Trigger point · Neck

Upper trapezius TrP1

The most famous trigger point in the body, and the one a client means when they say they have a knot in their shoulder. It sits in the free front edge of the upper trapezius — the band you can pick up between finger and thumb where the neck becomes the shoulder — and it refers in an unmistakable arc: up the back and side of the neck, around behind the ear, and into the temple. Therapists know that arc as a question mark drawn on the side of the head. This is the single most common source of tension headache, and it is the reason headache and neck tension are the same complaint rather than two. The point is also completely accessible: it is the one place in this file where the tissue producing a headache can be held between two fingers.