08/25/2026
If you’re constantly cracking your neck or your shoulder tension always comes back, the problem might not be your shoulders at all.
Here we are working on a sneaky and often overlooked muscle called the Medial Scalene.
It inserts into the second rib and gets overused when you breathe from your shoulders and not from your diaphragm (which you do when you sit).
If you ever feel like you want to crack your neck all the time, you need this muscle worked on. It can also feed into numbness in your fingers and can also be an active trigger point for that tension in the middle of your shoulders. So if you’ve ever gotten a massage where they pound out your shoulders and then the tension comes right back, it’s because they weren’t working on the root cause. Which can be this teensy muscle on your neck.
Sometimes the smallest muscle makes the biggest difference.
Have you ever felt like you need to crack your neck all day?