In this video, I'm going to show you how to relieve neck
pain at the base of the skull at home using no special
equipment. Stay tuned.
Hey, everyone. Dr. Rowe coming to you from SpineCare
in Saint Joseph, Michigan. In this video, we're going to deal
with the muscles at the base of the skull. Notably, the
suboccipital. When these become tight and achy, they can
cause a lot of issues including tension headaches, loss of
motion into the neck, and just downright pain. So, I'm going
to help show you how to relieve this in a very easy
step-by-step guide. We're going to focus on self massaging
those muscles, stretching them out, and then also
strengthening them. So hopefully, we'll have a lot
less issues of neck pain in the future. All of these exercises
can be done at home. Don't require any special equipment
and make it quick relief, even in as little as thirty seconds!
So, let's get started and get rid of that pain at the base of
the skull right now. One of my favorite ways to treat pain at
the base of the skull is with a method called Gua Sha or muscle
scraping. It's really easy to do. It can give quick relief.
As a bonus, it can really help with headaches, improve
circulation in those muscles in the neck, and just improve
overall range of motion. I'm going to be using a large metal
spoon. You want one that's a little bit more thick because
you'll get better results. You'll also want a form of
lubrication such as massage lotions, you can use any muscle
creams, you can also use over-the-counter pain lotions
such as Icy Hot or Biofreeze. We just want to make sure to
coat the whole area of the neck, at the base of the skull
because at that point, we won't have any friction or causing
any irritation I should say. So, let's start in a chair in
very good upright posture. What I'm going to do is take the
spoon. It doesn't matter if you use the tip right here or the
rounded portion. I like to use the tip because I can put
my finger right there and dig in and just get a little bit
better results with it, but I'm going to start right at the base
of the skull. It doesn't matter what side you start on. We're
gonna go over the whole thing. So, go right at the base of the
skull and do nice, slow strokes downwards into the mid neck.
When you do this, apply enough pressure where it feels like a
very gentle self massage but not causing any discomfort.
What you want to do is very slow strokes, do about five of
them and then just move over and then pretty much go from
the right all the way towards the left. When you do this, you
might notice that one certain spot will start to feel gritty.
At that point, that's a spot of adhesion and that's one that
you'll want to note and make -- kind of throw some more
repetitions in there because at that point, it should help
break it up and give more pain relief and hopefully, also, more
range of motion. You probably won't see it yourself but maybe
on the video right here, as I start to go down, you'll notice
that red pockets start to form over that area. That's blood
flow coming to area to promote healing. It's improving
circulation into that soft tissue but just do this slowly
all the way from the right all the way towards the left and
make note of any spot that feels gritty and attack those
adhesions and if you do feel that one spot like maybe right
over here on the left, feels just a little bit more tight,
achy, and painful, throw more repetitions in there to break
that up and hopefully get some more pain relief. From there,
you can use different parts of the spoon. Sometimes, I like to
just put my thumb right here at the round portion and then
kind of just do a self-massage with it. Just go down and just
go over the whole area. What we want to do is concentrate also
on range of motion, improve that. So, turn your head all
the way towards the left like looking over your shoulder and
then repeat this process. You'll notice that this hits
the muscles just a little bit differently. Again, any spots
that feel locked up, tight, and achy, throw more repetitions in
there to help loosen that up and then go all the way towards
the right and repeat. You can also do lateral bending. That
is taking the ear towards the shoulder. And then just repeat
this one right here. What we also want to do is focus on
flexion, going all the way down like this and then extension
and repeating this process. One of my favorite ways to open up
the neck and get a lot of pain relief is what I call the
armpit sniffer. So, if I have a lot going on in my right side,
what I'm going to do is look towards the other side's
armpit. In this case, would be my left. Go all the way down
towards your armpit and then from there, I'm going to take
the arm on that side's hand. So, this is my left hand, grab
at the back of head and pull down even further for a passive
stretch. You should really concentrate on feeling this
from the mid neck all the way up to the base of the skull.
From there, just dig into those muscles, explore the area,
target spots that need it just a little bit more but go
through all of these, take what is most effective and focus on
improving range of motion with attacking those adhesions and I
hope that this gives a lot of headache and pain relief very
quickly. So, with this exercise, I like to call it the
anywhere stretch because you can pretty much do it anywhere,
at home, or at work and it doesn't require anything other
than just using your thumbs. It's a two-part exercise. So,
in the first part, we're going to do what is known as a neck
or head retraction. Let's start off in a chair. Have very good
upright posture. What we want to do from there, two fingers,
drive the chin backwards. When you do this, you should feel
the muscles throughout the neck really engage even more so into
the base of the neck. Really focus on that. Once we hit a
very comfortable stretch right here, what I want to do is hold
this for about ten to fifteen seconds. From there, you can
relax and then repeat this up to five times. With each
repetition, drive back a little bit further to stretch more
into those muscles. If you want to take this one to the next
level, what you can do while you're doing this retraction
right here, take your thumbs and press right at the base of
the skull right over those suboccipitals and do just nice
circular motions and it feels wonderful. You can just move
over different spots while you do the stretch to get a little
bit more self-release. If you want to take this one to the
next next level. Let's go back into that neck retraction but
look up towards the ceiling. This will put a lot more across
the base of the skull right here into those muscles. So,
focus on driving back into a retraction and then looking up
towards the ceiling. Again, hold this one for about ten to
fifteen seconds. Relax and then repeat up to five times. You
can also take your thumbs and then start to go over different
areas that you feel are tight and achy while you do the
stretch to get a little bit more release into those muscles.
