This article is a transcribed edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in March of 2023. For the original video go to https://youtu.be/GT4vEF0HMRA
Brad: Oh, man. Do you want easy and fast solutions for tension headaches?
Mike: We will show you eight easy fixes to make you feel great.
Brad: That's right. All right, Mike. Let's talk a little bit about what causes tension headaches.
Mike: So it used to be believed that the smaller muscles in your neck would tighten up chronically causing tension and creating pain, giving you a headache. This is now being questioned, but it is agreed upon that stress can be a major factor in this.
Brad: Not only the muscles in the back of the neck but also the temporalis muscles that you feel in your temples is a real common area as well.
Brad: All right, so these options that we are showing below, you can try them. They're either going to work well or they're not going to work so well. You'll know right away. So let's get right into it, the first one is for the temporalis headaches. It's simple. It's a small muscle and it fans out. With your fingertips, you're simply going to make circles in one direction and you're going to get in deep to massage the muscle to get that tightness out and go backward. You can also use your palms either by your thumbs or the other side. I like to go by my thumbs and that just works a little bit broader of an area and some people actually will take their knuckles and work into that temporalis muscle. You'll find out some people find it better back a little farther and some people prefer it in the front.
Brad: All right. Now if massaging doesn't do it, we have other good options.
Mike: So you can use a hot or cold pack, depending on what you like. We have one from iRelief here. You can microwave it for 50 seconds or you can put it in a freezer beforehand, depending on what you like.
Mike: You can also just put some rice in a sock here, heat it up, or freeze it as well. For the front, if you're getting headaches, you're going to want to lay in a recliner or lay down in bed and put this on your forehead and get it to feel good. It doesn't matter if it's hot or cold. It's whatever you prefer.
Brad: Right. I go right over my eyes and roll it back here and that works. My area is the temple, so I feel like I have a lot of history in treating myself successfully. Now, the next solution I personally have found very effective is an eye massager. Now, the first time I learned about these things, I went, nah. These are not anything but a gimmick, but I was open-minded and gave it a try. This is Matt, Bob's son by the way.
Brad: It's not one of those virtual things where you're watching a movie or anything weird like that. It's simply a massager and it's massaging actually the temporalis. Really gets a nice massage. There's a little air pump you can hear it go up and down. There's a little music in there and it heats up as well. You can adjust it however you would like. I have it with heat and medium pressure. You can go medium, lower, or high pressure. It'll go for 15 minutes. Almost always before the 15 minutes, I am literally sleeping. It works great. Both my daughters have it, my sister has it, and they all love them as well. They're great and they're not that expensive. I'm not trying to sell them but it works for me. I like it. If you don't like it, send it back. So, very good. Now the other thing about the vision and the pain around the eyes is simply to get your eyes checked. If you need glasses, if your computer screen is too small, or if you have cheaters like me and you're squinting, that causes strain and pain. Well, it's one of those simple things, but get it done. You should probably have it checked anyway.
Brad: All right, we're going to go on to the back of the head. Those headaches at the back of the neck and some things they'll radiate towards the front. Now, those muscles in the back, I've had a lot of success with this with other people. I don't have this problem in the back of my head. But, for the massage, Mike's demonstrating, make circles, and you need to get in deep. You want to get to the muscles right below the bone line, the occiput. Get in deep and do circles. You'll feel it when you're in the right spot. You can go both directions, clockwise, and counterclockwise.
Brad: Now the next technique, if this is not working or you can try, it's called splaying. You can see Mike showing. It's nice to have someone who shaves his head because you can see the finger lines. He's actually pulling the skin apart. That gets into the fascia and the muscle fibers and helps relax them that way. You'll do this for 15 seconds, 30 seconds, whatever you need. If it works, it's going to work now. How are you feeling, Mike?
Mike: Good. Okay, the next exercise we're going to do for headaches in the back of your head is called a chin tuck, which you guys have talked about a bajillion times. So you're going to bring your neck backward. You're not going to tilt your head up and down, just straight back again. You can even push either on your chin or your forehead to push back.
Mike: You can do this while lying down in bed as well. You don't have to do it sitting like us, but another thing you can also do is add the splaying massage. So pulling apart while you're doing a chin tuck. So go back, pull apart, go back, and pull apart. You can do five, to 10 repetitions of these if they're feeling good.
Brad: That's right. If you happen to have any pain with this, you're not going to do it. These are feel-good exercises. They will feel good right away or you don't do them. All right, the next one is the levator scapula stretch. So people may be wondering what that is. It's a muscle that connects to the occiput, and it goes all the way down the side of your neck and connects to your shoulder blade. It's a thin muscle. There's not a lot of strength to it, but it's very critical.
Brad: When that muscle tightens up, it causes pain in the shoulder up in the head. A simple way to stretch this is, if I had a shirt pocket here, this is how I always instruct my patients to do it. Look down into your shirt pocket, you'll feel that muscle being stretched. Then if you want, you take your fingertips and gently pull and hold that.
Mike: Ooh, I got a nice neck crack.
Brad: You might get a little cavitation there. This again, small muscle. A lot of guys especially, they'll grab with their whole hand and think if a little stretch is good, a lot is a lot better. Not the case. It's a tiny muscle, gentle stretch, relax, and breathe. It'll take only seconds to get that muscle to relax. All right, so good luck with stopping those headaches. I'm sure at least one or two of these are going to dampen them down or get rid of them. Mike, I really took the show from you today. I'm sorry.
Mike: You stole it like always.
Brad: Well, I'll be happy anyway.
Mike: Okay.
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