A new manual muscle test for assessing the entire trapezius muscle.

Unlabelled: Manual muscle testing (MMT), the trapezius muscle is an important part of the examination in patients with upper extremity dysfunction or pain.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess the reliability and validity of a new MMT that assesses the entire trapezius muscle instead of the usual method of separating it into three different parts. The new trapezius MMT is similar to the serratus anterior muscle test; however, the testing is performed in the frontal versus sagittal plane.