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Effects of cervicothoracic postures on the stiffness of trapezius muscles

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Abstract

The purposes of this study were to (1) examine the effects of different cervicothoracic postures on the stiffness of trapezius muscles and (2) compare the stiffness of the dominant and non-dominant trapezius muscles. Twenty-one healthy participants joined in this project. After maintaining different cervicothoracic postures for 2 min, MyotonPRO was used to measure the stiffness of the trapezius. The results showed that (1) the stiffness of trapezius muscles was significantly affected by different cervicothoracic postures. With the increase of neck flexion angle, the stiffness of the trapezius muscles increased (p < 0.05). The muscle stiffness of upper back relaxed was higher than that of upper back upright (p < 0.05). (2) The trapezius muscles on the non-dominant side were stiffer than that on the dominant side (p < 0.05). Poor cervicothoracic postures will increase the stiffness of upper, middle and lower trapezius muscles. Keeping the neck and upper back upright will keep the muscle stiffness at a low level, so as to reduce the occurrence of neck and shoulder fatigue and pain.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Prof. Chunlong Liu and Prof. Zheng Zhang for technical support and review of this manuscript. We also thank Qiming Zhang for his help in providing suggestions for this paper. We are grateful to the students of the Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine for participating in the study as subjects.

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  1. Clinical Medical College of Acupuncture, Moxibustion, and Rehabilitation, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, China

    Hongying Liang, Suiqing Yu, Man Hao, Weixin Deng, Ming Lin, Zheng Zhang & Chunlong Liu

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Liang, H., Yu, S., Hao, M. et al. Effects of cervicothoracic postures on the stiffness of trapezius muscles. Med Biol Eng Comput 60, 3009–3017 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-022-02655-4

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