Typical Signs & Symptoms: Pain is typically describes as dull, pressure like, constricting or giving a sense of fullness in the head where nausea and vomiting are NOT typically present. Headaches can be triggered by stress, lack of sleep, weakness of deep cervical neck flexors, tightness of surrounding musculature or poor eating habits.
Who is at risk: Females > Males. Ages 25-39 years old. Computer bound based jobs. High stress lifestyle. Increased cell phone use. Poor posture.
Why am I getting these?: The deep cervical neck flexors are the smaller muscles in our neck that are utilized for smaller movements of the neck along with maintaining our posture, defined as endurance muscles. If these muscles become weak, the larger muscles (platysma, hyoid muscles, sternocleidomastoid and upper trap) “bully” the smaller ones and become hyperactive. By now relaying on non-endurance based muscles to perform and endurance based activity we run into the muscles learning to tighten up and create abnormal pulling on our neck and head. A quick test to show if you’re recruiting the correct muscles is a Deep Cervical Flexor Endurance Test: laying supine, perform a chin tuck (best double chin impression) and lift off the floor or mat a half inch and hold. Males should be able to get to 38.9sec and females to 29.4sec to be within the normative data.
Best way to relieve pain and prevent tension type headaches:
- Deep pressure massage/trigger point release
- Stretching of tight musculature around the neck
- Strengthening deep cervical neck flexors
- Thoracic mobility to reduce chest tightness and assist the neck with extension motions
