In physiotherapy, the goals are not only to combat the symptom “headache”, but to achieve long-term improvement through posture training, muscle building and everyday handling. This prevents consequential damage and eliminates unpleasant headaches. Posture training always starts at the feet to stabilize the entire muscle chains from the ground up.
Exercises
1) Exercise against headaches In the seat, the feet are positioned parallel and hip-wide. The knees are parallel to the front and are also about hip-wide apart. The upper body is straightened by tilting the pelvis slightly forward.
However, not so far that the lower spine moves into the hollow back. The hands hang to the side of the body – or are placed on a table to the front to imitate the office situation – and the gaze is directed forward. Now the heels are slowly pressed down into the floor as if trying to push it away.
The body seems to grow a few centimeters. The tension is maintained. In addition, the buttocks and abdominal muscles are gradually tensed so that the shoulders can sit relaxed and upright on a straight trunk.
The forearms are additionally pressed into the table top with palms facing down, the sternum is directed forward and upwards. Finally, the head is lolling straight up, the chin is pushed back slightly downwards, so that the cervical spine has room to grow long. Staying in this position – be careful not to tense up – breathing deeply and evenly into the abdomen a few times.
Then all tension is released, the body is moved and loosened once and finally the body tension is built up again step by step from bottom to top. For your own help, a mirror or before-and-after picture can be used. This exercise against headaches should be done regularly, under control, as a self-exercise at home and especially at work, until finally, without much thinking, a healthy and stable posture can be adopted in everyday life.
In physiotherapy, additional resistance can be placed on the body in an upright position to further strengthen the muscles. In order to influence the neck in particular, the physiotherapist can use his hands to give resistance to the head and shoulders, which the patient should not be able to move. 2) Exercises against headaches Another exercise for the head-stabilizing muscles starts in the supine position.
The head lies flat, the feet are raised. The neck is stretched long, the chin is pushed backwards and downwards like a double chin. Now the back of the head is pressed strongly into the pad and held.
Breathing deep into the belly is also done here. Take a few breaths to hold the tension, release and rebuild it. If the exercise is well mastered, in addition to the tension and the stretched cervical spine, the head can be lifted slightly from the support and held.
- In everyday office life, these exercises against headaches can also be performed simply at the desk. Always build up stability from below, stretch your neck and move your head slowly and evenly up and down.
- Often the simple neck extension already has a relaxing effect on headaches.
- To get the necessary exercise and thus stimulate your blood circulation and circulation stimulation on the computer, place your water glass on another table or shelf so that you have to get up every time to drink something. Drinking is also very important to counteract headaches.
- Other simple movement exercises for everyday life are shoulder and arm circling.
- In addition, the entire musculature around the neck and throat, as well as the entire rear muscle chain and the chest muscles in front should be stretched regularly.
The stretching exercises are taught in physiotherapy and are initially performed a few times under supervision.
Stretching positions are held for about 30 seconds before they are slowly relaxed so that the muscle fibers have enough time to separate from each other. This article may also be of interest to you in this respect: Headaches due to a pinched nerve in the cervical spine 3) Exercises against headaches For neck stretching, an upright position is taken. The head is tilted to the side so that the right ear approaches the right shoulder.Attention – the shoulder is not pulled up.
The shoulder blade of the same side is pushed down towards the buttocks and away from the ear. In order to have more influence on the back of the neck, the head is now turned from this inclined position to the right so that the chin points towards the shoulder. To increase the stretch, the chin is pushed slightly backwards.
To have more influence on the front of the neck, the head is turned from the inclined position again, but to the upper left. The head is placed slightly in the neck. Through the variations even the most tense areas and the location of the headache can be influenced.
4) Exercises for headaches To stretch and loosen the entire rear muscle chain, the upper body is slowly inclined to the floor from a standing position until it hangs down loosely. The arms and head also hang loosely. An attempt is made to release any tension from the neck.
Then the back is straightened vertebra by vertebra, the body is stretched once and repeated several times if necessary. 5) Exercises against headaches To open the chest and stretch the chest muscles all that is needed is a wall. Stand next to the wall, stretch one arm backwards (palm facing the wall) and turn your body away from the wall and arm.
Depending on the height of the arm, all parts of the large chest muscle can be stretched. So hold the arm once higher, once at shoulder height and once lower. More exercises can be found in the articles: The posture training starts with strengthening the ankle joint, uses the knee school, strengthens the hips, strengthens the trunk and stabilizes the cervical spine. Often isometric exercises as well as coordination and balance exercises are trained for this purpose.
- What is the best way to relax the cervical spine?
- What is the best way to stretch the cervical spine?
- Headaches caused by the cervical spine
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