Muscle · Neck

Levator scapulae

Musculus levator scapulae

Levator scapulae runs from the top four neck vertebrae down beneath the trapezius to the upper inner corner of the shoulder blade. It lifts the shoulder blade and rotates it downward, and with the shoulder blade anchored it side-bends the neck and helps extend it. Because it spans both the neck and the shoulder blade it sits at the junction of two problems at once, and it is one of the two muscles — with the upper trapezius — that Momentum's chart names as most reliably tight in desk-bound, forward-head, stressed clients. In that system the tightness is the compensation: cervical stability and scapular support are what actually need restoring.