new back tips – muscle tension headache relief

When your head is held forward for extended periods of time, tension increases in the muscles from the top of your neck down to the top of your shoulder blades. The tendons of these muscles, as with all muscles, attach to bone. 

You may feel especially tender where these muscles connect along the ridge at the top of your scapula and just below the base of your skull… that’s where microfibers of tense muscles tear with movement, and create small pockets of inflammation, spasm, and what feels like “knots”.

And with your head and neck held forward, you will subconsciously use what is called the “righting reflex“ to adjust the position of your head, so that your eyes become parallel with the horizon. This compresses an area on each side of the base of your skull where the suboccipital nerves travel out to supply the muscles from the base of your skull, up and over your head to the forehead. 

Compressed suboccipital nerves are irritated suboccipital nerves and can easily tighten the muscles that cover the skull like a cap… causing muscle tension headaches.

Check out our videos on the “posture reset“ and the “middle back foam roll“. These stretch/exercise tools can help keep your head over your body and thereby, decrease the tendency for you to suffer muscle tension neck pain and headaches.

To combat the muscle tension in your neck, check out our video on the “stretch for stressed or strained neck“. And stayed tuned now for another simple exercise tool that will help you battle muscle tension headaches.

From the seated position, let your head and neck slowly fall forward until they are just hanging from an otherwise well postured upper body. Now, feel from behind your ears for your skull. Once you have it, slide straight down until you feel the large bumps on the outside of the bottom ridge of your skull. These are called the mastoid processes.

Once your finger on each side is touching the tip of the bottom of the mastoid process, take the flat part of each finger and apply mild to moderate pressure on the underneath aspect of the lower ridge of your mastoid processes… just inside (i.e. toward the center) of the mastoid process tip. You will feel as if you are supporting your skull from the back, bottom ridge.

Now hold that pressure while you slowly and rhythmically raise your chin up 2-3 inches above midline, and then down 2-3 inches below midline… repeatedly wagging your skull like a bobblehead, while maintaining the pressure just inside the bottom tip of the mastoid processes. 

The pressure should be enough to create reasonable discomfort, not stabbing pain… and after 6 to 8 wags of your head up and down, the pressure will have given you some measure of relief from your muscle tension headache. 

If you need more help and have access to an ice pack, place the ice pack at the base of your skull, separated from your skin with a thin, dry cloth. Apply on for as long as 30-minutes and off for 15-minutes… 3 applications should provide additional relief.

One additional tool to battle muscle tension headaches is the external use of peppermint essential oil. You need to first confirm, perhaps with your doctor, that you are not allergic to peppermint oil. If confirmed that you are not allergic, apply 3 to 4 drops of essential peppermint oil to your fingers and massage into the same place you were applying pressure to relieve your muscle tension headache… that is, just inside the bottom tip of your mastoid processes. Smells good, feels “tingly” good, and you may be surprised at the relieve you receive.

That’s it! You now have a finger pressure method and a couple bonus tools to get some relief on the spot from your muscle tension headaches.

Remember, when your alignment is less than perfect and/or you have suffered recent injury, joints get stuck, soft tissues have memory for what doesn’t work, and we can help. 

Contact us at New Back Chiropractic today. We can help you move better to feel better for life.