In the second part, we're going to do the armpit sniffer.
This really opens up the neck on one particular side. So,
let's say that I want to focus a little bit more on my right
side. I'm going to look down towards my left side's armpit
as much as I can. Let's take the arm on the left right here,
grab the side of the head, and then pull down into a passive
stretch. You should pretty much feel it from the mid neck all
the way up to that base of the skull area. Focus on that as
much as you can. Hold this for ten to fifteen seconds. Relax,
repeat up to five times. You can also take your thumb and at
that point, attack those tight, achy muscles to get a little
bit more relief in there too and at that point, always
switch to the other side to keep them both in balance. Good
way to just take tension out at work, get rid of headaches very
quickly, and hopefully get a lot of pain relief too. So,
here's another great exercise that you can pretty much do
anywhere and you can do this one standing. What I'm going to
start off with is very good upright posture. Take two
fingers, place them the chin and do a slight chin tuck
towards the chest. Take the chin down as much as we can.
What this will do is cause the head to go into flexion and
you'll feel a very good stretch into the neck. Really focus on
feeling that stretch pretty much from the mid part all the
way up to the base of the skull. Once we hit a very
comfortable stretch, I'm going to take the other hand, place
it on the back of the head right here and then pull
forward as much as we can. This will cause a passive stretch to
happen into the neck. So, what I'm focusing on doing is
driving the chin down towards the chest and then pulling
forward with my hand. Once we hit that comfortable stretch,
let's hold this for ten to fifteen seconds. From there,
relax and then repeat this three to five times. With each
repetition, always stretch into it a little bit further to get
a better stretch. To take this one to the next level, let's
take one hand, the webbing right here from the thumb to
the pointer finger and you'll have to bear with me on this
one because I probably won't be able to communicate as well.
I'm going to put it right on the jaw just like this and I'm
going to drive my head into a retraction that is bringing it
backwards as much as I can. You should really feel the muscles
activated into the neck. Once we hit that very comfortable
point, I'm going to take my hand again, place it on the
back of my head, and then I'm going to pull forward. So, I'm
pressing into my jaw like this to get that retraction and then
pulling forward and this feels wonderful. Really focus on
feeling it throughout the whole neck into the base of the skull
into those suboccipital muscles. Hold this one for ten
to 15 seconds relax, and then repeat this one three to five
times. It's just a good way to take tension out anywhere, help
relieve headaches, pain, and improve range of motion and
also improve forward posture which is a big cause of neck
pain to begin with. So, without a doubt, if we would like to
decrease future instances of neck pain, we have to
strengthen everything in and around the neck. Here's a
wonderful combination exercise. It's a neck retraction and
shoulder swimmer exercise that will help not only decrease
neck pain but also help improve forward leaning posture. This
one is best done at the edge of a bed. I'm going to start off
on my stomach, position my upper body to the point where
my arms and my neck are going to be off the side. Let's start
off with a simple neck retraction. Take two fingers,
let's put our chin into a slight chin tuck for better
posture and then drive upwards with our fingers until we feel
the muscles throughout the neck start to activate and start to
fire. Once we hit that point, I'm going to take my fingers
off and the muscles are going to be challenged to keep this
retracted position. So, again, make sure that you feel the
muscles firing throughout the neck at the base of the skull
also. What I'm going to do from there is the swimmer position
and this one will focus a little bit more on the upper
back even more so into the base of the neck. We're going to
bend the elbows at 90° like this and then drive our elbows
up towards the ceiling. Almost kinda like pinching our
shoulder blades in the back also. A lot of muscles should
be firing at this point. What I want to do there is then turn
my elbows I should say my shoulders like this to the
point where my hands are facing in front of me I'm then going
to straighten my arms as much as I can when you do this it
usually is pretty challenging you'll feel the muscles in the
upper back the shoulder blades all throughout the neck really
firing try to hold this position for about five to 10
seconds from there you're going to slowly come back drive the
elbows towards the upper back and you'll feel the muscles get
activated just a little bit differently again try to hold
that one for five to ten seconds. From there, take a
breather, relax, and then repeat this up to five times.
With each repetition, try to retract the neck just a little
bit further, drive those elbows up to challenge those muscles
to hopefully get them a little bit stronger, lead to less
issues in neck pain, headaches, and just improve overall
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