Question
Back in the beginning of January, I noticed that I was having lots of trouble with my right shoulder muscles (the ones right above the shoulder blade). They'd tighten up, and the tightening would cause my neck to tense up. It got worse until I could not hold my neck up straight for long.

It managed to improve however, so I can how hold my neck straight, and the while the tightness in my shoulder is still there, it's bearable. But now my neck is the one becoming tense, and since it "improved," I can now crack my neck (and get rid of the tenseness temporarily), just by raising my chin. I have to crack my neck every minute or so, or the tensenss becomes to tough to handle. Also, if I go to long, when I finally do crack my neck, I get the feeling that something is distinctly out of align, and that it's just "clicking" (sometimes painfully), back into place.

I have not had good posture for 10+ years, and I don't believe that the problem is excercise related. I have noticed that I tend to raise my right shoulder, as I'm used to leaning onto it.

Answer
Hello, Rachel,

Tight muscles account for your problems.  You're musclebound there and the muscles are tired.

Poor posture also comes from tight muscles (bones go where muscles pull them).

You can't successfully stretch out a muscle or adjust vertebrae (except temporarily) without retraining your control of the involved muscles so they come free and move freely.

I recommend a process called somatic training as a rapid way of improving such control.

Please see somatics.com for more information.  Also, see the article on stretching at somatics.com/page4.htm.

with regard,
Lawrence Gold