The next and major muscle you will feel is the one we are trying to locate, the medial scalene. Except in the rare case where it is not tense, it is big and tight and you can not miss it.

You can use pressure at either the lowest point at the bottom of the neck or higher abut 2/3 of the way to the jaw (Figure 64).

Middle Side Of The Neck medial scalene 77

Figure 64

Another way the helper can aid the worker is by pressing the head against the shoulder (Figure 65). This can be tiring on the helper, so sides should be changed as needed.

Middle Side Of The Neck medial scalene 78

Figure 65

Back Side of the Neck (posterior scalene)

Now you are going to locate the posterior scalene for pressure. This is easy to locate once you have located the medial scalene. As you move your finger backward (toward the bed) you will feel a very slight kind of indentation between the two muscles (between the medial scalene and the posterior scalene). This is not a big indentation, it is simply a place where your finger goes just a tiny bit more into the neck (assuming your finger is pointing toward the other side of the neck). Behind this slight indentation you will come upon another very prominent muscle. This is the posterior scalene.

If you move rapidly backward from the medial scalene you can easily miss the posterior scalene and confuse it with the front fibers of the trapezius (which we will look at next). So move slowly the first few times you locate the posterior scalene so you can become accustomed to the feel of the movement and the feel of the muscle.

Pressure on this muscle is directly into the neck (that is, side to side). This is illustrated in Figure 66.

Back Side of the Neck posterior scalene 79

Figure 66

The Trapezius Muscles

The trapezius is shown in the next figure.

The Trapezius Muscles 80

Figure 67

This muscle runs from all along the cervical (neck) and thoracic spine (thorax simply means chest or upper back) to the outer part of the scapula (wing bone) and, most important, to the base of the skull. It is the main muscle used to keep our head from falling forward (the head is front heavy and would fall forward onto the chest if it were not held back by muscles at the back of the neck). I will look next at what the helper can do with the trapezius muscle, but here I have to emphasize a bit of the anatomy of this muscle. Above, I have drawn two circles; and a box on the left side. The two circles indicate where, in fact, you are applying pressure to the front fibers of the trapezius. You'll see this shortly when we look at Figure 68. Now look closely at that boxed area. Hopefully you can see that the trapezius muscle actually twists in this area such that muscle fibers that were in the front of the muscle are now on the side of the muscle. The best place to get at these twisting muscle fibers is at the back of the neck area. Well cover that when we get to Figure 69.

The Front Fibers Of The Trapezius

The Back Fibers Of The Trapezius

Front Fibers Of The Trapezius Muscle

Pressure here can work wonders. However, the pressure can also be hard on the helper. First the finger nails must be clipped. The pressure is with the ends of the fingers or the thumbs so the nails must be clipped.

The pressure must be directed to the right place and in the right direction. The pressure should be as long as the helper can tolerate and as strong as the worker can tolerate. Ideally, pressure should be on both side of the neck at the same time. If your hands or strength in your arms can not do both sides at the same time, then simply alternate between the right and the left sides.

Front Fibers Of The Trapezius Muscle 81

Figure 68

The way to get to these fibers of the trapezius muscle is simply to change the direction of pressure you were using on the back muscle of the side of the neck. In the figure above (Figure 68) note that the direction of finger pressure on the back muscles of the side of the neck. For pressure on the front fibers of the trapezius the elbow is raised and the direction of pressure is downward towards the feet and backward toward the bed.

Harking back to Figure 67 on page 170, we are putting pressure on the circles on the diagram.

That may seem difficult, but you will get it quickly and be able to go directly to this pressure on future sessions.

Back Fibers Of The Trapezius Muscle

Here, again, the helper can aid the worker by using pressure. As always, pressure here will require that the finger nails be clipped and filed so that the nails do not dig into the skin.

What I have done here is to cut out a part of Figure 67 to highlight just the back of the neck region.

Back Fibers Of The Trapezius Muscle 82

Figure 69

You can see in Figure 69 that there are three muscles at the back of the neck The muscle coming all the way up on the extreme right and extreme left pointed to by the arrow on the right is just that old SCM muscle again. The upward sloping line on the right points to the levator scapulae muscle. It has no effect on breathing and thus we ignore it. However, in most people this muscle is very tight and thus pressure on it is quite painful. This muscle should be avoided. Avoiding this muscle is easy, as the next paragraph will explain.

