Breathing
Stress and shallow chest breathing are two of the biggest causes of upper trap tension. So stop breathing with those neck muscles.
- The Cue: Before you start wrapping another gift or opening the oven door, sit down and place one hand on your chest and one on your belly.
- The Action: Inhale slowly, aiming to make only your belly hand rise. Exhale slowly. This can immediately calm your nervous system and will tell your neck muscles to clock out.
Mobility Drills (Your Micro-Break Elves)
Take 30 seconds for these anytime you stop driving, wrapping, or standing in line:
- Chin Tucks: Gently tuck your chin as if making a double chin, feeling a gentle stretch at the back of your neck. Hold 3-5 seconds. Repeat 10 times. (Great for that “phone neck”).
- Shoulder Blade Squeezes: Sit up tall and gently squeeze your shoulder blades together and down, as if tucking them into the back pockets of your pants. Hold 3-5 seconds. Repeat 10 times.
The Long-Term Fix: Scapular Stability Training
To permanently shift the workload away from your overused neck, you need to strengthen the muscles that stabilize your shoulder blades.
The “W” of Wellness: Wall Slides
This exercise targets the muscles that pull your shoulders down and back, preventing that constant shrugging:
- Stand with your back to a wall, feet a few inches out.
- Place your forearms on the wall, elbows bent at 90 degrees (like a goalpost).
- Gently press your forearms into the wall while actively gliding your shoulder blades down your back, away from your ears (creating that “W” shape).
- Slowly slide your forearms up the wall a few inches, maintaining that down and back position in your shoulders.
- Slide back down. Repeat 8-12 times.
4. Holiday Posture Pointers & The Power of Those Micro-Breaks
The key to a pain-free holiday is consistency.
- The “Tall & Relaxed” Gift Cue: Whether you’re standing at the counter or sitting on the floor to wrap, imagine a string gently pulling you up from the crown of your head. Actively relax your shoulders down and back—away from those earlobes!
- The Shrug-and-Drop Reset: If you feel tension creeping up while struggling with a stubborn tangle of lights, briefly shrug your shoulders hard up to your ears, and then actively drop them down. This quickly resets the muscle pattern.
- The Rule of 30-60: Every 30-60 minutes, stand up, move, and do a few chin tucks or shoulder rolls. Don’t wait until the tension is crippling—prevention is the best gift you can give yourself!
This holiday season, give yourself the gift of a relaxed upper body. By incorporating these strategies, you can focus on the joy and connection, not the tension.
For more specific exercises and treatments for your neck and upper back pain, please reach out to Dr. Cherica to book an appointment. Remember these tips and tricks are to help with symptoms currently but will not fully “cue” your problem – that takes more work and guidance from your friendly neighborhood physical therapist.
Do you have any specific holiday activities, like baking or decorating, that you’d like an exercise plan for?
Call/Text 817.242.4435
Email chericadpt@pillar75pt.com
DM on Instagram @pillar75pt