Luke Lapsley, LMT

I wanted to let you know that I had surgery this morning, and everything went well. I’ll be taking the next couple of weeks off to rest and recover before returning to the massage room.

If you call or text during this time, I may not respond right away, but I will return all messages as soon as I’m able.

Thank you all for your patience, understanding, and continued support of my small business. I truly appreciate each and every one of you, and I look forward to seeing you again once I’m back and fully recovered!

I’ll be out of town the week of May 4th through May 8th.

I’m heading to Arizona to volunteer as a sports therapist for the Cocodona 250.

It’s a 250-mile ultramarathon, and I’ll be working with athletes along the course to help keep them moving and manage the wear and tear that comes with that kind of distance.

I’m really looking forward to the experience and learning as much as I can.

My goal is to come back with even more sports therapy knowledge to better help the athletes and clients I work with here.

If you’re needing to get in before then, make sure to plan ahead. I’ll be back to regular schedule after that week.

Why do your shoulders get tight when you’re stressed?

It’s not just “holding tension.” There’s actually a reason your body does this.

When you’re under stress, your nervous system shifts into fight-or-flight mode. Your body starts preparing to react to a threat.

Heart rate increases.
Breathing becomes shallow.
And muscles around your neck and shoulders automatically tighten.

Those muscles are part of your body’s protective system. They’re getting ready to help you move, react, or brace if something happens.

The problem is… most modern stress isn’t a short burst.

It’s emails. Deadlines. Phones. Busy schedules. Poor sleep.

So instead of tightening for a few minutes, those muscles stay slightly engaged for hours at a time.

That’s why stress often shows up as:
• Tight upper traps
• Neck stiffness
• Headaches at the base of the skull
• Burning between the shoulder blades

Your body isn’t broken.
It’s just responding to stress the way it was designed to.

The key is giving those muscles regular chances to relax and reset instead of staying “on” all the time.

Stretching your neck isn’t fixing your tech neck… and here’s why.

Most office workers I see are doing this:

Neck feels tight → stretch it
Feels better for 10 minutes → tight again

The reason?

Tight doesn’t always mean “short.”
It often means “overworking.”

When your head lives forward all day, those muscles aren’t just tight —
they’re constantly bracing.

Massage helps by:
✔ Reducing muscle guarding
✔ Improving blood flow
✔ Calming the nervous system
✔ Restoring normal movement patterns

You can’t stretch your way out of 8 hours of posture.

You have to reset the system.

If your head feels heavy by 3:00 PM… this is probably why 👇

The average adult head weighs 10–12 pounds.

But when you tilt it forward to look at your phone or computer?

At just 30 degrees forward, your neck is holding closer to 40 pounds.
At 60 degrees, it’s closer to 60 pounds.

That constant forward posture =
• Tight upper traps
• Stiff neck
• Headaches
• Burning between the shoulder blades

That’s what people call “tech neck.”

It’s not that you’re weak.
It’s that your posture has been under load for 6–8 hours straight.

Your body isn’t broken.
It’s just overloaded.

Parents of high school athletes 👇

If your kid is practicing 5–6 days a week and competing on weekends, their body is under more stress than most adults.

What I see often:
• Overworked hip flexors
• Shoulder strain from repetitive motion
• Low back tightness from growth + strength training
• Recovery that just isn’t keeping up

High school athletes are still growing.
Their nervous systems are still developing.
And they don’t always speak up when something feels off.

Massage therapy can:
✔ Improve recovery between games
✔ Help reduce overuse strain
✔ Support mobility during growth spurts
✔ Keep small issues from becoming season-ending injuries

Strong is good.
Recovered is better.