Headache Relief in 10 Minutes - Exercises for Headache Pain Relief

Transcript

today we're talking about headaches this is a routine that can be done even in the midst of headache and headache pain as a physical therapist these are exercises that i give my clients to help relieve headaches if you're at a point that you feel good but you do get tension headaches and you're looking to help prevent them i recommend checking out my rotator cuff exercise routine and i'll link that above so the only thing you need today is a hand towel so a hand towel or a kitchen towel or even a sweater or a shirt are gonna work fine so just have that close okay so we're gonna start seated so i want you to be wherever is most comfortable you can be on the floor cross-legged you can be up on a block on blankets you can be sitting in a chair and what i want you to do is reach your right arm up and just start to find the front of your neck okay we're not going to stay here too long i want you to be really gentle and you're just giving yourself these really gentle nice squeezes on the front so what we're doing is we're kind of telling your body that things are going to be okay that we're about to do a little bit of work we are helping to relax your nervous system really important when you have headaches when you have pain to help calm the body okay and then go ahead and just go up into the other side this is something that you can do during the day sitting at your desk so typically this routine is going to help with tension headaches right when we get a lot of that muscle tightness and pain those kind of things that's what this is going to help with nice and then both we're just going to stay here another couple seconds and again this is telling your body that it can start to relax and calm down a little bit all right and then you can gently bring your arms down to your sides and i'm going to have you just take your right ear to your right shoulder so all of this is going to be done gently you are not going as hard or as deep or as far as you possibly can okay come back to center take it the other way the first half are things that can be done sitting at your desk if you need to and then we are going to lay down for the second portion but what we're trying to do good one more to each side is again give a little bit of mobility into our neck into those muscles we want to improve blood flow that's the thing that's really important with these tension headaches back to center and the other way nice job come up now on this one i want you to take it to the right but then turn so that you're looking down towards your right hip breathe here for a moment come back to center and then the other way so you're going to take it to the left and then rotate your head so you're looking down towards your left hip and then back up to center and we're going to find your towel so what we're going to do is put it over your right shoulder okay and i'm going to have it way up as close to my neck as i can so it's right where your neck kind of hits that part on your shoulder and then what you need and you might need a long one okay because you want to be able to reach your right hand up your back to grab it and then the left hand in the front so like i said kitchen towel or even a long shirt anything like that would work so what you're going to do is give some pressure down so i'm pulling that towel down and then i'm going to tilt my head gently to the left so it's a similar motion to what we just did but the first one was working more into what we call the levators and the upper traps this is working into your scalenes now maybe tilt your head so that you're looking up just slightly hold it another breath you can do it again gently we're more settling in okay good and release and let's take that to the other side so this is a trick we use in physical therapy a lot that you can do on your own okay so like i said bring it i bring it right up to that spot where it can't go any higher because my neck starts and then you want even pressure from the front and back hand pulling down and then when you're ready take the head slightly to the ring and these really are all great to do sitting at your desk if you need it or in the car okay now maybe you can look up slightly again i'm not doing a big extension with my neck i'm just kind of getting my eyes up there nice and release that bring the towel down look over your right shoulder center over your left shoulder center and then hands are going to come up and now they go to the back and you're just going to again rub kind of up and down on the back of your neck just for a moment nice and then arms can relax down and we're going to lay down on our backs welcome to my office today here in the studio i am filming a new bar routine for pilates camp and i know that i am going to be thirsty and tired at the end the problem is i am not very good at staying hydrated built boost has helped me so much in this area it's powder that i can put in water it's going to give me an array of vitamins that i need during the day including 100 of vitamin c it's going to give me echinacea a natural energy boost and it's going to make sure that i get the water that i need because it's delicious so i highly recommend if you're like me and you need to stay hydrated that you check out built boost my friends there have offered you a discount use the code and the link below to get a discount on your own build boost remember what i always say you need to take care of yourself so that you can feel energized you can feel fulfilled and that you can then take care of others so find a comfortable place here i'm going to have my knees bent my legs hip distance apart and this works really well on a mat carpet will be just fine as well if you need to do this in bed no problem but you will feel it a little bit better if you're on the floor what i want you to do is a little chin tuck here so i'm not lifting my head at all and then release so you exhale tuck your chin slightly just enough that you're sliding the back of your head up the mat and you should feel especially if you're tight at the base of your skull which is common in tension headaches you should feel a little stretch right at the base of your skull we're gonna do two more nice take your head turn it to the right back to center over to the left back to center both arms are going to reach back and then exhale back down to your side one more like that nice okay take an inhale exhale curl your tailbone roll yourself up into a really gentle bridge the weight should just come into your shoulder blades once you get there arms reach back exhale roll back down so we're trying to get a little bit of mobility arms down to your sides roll up we're getting some mobility into the lower and mid spine into the shoulders which again takes pressure then off of your neck so believe it or not one of the keys to tension headaches is strengthening other parts of the body that we do strategically so that those muscles can relax last one good arms down to your sides one more time look to the right center left center and i want to do three more of those little chin tucks for me or head slides we're just sliding the back of the neck or the back of the head i should say sliding that on the mat or on the floor nice job all right take your time you're going to roll to the side push yourself back up nice job inhale both arms up towards the ceiling exhale arms down one more time nice job so that is a routine that can be done while you have a headache or as part of your management program feel free to do it every day it's gentle enough to be done every day and again you can always add my rotator cuff strengthening exercises which i find helps quite a bit to keep our arms strong to keep headaches at bay long term so i hope you feel better soon thanks so much for stopping by thanks so much for stopping by remember and you'll be notified every time a new video comes up like and comment on this video and let me know what you 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