Headache Advice and Stretches to Help
Brought to you by Dr. Sajko - Chiropractic Sports Specialist
Info to consider
• These headaches can be defined as pain in a band form across the forehead often caused by muscle tightness or spassicity in the neck and shoulder region. These painful muscles or tight muscles can ofen refer pain to the head which causes a painful band or tightness around the forehead
• These headaches are commonly confused with migraines. Migraines typically cause visual disturbances, nausea and vomiting.
• Tension headaches are very common, affecting 30-80% of the population
• These headaches affect productivity, colleagues, friends and family because of the effect they can have on the person who is getting them
• One way to prevent these types of headaches is to frequently take brief breaks throughout the day and stretch in the shoulder and neck area to reduce build up of tension
Elbows in the Back Pocket
Benefits
• Stretches and relaxes the upper body, shoulder muscles and neck muscles, therefore, preventing any kind of tightness that can refer to tension headaches
• Relieves tension in the shoulder area which allows blood vessels to dilate better and reduce restriction of blood flow into the head
• Great for people who use upper body in one position a lot, such as those at computers,
Cautions
• If there is any pain, please see your doctor and get it checked out.
• If you have untreated high blood pressure, lifting your arms over the shoulder height will add blood pressure to the heart. Be careful and modify to not lift arms up as high
Key Points
• Maintain a neutral posture (straight back)
• When lifting arms up, lift them forward on a slight angle as though you are reaching for a shelf in a cupboard (as opposed to straight up over head)
• Let the elbows draw back which draws the shoulder blades together
• Draw elbows down towards the waist
• Inhale arms up, exhale them down
Instructions:
• From a sitting or standing position (it does not matter), bring arms straight out in front of you and raise the arms to just above the height of the head (height is dependant on you)
• As you exhale, draw the elbows back and concentrate on the shoulder blades moving towards each other
• Once the elbows are at about the level of the sides of the body, drop them down towards the waist as though you are tucking them into the back pockets of your pants
• Hold for 2-3 seconds while you continue to breathe deeply
• Begin the next repeat on an inhale as you bring your arms out in front and begin again.
• Repeat 2-3 times or more and as often as possible throughout the day. If you do a job or are in a task that uses a lot of upper body strain (such as typing), make sure you do this often for a 'quick' reliever of stress build up. Great advantage is that it feels awesome.
Basic neck stretches
Benefits:
• Lengthens muscles in the neck that may have pain referral from tight shoulders
• If you tilt your neck one way more than the other because of the way you hold the phone or the way your computer or other visual point is set up, this stretch can benefit you by stretching the tilted side twice as many times as the other side to bring about balance to the neck muscle area
• Reduces pain referral into the head area
Cautions:
• If you are suffering from an injury that has not been seen by a professional, please get it checked first. If there is any pain when you do this exercise please stop right away.
• If there is any swelling in the neck, please make sure you do not do this without seeing a medical expert first.
Key Points:
• Can be done sitting or standing
• Keep shoulders drawn down and aligned across from each other throughout the stretch.
• Draw ear towards shoulder; not the other way around
Instructions:
• From sitting or standing make sure your shoulders are in neutral position to start (shoulder blades drawn towards each other and down from ears)
• On an exhale, tilt the head so that the ear is drawing towards the shoulder
• Stay in this position for 10 - 15 seconds breathing deeply
• For increased stretch you can take your hand to the opposite temple and, using the breath, exhale and draw the ear closer to the shoulder. Breathe deeply and feel the opposite neck muscles lengthen and soften while you do this. Draw the shoulder away from the ear of the side that is stretching (slowly and with the breath)
• Make sure that while the neck is stretching, you are visualizing it releasing and softening and lengthening
• Bring the head back to neutral and repeat on the other side
• As an option if you have neck issues on one side, repeat with a ratio of 2 to 1 on that side so that it lengthens this side to be balanced with the other