Make Headaches & Neck Pain Go Away

Are headaches and neck pain constant companions during your day at work or play? If the answer is yes, there may be a simple and long-lasting solution. Migraines, temple headaches, shoulder pain, stiff necks, sinus drips, and eye pain are often avoidable just by correcting your forward head position.

There is a cure, an easy DIY program to fix your headaches and neck pain. The good news is that it is up to you. That could be the bad news, too, but I have faith that you want to live a pain free life, so it’s a good thing.

You already know that drugs won’t cure the headaches and neck pain. At best, they put off the pain for a short while. The cure is not hi-tech. It is getting your head back on your shoulders and your shoulders back where they belong. Few cures can be more straightforward than that.

We live in a world of flexion, a world of forward, always bending forward, and that’s not a good thing. A little pullback, a little balance, some high and low back extension, a bit of upright now and then all help the body function as it was designed to do.

In yoga, there is a counter pose to every position. We need to add a counter pose to sitting and texting and computer use. For example, a counter pose to forward head and rounded shoulders would be an easy and simple backbend along with a set of standing arm circles. Just stand up and put your hands on your hips, lift up, and bend back from your waist. It can’t get much easier.

Sitting for hours on end, tightening up leg and back muscles that should be long and free to extend, just adds to the forward head and rounded shoulders condition. It doesn’t have to be. As I said, it’s up to you.

A forward head and rounded shoulders won’t cause immediate symptoms or pain; they aren’t traumatic injuries like breaking an arm. Yet, they will eventually cause real pain. It will sneak up on you because of repetitive movements and positions.

A forward head and rounded shoulders will change your natural walking patterns, forcing you away from heel-toe walking and to a forefoot-first pattern, which will weaken your arches, calves and further tighten your hamstrings. You can “get away” with this for years, but it will catch up to you. So why not correct it before it becomes a problem requiring therapy, medication, or surgery, none of which will address the actual cause of the pain?

Change is hard. Most of us resist change; what’s normal seems okay to us, until it’s not. Changing our sitting positions and our desk habits seems almost impossible, especially when we aren’t sure what’s wrong. What’s wrong is the neck and shoulder pain we have when we sit at the desk, watching TV, texting, or just moving about.

What is good sitting posture and what can we do to find it and to keep it? Good question, and here’s the answer. Your sitting bones are the key to good desk, eating, texting, and sitting posture. Try it. Sit down on a firm-bottomed chair and wriggle around until you feel both sitting bones leveled out and straight down on the seat. Stay there. That’s home base. Bottom line, your ears belong in line with your shoulders and your shoulders should be in line with your hips. But it all starts with your sitting bones. Let the bones be your guide.

If you sit on your sitting bones at the office, in front of your computer, on any surface, your shoulders and head will fall into place. There’s a natural neck and low back curve and you need to keep it. Slouch, lean back or forward, off the sitting bones, and you’re in trouble.

One of our therapists Kat Kohler created a video that will give you some guidance about sitting at the office. She offers exercises that will get you started on the way to a balanced head and well-positioned shoulders, as well as ways to improve your office to better prevent a forward head and shoulders.

Our Marketplace has a quick and easy Office Pain Relief Program for just $20 that will, I guarantee, correct a forward head and rounded shoulders and, even better, keep you that way. Try it. The exercises will make a difference.

If you have questions, would like to know more, please fill out the Contact form below and we will get back to you ASAP.

Be well.