u/Extreme_One1875

The highlighted areas in the photo are where I feel the most tightness and pain, it's constant, and it regularly triggers headaches too.

I already know the root cause: poor sitting posture has weakened certain muscles, so my traps are overcompensating and getting chronically overworked. What I'm struggling with is actually fixing it.

Stretching and massage give me maybe 30 minutes of relief before it comes right back. At night it gets bad enough that I can't sleep without some painkillers or muscle relaxants, which isn't sustainable.

I go to the gym 3-4 days a week, so I'm not starting from zero I just need to train smarter for this specific issue. A few things I'd love input on:

-Which muscles should I be strengthening to take the load off my traps?

-Anything I should avoid or dial back in my current training?

-How should I train these muscles? heavy with low reps, or light with focus on form and activation?

I've seen a lot of generic advice online but I want to hear from people who've actually dealt with this. Any help is really appreciated 🙏