oh hey everybody it's Doctor Jo and my pack. Bear, Kali and Remy. today we're gonna
show you the top seven treatments for a headache relief. so let's get started.
So if you haven't subscribed yet, make sure you
click on the button down there. so this is for headache relief in general, any
kind of headaches. but this is great for a Cervicogenic headache. and if you
don't quite know what a Cervicogenic headache is, you might have it and just
don't know about it. Cervicogenic headaches are really
based upon upper cervical issues of the segment the ligaments or the muscles and
these are actually about 20% of people's headaches. and a lot of times it is
one-sided. it's the we'll call it like a ram horn.
you'll feel the pain coming up around. sometimes it's kind of around the temple
area, but it usually comes from the neck all the way up, sometimes kind of back
behind your eye and a lot of times these are misdiagnosed as migraine headaches.
but it's really a mechanical dysfunction versus migraines which are usually like
a chemical dysfunction. so these are great for those as well and just in
general some headache relief, gonna make you feel really good. so the first one is
just gonna be a chin tuck. chin tucks are my favorite. if you've heard, watched any
of my neck videos, or other headache videos, chin tucks are really really
great for your neck, shoulders, everything up here because it's resetting those
muscles. and a lot of times headaches come from let's say we're working on the
computer or we're playing a game, we're even watching a movie, and we get closer
and we get closer like that, and then we end up straining all of these muscles in
our neck area. so a chin tuck is simple to do, and it's really effective. so it's not
tucking your chin down, but you're tucking your chin back. you want to keep
your chin in a neutral position here, so not down tucking in, up tucking in, but
right here, and then you're just taking that chin and tucking it in where you're
getting lots of little chins down here. once you get in this position, you want
to hold it for about three to five seconds,
and then relax. and a lot of times you'll notice that you might have started here
and then you do the chin tuck and once you relax your you have a big space in
between because it's resetting those muscles. so it's a really really nice way
to kind of get started, warm it up, stretch it out, and kind of
exercise those muscles a little bit. so holding it for three to five seconds,
just do about five of them. but you can do these several times throughout the
day because it's just a really nice way to kind of get everything going. another
great way to do a chin tuck is lying down or leaning against the wall. so
you're actually then pushing into something while you're doing the chin
tuck. you can roll up a towel if you want to if you have something like a pool
noodle or a smaller foam roll you can just kind of put it in the space of your
neck right here, and so we'll check and see if the pool noodle is enough, but
basically, excuse me basically, you just want to put it in the curve right there,
and then you're still doing that chin tuck. so this one isn't quite enough for
me, I've got a skinny neck, so I'm gonna use a little bit bigger foam foam roll.
so just putting it there and you're still doing that chin tuck where you're
pushing that chin in, but now you have something that you're pushing into. and
so you're just going to hold that for about three to five seconds and then
relax. so then it becomes kind of an isometric exercise. it's really easy to
do against the wall too, so if you're somewhere where you can't lie down on
the floor, you don't have something to push into you can do it just on the
floor if you want to and you're pushing in, pushing down towards the floor,
holding it for three to five seconds. but again pretty easy to do against the wall
as well, but while you're doing it make sure you're keeping that chin in that
neutral position. you're not tucking it down and in you're just tucking it in so
that's a great way to kind of get everything loosened up and going. so the
next one is going to be still using that foam roller, but now we're trying to get
that upper cervical area like the c2 vertebrae, c3 vertebrae, this up here. this
sometimes is really hard to get to yourself you get it mobilizing or moving a little
bit, so again using a foam roll is a really nice way to get that spot without
having to hold it or anything like that. and when these segments are kind of
stuck together or tight, that can cause a headache, so if you get more mobility in
there that loosens everything. so again coming back down onto the foam roll and
so now what I want to do is I want to put that foam roll up really close to
where my skull comes to my neck, and that's kind of where that c2 vertebra is.
