Back against the doorframe, knees bent, scooting up and down. There’s a knot under your shoulder blade, and your fingers stop just short of it.

A TENS unit, like an iReliev ET-1313, can reach it. It can take enough edge off that you can turn your head again.

So What Is That Lump?

Dig a thumb in and it’s like a frozen pea under the skin. Press hard and your neck might start to ache.

One little patch of muscle never got the message to relax. Blood barely gets through it, so it stays tender. Doctors call it a trigger point.

Janet Travell spent her career mapping where these spots send pain. One of her patients was President Kennedy. She’s the reason he had a rocking chair in the Oval Office.

Why Back Knots Keep Coming Back

Your mouse arm hangs out in front of you all day. The muscles between your shoulder blades hold it up the entire time.

Your gym bag always rides on the same shoulder. That trap never gets a break.

Knead a knot out on Monday and it can be back by Friday. The desk setup that made it is still sitting there.

Using a TENS Unit for Shoulder Knots

The TENS buzz can knock the ache down a notch for a lot of people.

EMS for muscle knots feels different. The muscle squeezes on its own, holds, and lets go. Give it a day after the worst soreness, and that rhythm can help a stubborn spot give.

You frame a knot instead of covering it. If it’s under your shoulder blade, one pad goes a couple inches above it and one a couple inches below. Keep both an inch off your spine.

Shoulder knots sit higher. One pad goes on top of the trap, halfway between your neck and shoulder. The other lands just under the knot. Neither belongs on the front or sides of your neck.

When Upper Back Pain Isn’t a Knot

Push on a knot and it complains. Pain that ignores pressure may be something else.

Your heart can send pain there too. A tight chest, or getting winded while sitting still, means call 911. So does a cold sweat or an aching jaw.

Pins and needles down your arm usually means a nerve. See a doctor before any pads go on. And if you have a pacemaker, TENS is off the table.

Keeping The Pain Gone

Elbows floating out when you type? Pull the keyboard in until they hang by your sides. Your upper back stops holding your arms up in midair.

Skip the doorframe. Drop a tennis ball in an old sock, drape it over your shoulder, and lean into a wall while you hold the sock end.

With the oven timer at twenty minutes, stick pads on either side of the knot and let a TENS unit for muscle tightness run.

Be sure to check out our other blog posts for information and more tips to keep you operating at your peak.