Hi Kaitlin,  after seeing a number of medical professionals, my massage therapist is the only one who has come up with anything.  Shrugs from olympic lifting, forward head posture that I had for years (used to sit at a desk with my head forward) and whenever I lift, my neck gets very stiff (hard to me to stay relax).  The forward head posture is something I have improved over the years and well relaxing during lifts only works for some movements. I did suffer a shoulder injury 1.5 years ago and one of the goals of rehab was to make upper back muscles do less work.  The active rehab and shoulder mobility have kept my shoulder out of injury but my neck persists in being a problem?

Hi Kaitlin, I don’t believe my belt directly sits on my hip flexors. From a standing position it is right at the upper hip bone level and when sitting, the bottom of the belt does not tough my thigh (almost but not quite).  Unfortunately the belt has to be tight, I’m hoping the extra padding will help. Plan B is to move things around on my belt and shift some weight to the left side — this is not my first choice as I’ve been using my belt the way it is for 8 years.