Sloped/Thick Shoulders(Overdeveloped Trapezius Muscles)

When we are looking in a mirror and thinking what our next beauty fix is going to be, we tend to go straight to the idea of improving our face and overlook the potential improvement on our body shape. When you are in a crowd of good-looking women, how do you stand out from the crowd? After watching a few beauty pageants, there is one part of the body that can catch other’s eye and make you shine in the crowd. This is the shoulder line.

Introduction

Trapezius muscle is a triangular, surface muscle started at the base of your neck, extends across your shoulders and down to the middle of your back, and attaches to the scapula and clavicle (collarbone). A pair of trapezius muscles form a long, quadrilateral-shaped muscle. This is the muscle that contributes to the contour of our shoulder.

Generally speaking, the trapezius muscle is the muscle connecting the neck and shoulders, as shown in the below figure.

Trapezius muscle is a large muscle that facilitates the functions of our neck and shoulder. Some shoulder features such as shrugged shoulder, sloped shoulder and short neck are related to trapezius muscles. People with overdeveloped, muscular trapezius muscles always give an impression of a thick shoulder and lacking of a bony shoulder silhouette which is also one of the reasons for a sloped shoulder.

A sloped shoulder is characterised by a large angle （≥20°）between the horizontal plane and the shoulder line, which will result in the appearance of a shorter neck and a wider shoulder.

Causes

A shoulder lack of a 90° feature is mostly caused by the big, overdeveloped trapezius muscles, resulting in an unwanted appearance of a short neck. How did we develop oversized trapezius muscles in the first place?

1. Rounded shoulder and hunchback

Firstly, people with rounded shoulders tend to round the trapezius muscles forward, resulting in a thicker shoulder.

Secondly, a rounded shoulder will elongate the trapezius muscles and cause the loss of mechanical balance of the muscle. In order to regain the balance, the trapezius muscles will grow bigger and stronger, which leads to a thicker shoulder.

2. Sloped shoulder

Sloped shoulder is a common shoulder condition living in a modern life, it directly showcases the unnatural thickness and development of the trapezius muscles.

3. Shoulder shrugging/prolonged bad posture

Maintaining a bad posture for a certain period of time will cause muscle tension such as around the neck and shoulder, the muscle may end up tightened and develop bump-like knots over time. Some common bad postures are hunchback, forward head, slouching and shrugging. If the trapezius muscle is in tension for a long period of time, it will get stronger and bigger, which will lead to a thicker shoulder. Not limited to bad postures, our breathing habit, moving posture or walking posture can affect the usage of trapezius muscles.

4. Improper usage of muscles

When girls lift up heavy items, due to the lack of strength from arms, they will alternatively and unconsciously seek energy from the trapezius muscles. If it is done too often, the muscles will get trained unexpectedly. Therefore, we better keep in mind which muscles we have been using in daily life or working out in the gym. You do not want to wrongly train the trapezius muscle while you wish to reduce it.

○ In general, sloped shoulders are an inborn problem that is related to development of the skeleton and muscle. Exercise or workout are not able to improve it.

Symptoms

A sloped shoulder is characterised by a large angle （≥20°）between the horizontal plane and the shoulder line. It also has a muscle knot that indicates overdeveloped trapezius muscles. Sloped shoulders will change the appearance to a shorter neck and a wider shoulder. If it happens on chubby people, the overdeveloped trapezius muscles will make them look bigger.

Affected people

How to examine whether you have overdeveloped trapezius muscles? Stand up with hands on your hips, stretch your shoulder backwards. Then reach to the shoulder, if you feel hard knots on the shoulder, it indicates that you have overdeveloped trapezius muscles.

Treatment

The amount of fat deposited at the shoulder is relatively smaller compared to other parts of the body. Therefore, a thick shoulder usually implies overdeveloped trapezius muscles. To fix overdeveloped muscles, shoulder slimming injection is the most effective and highly recommended treatment.

A.Shoulder Slimming Injection

What is shoulder slimming injection:

Shoulder slimming injection (also known as Type A botulinum toxin injection) is a treatment that works on muscle. It has been proven to be safe and effective. The production of human-use medical botulinum toxin was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 1992.

How does it work?

Botulinum toxin temporarily blocks the neural communication between nerves and trapezius muscles, relaxing the muscles by stopping it from contraction. The relaxed trapezius muscles will then lose their size. As a result, smaller trapezius muscles will restore a slimmer shoulder and a balanced shoulder line.

Procedure:

1.  Face to face consultation: Doctor conducts evaluation of the trapezius muscles and provides professional advice on whether shoulder slimming treatment is recommended.

2. Pre-treatment preparation: Local anesthetic (if needed). Clean and disinfect the injection site. Confirm the injection solution.

3. Injection: Inject Type A Botulinum toxin solution (shoulder slimming solution) into the overdeveloped trapezius muscles.

4. Post-treatment precautions.

Duration: 30mins

Who is it for?

• √  People who have short neck caused by overdeveloped trapezius muscles;

• √  People who are slim but do not have defined collarbone;

• √  People who have overdeveloped trapezius muscles caused by improper workout posture;

• √  People who have neck and shoulder pain, or tight and stiff shoulder or back;