This might be an area you don't know is tight until you get into it. The Sternocleidomastoid (SCM) muscle sounds strange. It's a muscle that has one branch that runs from your clavicle to the back of your head and another one that runs from you sternum to the back of your head. The body has many muscles that run in an X fashion to support the weight of the head on your shoulders.

The SCM works in flexion, rotation and lateral flexion of the neck. Many of us are restricted in this movement. In a perfect world, we should be about to turn out heads 90 degrees to the left or right without tipping it (so chin level to the floor).

We should also be able to side bend (or laterally flex) our head 45 degrees to each side without tipping the chin up or down.

And finally, we should be able to flex our chin to our chest (without hiking up our shoulders).

But, we don't live in a perfect world, so that's why we are doing these exercises.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Use two fingers or a very small, soft ball to rub the areas closest to your clavicle (collar bone) and sternum. Explore the tissue and locate any tender areas.

2. Press and hold briefly if you find a "trigger point."

   • A trigger point is an area where the muscles or fascia have formed a taut band of fibers and are tender.

REPS:

• You can do this twice a day.