neck pain Archives - Moving Like A Mother

Life. It’s full of twists and turns, highs and lows, joy and stress; and if you’re a mom of littles you may experience all of these emotions in a matter of minutes. I mean, the “terrible threes”…woof. Trying to understand the psyche of a three year old can be quiet the headache. But you know what’s even worse? Actually having a headache while trying to parent, work, or just live life. A headache can be very disrupting. It can prevent us from attending events, being with loved ones, or being productive. So what causes headaches anyways? Sometimes it is things out of our control like hormones or our environment. But in some cases it’s actually in our control and there are things you can do to help heed off a headache.

Common Causes of Headaches

Unfortunately headaches are fairly common. According to the WHO it’s estimated that 50-75% of the world’s population has experienced at least one headache in the last year. There are a variety of common causes of headaches. These include

Diet
Alcohol
Environment
Hormones
Lack of Sleep
Stress and Muscle Tension

Knowing what causes your headaches can be critical in preventing a headache onset. Triggers such as our environment (smoke, seasonal allergies, excessive light) and hormones are not something we can completely control. But diet, alcohol consumption, quality of sleep, and muscle tension are all possible contributors that we can modify or change in order to head off a headache onset.

Musculoskeletal Causes of Headaches

I am going to elaborate on the role our muscles can play in causing headaches. Muscle tension is one of the biggest contributors to tension type headaches. A tension headache is described as a diffuse generalized mild to moderate pain or tightness wrapping around your head. Tight muscles or muscle knots are often the cause of this pain.

Muscles can cause what is known as referred pain, meaning that the pain travels to different areas of the body separate from the specific location of the tissue injury or “problem”. This is what happens in the case of musculoskeletal related headaches. The muscles of our upper trap (shoulders), jaw, and the back and front of our neck can all cause referred pain around our head, eyes, ears, and even teeth.

Common causes of muscle related headache pain include:

Bad posture
Car accident (or other whiplash type injury)
Jaw issues (TMJ, jaw clenching)
Muscle strain from repetitive activities (i.e. lifting overhead, or holding a baby)

Tips for Headache Prevention

Luckily you can often prevent or reduce the frequency of headaches with some small modifications. Make sure you are using good posture when sitting, working, or reading. Be sure to check out my post all about why good posture matters for tips on posture. Ensure that the repetitive activities you are doing as a mom or otherwise are with good body mechanics. I have two posts for new moms and seasoned moms on body mechanic tips. For treatment of an injury or jaw issues you can speak with your doctor about a referral to physical therapy. Yes, we work on jaws too.

Tips to Heal Your Headache

Be sure to check out my post about good posture and exercises for improved posture as step one for headache prevention. But if you continue to experience frequent headache due to muscle tension try these tips to help heal your headache.

1.Neck Stretches – Check out my post What Causes Neck Pain to see a comprehensive list of great stretches for your neck. But one of my go-to stretches is an upper trap stretch. Gently drop one shoulder and pull your head to the opposite side. Hold for 30 seconds and repeat.

2.Self Upper Trap Release– A great little trick for getting rid of muscle knots or tension in the neck is by doing a self upper trap release. Make your hand into a “c” position. Face your palm towards you. Bring your hand to your sore shoulder (upper trap). Press your finger tips into your muscle and gently pull forward and down. Hold for at least 30 seconds or longer.

3. Tennis Balls – Use two tennis balls in a sock to reduce muscle tightness and tension in the muscles in the back of your neck. Place two tennis balls in a sock. Lay down and play the tennis balls at the base of your neck. Gently roll over the top of the tennis balls letting the balls press into the muscles of your neck. For more equipment for massage of tight muscles be sure to check out The Best & Cheapest Ways to Massage Yourself At Home.

What’s next?

If I have said it once, I’ve said it 48,567 times; the key to avoiding pain and feeling well is to have strong supportive muscles. Important muscle groups to work to prevent muscle tightness associated with headaches include your core and your mid back muscles. For easy at home exercises to work these muscles head over to:

Hasta la vista headaches!

–Monica

What causes neck pain:

Having a baby and a toddler is quite the upper body workout. It is something I didn’t fully understand until I experienced it first hand. If you’re not endlessly holding your 15lb baby you’re putting your 30lb toddler in their booster seat. And in between wrangling your toddler into their car seat you’re picking your baby up out of the crib. I mean, I don’t think my shoulders have ever been so strong. No joke. And then in your “down” time you’re sitting slumped over trying to get your baby to latch, giving them a bottle, pumping, or just scrunched up on the couch too exhausted to move. All of this is setting your body up for neck pain.

My Experience with Neck Pain

Around the time my second baby was 3 months old I was doing some desk work when I began to straighten up and, BOOM, instant crippling pain right at the base of my neck. It was that sharp and intense pain when your eyes widen and you completely freeze. Crap. Instantly I knew I had strained something.

Luckily, I work with many wonderfully skilled physical therapists (winky face emoji) who performed some manual techniques and were able to help sooth my immediate pain. But then it was up to me to correct muscle and tissue imbalances in my upper back/ lower neck region. To this day I can still feel small twinges giving me some warning signs that my neck will flare up if I don’t work to keep those muscles strong and if I am not careful with how I’m moving and caring for my kids.

So now I bet you’re wondering what I did to treat my neck pain. I rested, watched how I was lifting and holding my children, performed self massage, and did these exercises below. If you suffer from neck or upper back pain you can try these easy at home stretches.

Exercises to treat neck or upper back pain:

1. Prayer stretch– lay on your hands and knees with your arms outstretched forward. Tuck your chin and rest your head on the support surface. Hold for 30-60 seconds.

2. Levator scapula stretch– Depress your right shoulder. Grab the back right aspect of your head and gentle pull down towards your left foot. Angle of head should be towards your left armpit. (Sometimes i call this the “smell your armpit stretch”). Hold for 30 seconds. Repeat 2x.

3. Chin tuck– Think about lengthening the back of your neck while tucking your chin in and down as though trying to give yourself a double chin. (Disclaimer: NO ONE looks attractive doing this exercise….but it’s good for ya) Repeat slowly 10 x.

4. Upper trapezius stretch– Depress your right shoulder and grab the right side of your head. Gentle pull towards your left shoulder. Hold for 30 seconds or more. Repeat 2x on each side.

5. Scapular squeezes- Keeping your shoulders down, pinch your shoulder blades together as if you were trying to get them to meet in the middle of your back. Repeat 10 times.

The best offense is a good defense so I highly recommend the tips below to avoid caregiver neck pain.

Tips to Avoid neck/upper back pain:

Avoid reaching or lifting far outside of your base of support
Switch the hip or side you are carrying your toddler or baby and don’t hold your child for too long (if possible).
Try to hold your baby or toddler with both arms and as close to body center as possible
Avoid a forward rounded posture with nursing or pumping
Avoid sleeping propped up in a chair or couch

You learn even more lifting and carrying body mechanics in my basic baby body mechanics post.

Kids can be a real pain in the neck. Aren’t I punny? But if you try to maintain good mechanics and keep the postural muscles of your neck and back strong and limber you can avoid these common aches and pains.

And on a positive note. All that baby lifting, holding, and carrying will really prepare you if you’re ever in a beer stein holding competition. I’ve won and I’ve got the t-shirt to prove it.

-Monica

How to Head Off A Headache