Here are some quick and easy steps to take to put a stop to tension headaches and neck pain.
We’ve just learned how exercise can help reduce and even put an end to low back pain; now we’re going to learn how exercise can get rid of those tension headaches you feel in the back of your neck. Maybe you don’t get headaches, but do you ever feel there’s a crick in your neck or your upper back and shoulders are sore? These are all signs of a postural problem. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think tension headaches in the back of the head, a sore upper back, and sore shoulders sound like much fun. So what can you do about it?
The number one group of people who develop these problems are those who sit at a computer desk all day long. Your body starts to adapt to the way you sit at your desk, and if you’re constantly looking down at a computer screen and reaching forward to type, your muscles started to form to this posture. This is why it’s so important to sit up straight in your chair, sit close enough to your desk so that you don’t have to reach forward to the keyboard (elbows should be at about a 90-degree angle), and keep your computer screen at eye level. If you have a laptop, as I do, this can be very hard to do since the keyboard is right where the screen is; it’s impossible to keep your computer screen at eye level because if you did, you would be reaching up to type.
Not too cool.
What I try and do is sit up straight, keep my stomach tight, and keep my shoulders back. By doing this, I can help prevent my head from falling forward, as well as rounding my shoulders forward.
Even if you don’t sit at a desk throughout the day, there’s still the possibility of developing these postural problems, especially if your exercise program is top heavy on chest exercises and doesn’t contain many back exercises. Depending on how bad their posture is, I typically have my clients do 2-3 back exercises for every chest exercise. In today’s society, a lot of times our chest muscles are worked too much, and our back muscles aren’t worked enough. What does this mean? It means that typically the postural problems that cause tension headaches in the back of the head, as well has upper back and shoulder soreness, are a result of tight chest muscles and weak back muscles.
Can this problem be fixed? Yes; it really is quite simple if you’re faithful to regularly doing the right balance of exercises. Guys, especially, like to lose the gut and build the chest and arms. The problem with this way of thinking is that when they’re focusing on their chest so much, they tend to neglect working on their back. When a muscle is stressed through resistance training, it becomes tighter, so when a guy focuses on his chest, his chest becomes tighter. Try this; go walk around in a public place and look for a guy who’s pretty built. What do you notice? Most of the time, he walks with his shoulders rounded and his hands in front of his body. (Proper posture is hands to the side of the body.) This, most likely, is because he focuses too much on chest exercises and not enough on back exercises. His chest is so tight, and his back is comparatively so much weaker, that he has developed this postural problem.
Even though this may be an extreme example of an upper-back postural problem, the same concept still applies to the desk jockey. By sitting in front of a desk all day, our chest muscles tighten and some of our back muscles weaken or get stretched out; our neck muscles also develop problems by some becoming too tight and some becoming excessively stretched out. These problems can result in abnormal levels of tension that lead to strain in our neck and back.
So what can you do to fix this problem? Besides those with problems more severe than what can be corrected through exercise alone, the first step is to focus on your shoulder blades. I tell people to pretend someone has their fingers in between your shoulder blades. When you do back exercises, such as a row, concentrate on pinching their fingers with your shoulder blades. By pinching your shoulder blades together, you’ll start to strengthen the rhomboids, the muscles that are most responsible for keeping your shoulder blades back. Another very simple exercise is to hold your arms straight out in front of you. Without any weight, pinch you shoulder blades together while keeping your arms straight. It’s simple, but yet effective, at getting the process going of “un-rounding” your shoulders.
The next exercise you can do is to practice pulling your head back. It may look funny, but by staring straight ahead and pulling your head back so that your ears are directly over top of your shoulders, you can start to correct your neck from causing your head to lean out over your body too much. (One technique that may help you with this exercise is to slightly tuck your chin in when you pull your head back.)
The average weight of an adult brain is 3 lbs.1, and not to sound like a freak show, but I’ve heard it said that the average adult head weighs approximately 8-12 lbs. Can you imagine how much stress is on your neck and the back of your head when your head hangs out over your body? It’s like holding onto a weight. If you hold it straight over your head, it’s not too bad, but as soon as you move it slightly out in front of your body, the weight feels heavier and heavier. This is why it’s so important to correct this postural problem because now you understand that if you don’t, the tension headaches will keep coming.
The next thing to do to get your posture in line is to stretch your chest. Making a 90-degree angle at your elbow and armpit, stand with your arm against a wall. Your fingers should point straight up toward the ceiling, and your arm should be parallel alongside your body. (Don’t let it fall in front of your body.) The foot that is closest to the wall should be in front of you. Slowly rotate out from the wall while maintaining the positioning of your arm. As you do, you should feel a slight stretch in your chest. When you feel this stretch, hold for 30 seconds and repeat it 2-3 times. After you finish with the one side, switch to the other side. By performing simple chest stretches, such as this one, you can start to lengthen out your chest muscles, which will help decrease those rounded shoulders.
That’s it! Remember to perform 2-3 back exercises (while pinching your shoulder blades together) for every chest exercise you do. By doing so, you’ll strengthen those back muscles so that they can bring your shoulders back where they should be, and being stronger, they’ll be more resistant to becoming rounded again. Follow these exercise recommendations, perform the simple exercises and stretches talked about, and sit up straight. Doing so could be all it takes to help you put a stop to those nasty tension headaches and unpleasant shoulder and neck pain.
References:
1 Martini, F., Timmons, M., & Tallitsch, R. (2003). Human Anatomy. (4th ed). London, UK: Pearson Education.
Dan Falkenberg, BA, ACE-CPT, NASM-PES
Dan Falkenberg is the cofounder of Your Live Trainers. He can be reached at DanFalkenberg.com.
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