and so you're just gonna place it there I like to hold on to the foam roll and
I'm just gonna gently rotate my head side to side. so you can do a continuous
motion like this, or you can do where you're turning your head a little bit
holding it for three to five seconds, turning it and holding it for three to
five seconds. sometimes people might feel some little pops. that's just your spine
kind of readjusting a little bit, so maybe if it's out of alignment a little
bit it's readjusting it. so that's normal as long as this is not painful. sometimes
it's a very nice relief when you get that little popping. okay so now I have a
little bit more movement in there. so be very careful when you're using the foam
roll, especially on your neck. if you feel dizzy, lightheaded, or nauseous, make sure
it's stopped immediately, and go see your doctor because that might mean something
a little more serious is going on. but don't try and work through that. if you
feel it make sure you stop completely. so then we're going to go into some chest
area stretches, upper back stretches because if you have a headache, a lot of
times this area might be contributing to that headache. so to help relieve it you
want to work all those areas. so the next one is going to be a scapular squeeze or
a shoulder squeeze, and all you're really doing is imagine that my hand is on your
spine in the middle of your back, and what you want to do is you want to take
those shoulder blades and try and squeeze them together. but the key is
keep your shoulders down. some people kind of like do up like this, but that's
not what you're doing. you want to relax those shoulders and just squeeze them
back. so if you can see you're just kind of squeezing those back a little bit. you
can see I'm moving my elbows a little bit. that I always feel like helps
especially when you're doing the first couple times to use your elbows to help
squeeze back, but don't just use your elbows to bring them back, make
sure you're activating those muscles in the back to bring those shoulder blades
together. so you're squeezing those muscles, you're activating them. you're
opening up the chest here and what that does is that helps strengthen those
upper back muscles. so you're not sitting like that putting
more stress on your neck giving yourself those headaches. so when you come back
into that squeeze, hold it for about three to five seconds. you can do about
five of those and just again several times throughout the day. you don't have
to just do one set, you can do several throughout the day. then the next one is
going to be stretching out your chest or your PEC muscles, cuz same thing, if
you're rolling forward like this and your head's coming forward and you're
getting you know a headache and you want some relief, stretching out your chest
muscles will help you get back up into this position. so then you don't have
that headache anymore. so a great way to stretch out the pecs there's a whole
bunch of different ways, but the easiest one is just take your hands kind of
clasping behind your back, and what you want to do is push down and out. and
while you do that, then you're just going to push your chest out forward and you
should feel that stretch right through there. so this is going to be a full
stretch where you want to hold it for 30 seconds. really getting a good stretch in
there. sometimes you might feel a little bit of tingling down your arms. as long
as it goes away as soon as you stop, that's fine, but if it's persisting a
little bit, then don't keep doing that stretch. but thirty Seconds, three times
for that one. so then the next one again a lot of times our headaches not just
come from the neck, but they come from that upper back thoracic region as well.
so another way to kind of help relieve those headaches is just to loosen
everything up back there. that that thoracic spine is a little bit out of
alignment, it's going to cause problems in the cervical spine and give you those
headaches. so just kind of rolling out the thoracic spine is a really nice way
to to kind of get everything loosened up. some people just like to put the roll
straight or horizontally not vertically but horizontally, I like putting it at a
little bit of an angle because the segments of our spine those processes
one on top one on the bottom. if you have it in an angle it'll just help loosen
everything up a little bit more. so I kind of put it at an angle and what you
want to do so you can really get that spine is just kind of grab your
shoulders here, so you can do it this way but that sometimes gives the shoulder
blades in the way, so if you put them here that kind of moves the shoulder
blades out a little bit, and so I'm just going to put it up a little bit higher
here just so I'm doing that the cervicals, excuse me that thoracic spine,
and just kind of rolling up and down a little bit. and I don't know if you heard
that I had several pops kind of in that thoracic area so just a little roll you
can do it 10 15 seconds and then just change the angle to do it again. so then
you're just kind of rolling it the other way, and I got a couple more pops that
way. so it doesn't have to be, I'm on the foam roll for five minutes. it could be a
quick five to 10 seconds just to kind of get some releases there because if you
get that loose enough in that thoracic spine, that's going to loosen up that
cervical spine and give you some headache relief. so that's really nice
and the last one is what is called SNAGS, and basically that's just getting
movement with mobilization. and so the towel does a nice job of the stretch
because if you put the towel here you can kind of stabilize one section of the
cervical spine while you're stretching the other. so instead of them all
stretching like this when you do a traditional stretch, you're really
focusing on each level getting a stretch and that's a really nice way to kind of
get some relief in there, loosen some stuff up because a lot of times that
tightness especially in those segments is what's causing those headaches. so
what you want to do is very carefully so you don't choke yourself or strangle
yourself, is take one side and hold it here so my right hand is going to hold
this one, and when we go, it's gonna pull downwards. I'm gonna take the other side
and I'm gonna come up and over but I want the towel to kind of go over my ear.
so not not here, but up over my ear and kind of up towards the opposite corner. so
I'm pulling down with this hand, and then up and over to get that stretch. so the
bottom part of the towel is kind of stabilizing that bottom
segment, and the top part of the towel is mobilizing the top part of the segment.
so that's what's happening. I'm gonna have a switch for you so you can see the
other side. so now I'm stabilizing on this side and I'm mobilizing on this
side. up over the ear and I'm pulling down and then I'm pulling up and across.
and this is just a really really really nice stretch. it gets it nice and strong,
but again if you feel pain with this or if you feel some dizziness,
lightheadedness, don't do it. make sure you stop, go see your doctor, go to your
physical therapist to make sure, one you're doing it right, and two to make
sure you're supposed to be doing it. so with these you can hold it just for a 5
3 to 5 second, or you can do it a little bit longer 10 to 15 second, but you don't
necessarily have to do it for the 30 seconds. and you again you can do those
several times throughout the day. so there you have it. those were your top 7
treatments for headache relief. if you'd like to help support my channel, make
sure and click on the link up there, oh yeah, don't forget to subscribe by
clicking down there. and remember be safe, have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.