Thanks for your email. Most massage chairs massage the upper back and neck pretty good. I don’t think zero gravity or the stretching program would affect the neck region too terribly much, but it would have some effect for the shoulder blade area. Depending on your budget, I might suggest the following chairs to address your neck and between the shoulder blades:

1. Osaki OS-6000 or 7200H – great massage between the shoulder blades and neck; deep and thorough. The roller “balls” seem to be smaller lending to a more specific-feeling massage on those muscles. Some other chairs, like the Osaki OS-7075R have a more broad contact from the rollers thus making the massage feel less specific as they roll over muscles between the shoulder blades and in the neck.

2. IT-8200 or 8500 from Infinite Therapeutics – although the massage intensity cannot be adjusted on the remote, it has a very good and intense massage between the shoulder blades and neck. These models have become quite popular.

3. HT-7120 by Human Touch – not a lot of frills, but the rollers are pretty intense between the shoulder blades and on the neck. It has an intensity adjustment on the remote to increase or decrease the intensity of the massage rollers.

4. I really like the Infinity IT-8500 (as mentioned in #2 above) and Doctor’s Choice massage chair by Inada for the airbags that inflate on the front of the shoulders. These airbags pin the shoulders back while the rollers go up the spine between the shoulder blades which really enhances the intensity between the shoulder blades. This is a new feature that we don’t see on a lot of massage chairs, but something that I really like. This feature also helps to straighten out a slumping posture.

I hope this helps in some way.  Let me know if I can assist you in any other way in your massage chair shopping process.

Dr. Alan Weidner

www.massage-chair-relief.com