This article is a transcribed edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in April of 2024. For the original video go to https://youtu.be/kK4RcvCeIFA
Mike: Do you often experience headaches and you're not sure why?
Brad: If so, we have a solution that you should try.
Mike: So oftentimes, headaches can be caused by your shoulder blade actually being too low, putting stress and strain on these muscles up here.
Brad: Right, and actually there's one specific muscle called the levator scapulae, which goes from the top of the shoulder blade to the base of the skull, the occiput bone, and if the shoulder blade depresses, you can see that muscle gets stretched and actually gets overstressed causing pain particularly, which can refer to the head causing the headache.
Brad: So what we need to do is release that by moving the scapula up and actually solving the problem. We're going to go into a little more detail on how you can do this. All right, so we're going to show you a little test that you can do to find out if your shoulder blade is indeed depressed or down causing the headache problem. So, Mike, we're going to sit in a chair with an armrest. Can you tell me how we're going to do this?
Mike: So first, to begin, if I'm down like this and then I simply go up to the arms, it'll raise my shoulder blades a little bit. If you notice, oh my headache's not as bad or don't have as much tension, that's a good sign.
Mike: However, you want to oftentimes relax the shoulder even more, so you're going to need some pillows unless you happen to have a desk chair with an adjustable armrest. So Brad's folding it up for me, this elevates it even more, and say, my neck pain and shoulder pain is on the right side, my headaches, the tension feels like over here, put a pillow in, fold it up like that and this just relaxes my shoulder blade, helps elevate it one to two inches and that can take pressure off the levator scapulae muscle.
Brad: Right, so, you know, just make sure you get that arm totally relaxed with the elevation of the one to two inches. It's quite a bit actually, and then assess the feeling and how your pain responds to that actual technique. All right, so after you do this or while you're doing it and you definitely experience decreased pain in the headache, then we need to figure out some way to elevate that shoulder blade, and release the distress on that muscle without using the pillow. Otherwise, you'll be sitting here forever, which is not functional. All right, so luckily there are only two exercises needed to help elevate that shoulder blade. Now, a physical therapist, much wiser than us, actually figured this out. His name is Rick Olderman, a physical therapist, and let's talk about where we can find more information on Rick.
Mike: You can go to www.rickolderman.com, and you can check out his program section. So if you have an issue with a certain body part, you just click that section. This one can be found in the headache and shoulder blade issues.
Brad: All right, so the big picture concept of what these exercises are doing, the first exercise, and you do need to do them in this order, is we need to stretch the muscles on the bottom side of the shoulder blade, which is actually pulling the shoulder blade down.
Brad: And then we need to strengthen the muscles on top and that's going to help pull it up. So they work together and go ahead, Mike, show them how to do the first one to stretch these muscles.
Mike: So Rick calls this all-four rocking. It kind of looks like the child's pose in a yoga stance. So what I'm going to do is start on all fours. Brad can show a variation later if you're not comfortable getting on your knees. You can do this on the floor or your bed possibly, if possible. So what I'm going to do is sit my butt towards my heels, like this, keeping my arms in place out in front of me. That's going to start stretching those lat muscles that are pulling down on the scapula on that side. If you want to get a little more stretch when you're down here, certainly bring your hands forward, and feel more of a stretch. You're just going to hang out here for three to five breaths, just kind of relax and breathe easy.
Mike: If one side, you notice, is tighter than the other, say my left side here, I'm actually going to reach over to the top of my right hand and get a little more stretch there. Again, you can hold it for three to five breaths. Once you're done with one repetition, come back up, relax, and you're going to go back down and do it again. You can do this 5 to 10 times, just really stretch out those lat muscles.
Brad: Okay, if you're not comfortable getting down on your knees like that for whatever reason, you can do this at a countertop or a table that's smooth, and a chair that either has the wheels or without. I'll show you both ways. If you have a chair that has wheels, that works very nicely. Simply put your hands on top of the countertop or the table and allow yourself to push back on those wheels and you get the same stretch. I can feel those muscles below my scapula or shoulder blade stretching right now. Hold it for the three breaths, come back up, and relax. Do that 5 to 10 times.
Brad: Now if you have a chair without wheels, you simply put a towel on the countertop or the table and allow that to slide forward. It's just going at it from a different angle. It works very well as well and you get the same stretch, so good option.
Brad: All right, now the second exercise, as we mentioned, strengthens the muscles above the shoulder blade to help position it. Mike, can you go through this? It's a simple exercise, a couple of small things you need to do properly though.
Mike: So you will need an open wall surface or perhaps a door, if it's closed, and you're going to place your arm that is the bothersome side with your shoulder blade being low. On the wall, notice I am touching with my pinky all the way down to my elbow. I'm going to start slightly below my 90-degree angle here, and I'm going to start sliding my arm up the wall. Go to whatever is comfortable for you. If you happen to have some shoulder pain, head pain, or neck pain from this, go up to where you can. Hold for a few seconds and then come back down. When you're going up, you really want to focus on the upper trap muscles here, helping pull that scapula back up to place. You're almost kind of doing a shrug. So when you're doing this, you're going to feel a good stretch. Again, hold for three to five breaths and then come back down. The distance you are away from the wall would depend upon your arm's length and what's comfortable for you. So just go up, do 5 to 10 repetitions, just like this, and see how that feels.
Brad: And I really want to emphasize, I know when I do these when I go up past that 90 degree, I really think about bringing that shoulder up, that shrug Mike talks about, and I can feel these muscles fatigue. When you feel that fatigue in the muscle, you know you're getting the right area. All right, once you get the stretch and the strengthening wall exercise down, do them twice per day, morning and then the evening, and you should start to feel some relief in those headaches within a few days. It's not going to happen the first time you do the exercises but over time, it'll get that scapula moving where it should be releasing the tension.
Mike: So if you want to check out more videos on how to relieve headaches, check out our video "Say Goodbye to Headaches: 3 Effective Solutions for Seniors."
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