We care only about the trapezius muscle which is in the center of the figure (horizontal line on the left of the figure). As you can see, at the base of the neck the trapezius occupies the whole area. As you move upward the trapezius narrows to be only near the spinal column. Therefore as you move upward with your pressure, you also move inward toward the spine. The pain that may result from pressure on the trapezius feels, to the worker, very different from the pain if you happen to get onto the levator scapulae muscle. There is no harm, simply move your fingers or the pressure device nearer to the spinal column.

Back Fibers Of The Trapezius Muscle 83

Figure 70

Figure 70 shows two ways to put pressure on the trapezius. Note that in both cases the head is turned to the side.

The Muscles Between The Ribs

The single most effective pressure for freeing the chest is pressure on the small muscle between the ribs. This pressure, in almost all people, is quite painful. Unfortunately, there is no way to get away from this pain and still get the effect. That is not to say that this is an excuse for some minor sadism; rather like most pressure it should be done to the level of toleration of the worker. This is a place, however, where the worker should accept as much pain as he (she) can tolerate. Remember, pain is only present when a muscle is overly tense. When the muscles between the ribs release their held tension, the pain all but disappears.

Footnote 23. Pressure devices are shown in Figure 134 on page 316 and Figure 135 on page 317.

The anatomy of the muscle between the ribs is shown in Figure 16 on page 71. I noted there that: "The external intercostal muscles are used during inhalation. They extend from about under the nipple line around back all the way to the spine. The internal intercostal muscles are used during (forced) expiration. They run from your breast bone around the side and to about mid back."

Let's consider that description. If the helper uses pressure just next to the breast bone, he (she) is putting pressure on the internal intercostal muscle and that will have its major effect on the worker's ability to exhale. As one would say in Reichian therapy, it will have its major effect on allowing a full exhale.

If pressure is applied on the muscles at side of the chest, then the pressure would be applied to both sets of intercostal muscles.

Just as pressure at the breast bone only affects the internal intercostal muscle, so ideally we would like to be able to apply pressure only on the external intercostal muscle. Unfortunately, that is not possible. The only area where there is only external intercostal muscle is near the spine. Next to the spine there is such a thickness of other muscles that we can not get to the intercostal muscles.

Thus for pressure on the intercostal muscles we use pressure next to the breast bone and then along the line of the ribs to about the middle of the side. It does little good to have the worker turn over so that the back of the ribs is exposed. Even when one goes, let's say, in the middle of the back one is pressing through the trapezius muscle to try to get to the intercostal muscles and that just doesn't work all that well. Consult the diagram on page 170 and you can see how other muscles in the back are covering the ribs.

Pressure between the ribs near the breast bone is best done with the knuckle of the first finger. Do both sides at the same time if you can. You can also use a tool like the one shown in Figure 135 on page 317. Start at the muscle between the 1st and 2nd ribs and work down. Don't get confused by the collar bone. There is a muscle under the collar bone, but it has been deliberately ignored in this discussion.

Here, again, we have to make a distinction between a male worker and a female worker. Pressure on female breast tissue is painful and OF NO PURPOSE. If the worker is a female then try to move the breast tissue out of the way; don't press through breast tissue. That, in turn, means that work on the intercostal muscles on females can only be done right next to the breastbone (where this is minimal or no breast tissue) and on the side of the chest — where breast tissue prevents work on the center of the chest — but then back again to the center and side beneath the breast tissue.

For males, pressure can be applied to the intercostal muscles over the whole extent of the chest.

For pressure on the intercostal muscles other than right next to the breast bone, the most effective way is with the thumb. That can quickly become uncomfortable for the helper. The thumb may be supported by wrapping the first finger behind and around the thumb.

That's a lot of data, but a little review never hurts.

1. We had mild but continuous pressure on the diaphragm.

2. We had downward pressure on the lower ribs also to work on the use of the diaphragm.

3. We had pressure on the abdomen.

4. We had pressure on the pectorals.

5. We bypassed pressure on the SCM because it is too painful.

6. We had pressure on the anterior scalene.

7. We had pressure on the medial scalene.

8. We had pressure on the posterior scalene

9. We had pressure on the front fibers of the trapezius.

10. We had pressure on the back fibers of the trapezius in the back of the neck.

11. We had pressure on the intercostal muscles