Managing Life Around Stress-Related Headaches? We Can Help
Are You Living Life Around Stress-Related Headaches? We Can Help
Stop Letting Your Headaches Control Your Life! Find Relief with Physical Therapy
Are you planning your daily life around persistent tension or stress headaches? If so, you don’t have to live that way any longer.
Tension headaches involve different sensations, with the most common one reported as a “band of pressure” around your head. as well as tenderness and achy feelings. According to Physiopedia, researchers think that tension-type headaches occur due to an interaction of different factors that involve pain sensitivity and perception. That means that something like muscle tension in your neck can combine with external factors, like mental or emotional stress, to wreak havoc on your life.
Stress headaches are no joke, and sometimes, a pill just doesn’t cut it when it comes to getting rid of one.
Luckily, physical therapy – physiotherapy, chiropractic care, and massage therapy – can provide relaxation and posture strategies to alleviate symptoms associated with these kinds of headaches. Receiving therapy will not only give you relief from your current pain, but also decrease the number of stress headaches you may experience in the future.
Headaches and posture
Did you know that the ways we stand and sit can influence how much pressure we’re putting on our muscles? It’s true.
Prolonged postures can make muscles and nerves in the shoulder, chest, and neck area very sensitive. These are the areas that trigger painful tension headaches. So it’s important to make sure you’re frequently changing your posture, and offering these structures a break from their most commonly attained position!
Your physical therapist will help you determine your aggravating positions, and systematically evaluate others that will provide a reprieve. Additionally, they may show you some tissue capacity-increasing exercises, so that the positions you most commonly attain will not be so quick to trigger your pain.Finally, there are many modifications a physical therapist might suggest for you to carry out at home or in your work-station. Raising your computer monitor, getting a special computer chair with lumbar support, or even purchasing a rubber mat to stand on while doing dishes in your kitchen are all simple suggestions a physical therapist could make. All of these changes can have a positive effect on your posture headaches.
Headaches and mobility
The less pressure you put on the major muscle groups in your neck and shoulders during the day, the more you’ll be able to move those areas. This can also alleviate some of your stress headaches and make them easier to deal with. Your physical therapist can show you moves that will move your neck, as well as loosen up your chest and shoulder muscle groups.
Doing these exercises regularly helps limber you up overall and keeps your muscles from getting too tight.
Pain relief through manual therapy
Not all prevention techniques have to be done in your physical therapist’s office, but he or she will know how to give a more targeted approach to your stress-related headache pain.
Manual therapy, like soft tissue and joint mobilization techniques, helps to reduce sensitivity of tight and irritated muscles. Relaxing the muscles in and around the head can prevent the chain of events that result in painful contractions. Patients with chronic tension headaches report a dramatic decrease in overall pain after receiving manual therapy. They also experience headaches less frequently.
As an added bonus, people who get regular therapeutic massages report getting a better night’s sleep, which leads to less stress during the day. Additionally, massage helps ease the emotional stress that causes you to tense those muscles. Who doesn’t like getting a massage?
Strength training for the upper body
When it comes to keeping you supported throughout the day, your back, neck, and shoulders do a lot of the “heavy lifting.”
These muscles will get overworked if they’re not strong enough. Physical therapy treatment for the neck and upper back muscles involves resistance training to build up your muscle capacity. For many patients, having strong upper body muscles means fewer (and less intense) stress headaches. Resistance bands and free weights may also be involved to build up your shoulder and back muscles. Your physical therapist will be able to do a full assessment of your abilities to find out which exercises work best for you.
Discover effective pain relief for stress-related headaches
Ready to make your chronic headache days a thing of the past? We’ve got you covered.
We all think we know exactly how to relax…until it comes to our health depending on it. Then we might need some help! So if you’re suffering from constant stress-related headaches and want to learn more about relieving the frequency and severity of your own, contact Leaps and Bounds to learn more.
We can set up an evaluation for you to see one of our licensed physical therapists – physio, chiro, or massage therapist – and figure out a course of treatment to help you relax your muscles, sleep better, and get back to enjoying life without pain.