A few weeks ago, I participated in a webinar put on by Dr. Ben Benjamin (yes, that's his name!), who has been practicing massage for over 40 years and is a leader within the massage field.
Dr. Benjamin shared the 3 main causes of neck pain: injuries to the neck ligaments, loss of range of motion (ROM), and chronic accumulation of muscle tension. Did you know there are 18 ligaments in the neck that can cause referral pain throughout the entire upper body? Did you know our range of motion naturally decreases as we age? Did you know the "normal" number of headaches per year is just 3-4?
Chronic tension in the face, jaw and occipital area (the back, lower portion of the skull) can cause tension headaches, and clenching your teeth can actually increase the tension in your neck also.
The good news is that massage is very effective at decreasing the frequency and intensity of headaches and neck pain. Treatments may take as long as 3-4 months or longer if the issue has been present for a long time, or as few as 6-8 sessions if the issue has only been bothering you for a couple months. The even better news is that you can speed the process towards living a more pain-free and headache-free life by doing some self-care between massage appointments.
I highly recommend you watch Dr. Ben Benjamin's video on neck stretches and practice this routine at least once a day. I've done these stretches before bed, and when I woke up, my neck still felt fabulous, not stiff at all. I've also done the stretches first thing in the morning when I wake up, and it helps loosen my neck for the day, particularly if I'd forgotten to stretch the night before.
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