Two stretches can help daily tension headaches in Ada, MI

Mental tension is a fact of life for most people in Ada, Michigan. The pressures of work and life in general are ones that most of us deal with every day. However, these mental and emotional pressures can spill over into physical ones, and for this reason, they can lead to tension headaches. If you’re dealing with tension headaches every day, physical therapists in Ada can show you how to do two neck stretches that can help. 

1. Chin tuck

One of the places where tension can build up and cause headaches every day is the suboccipital muscles. These are four pairs of muscles found at the base of your skull, and tension in these muscles can make it feel like you have a tight band around your head. Your local physical therapist can show you several stretches to help reduce this muscle tension. 

An example of a stretch they can show you for tense suboccipital muscles is the chin tuck stretch. Before you start this stretch, you’ll need to get into the correct starting position: Sit in a chair with your shoulders back and your head centered over your body. 

From this starting position, push your head straight backward until your chin meets your chest. This should cause you to feel a stretch in the muscles at the base of the skull. Hold this stretch for 10 to 15 seconds, and then return to the starting position. Repeat these steps until you’ve done the stretch for about one minute in total. You can do this stretch throughout the day if your neck muscles start feeling tense again. 

2. Neck rolls

The neck roll is another stretch that your therapist may recommend to you to treat daily tension headaches, since this stretch targets multiple neck muscles at the same time. It’s also easy to do it at home, at work or on the go. 

To begin this stretch, you’ll want to sit or stand up straight, and you should pull your shoulders back slightly and center your head over them. Once you’re in this starting position, slowly roll your head in a circle to the right until you return to the starting position. Be sure to move in small circles at first to avoid increasing your pain. Continue to move your head in clockwise circles until you’ve completed about 10 repetitions. Then, reverse the direction of the circles, and try to complete another 10 circles in the counterclockwise direction. 

Advent Physical Therapy offers treatment options for everyday tension headaches in Ada, MI

At our clinic in Ada, the Advent Physical Therapy team offers effective physical therapy for many injuries and medical conditions, including tension headaches. Our team can help you find out the root cause of your headaches with a free screening. We can then use this information to build you a personalized treatment plan, and your plan may include therapy methods such as: 

• Instrument assisted soft tissue mobilization (IASTM)
• Cupping
• Manual therapy
• Therapeutic stretches

Contact our team today for more information or to schedule an initial appointment to start treating the root cause of your headaches.