Try these Headache stretches and Occipital Neuralgia Stretches today. It's Stephen Dunn with CORE Therapy and Pilates and today we're going to go over a couple of towel stretches for your neck. These are typically performed to help with headaches or occipital neuralgia.

Headaches throughout history

Ancient references to headaches, migraine, and neuralgia go back to around 1200 BC. The first headache treatment is evident in a 9000-year-old Neolithic skull. Headaches are one of the most common complaints for those seeking medical care. Headaches cost an estimated $14 billion per year in both direct and indirect socioeconomic costs. Globally, 40% of people suffer from tension-type headaches and 10% suffer from migraines. Females suffer from headaches at a much higher rate than males. Learn more about headaches at this article.

Learn more about Occipital Neuralgia HERE. 

If you're feeling that headache starting to come on, particularly at the base of the skull or just above or behind your eye, try these Occipital Neuralgia exercises Now!  

These towel stretches and exercises will give many people relief at the time they are suffering from a headache. However, if performed consistently when not experiencing a headache can help in many ways. This towel routine can help the mobility of the upper cervical spine and relieve pressure on the occipital nerve caused by tight suboccipital muscles.  

I'm going to show you two ways of doing this routine. One is with a simple hand towel and the second is using a specialized strap called a Mulligan Self Snag Cervical Strap. We're going to start off with a hand towel because everyone has a towel at home.

Occipital Neuralgia Stretches with a Towel

Chin Tuck with the Towel

With the towel placed around the back of the neck, just under the skull, we're going to do a chin tuck. First, hold each end of the towel and pull it away from your head gently. Now perform a chin tuck by bringing your chin back into your throat as you stack your head on top of your spine. Do not look up or down while doing the chin tuck. Maintain your visual field and sight across the horizon.

When performing this exercise with the towel, make sure to hold the towel by the edge of the towel and not by bunching it all up. Pull away with your hands gently as you perform the chin tuck...

Hold for five seconds and relax.

Hold for five seconds and relax.

Repeat 10 times.

Chin Tuck with the Strap

Let's practice with the strap if you have one. You'll see the actual chin tuck motion a little better as I show you the strap versus the towel. Place the strap right at the base of the skull. Find the knob on the back of the skull and drop it down about an inch. Using the ergonomic handles of the strap pull straight away with your hands as you do the chin tuck. I want you to hold 5 seconds and perform 10 reps.

That's the first one.

Rotation Stretch with the Towel

The next thing we're going to do is called a rotation stretch. We're going to take that same towel and put it around your neck and let it fall on your chest. Cross your hands in front of you with your right hand under (closer to the chest) your left hand. You are going to grab onto the left side of the towel with your right hand. Grab the right side of the towel with the left hand on top.

Right hand under, left hand on the top while holding the ends of the towel. The right hand is going to pull straight down on the towel like an anchor and the left hand is going to pull the towel under your right ear, between your nose and mouth, and pull straight across to the left, causing your neck to rotate to the left.

Hold that for 10 seconds and repeat it three times.

Now switch the hands and have the left hand on the bottom, pulling straight down on the towel. Do not pull across and choke yourself, pull straight down with the bottom left hand. With the top right hand, pull the towel to the right and hold for 10 seconds. Repeat three times on that side, 10 seconds each time. You should feel this stretching just under the left ear and left side of the base of the skull. This is where the first cervical vertebra attaches to the skull. One side will typically feel more restricted than the other. See if you can tell the difference in your right rotation versus your left rotation. 

This hand placement can get confusing so please watch the video a few times to see the entire routine.

Rotation Stretch with the Strap

What's the difference between the towel and strap? The strap is longer and has ergonomic handles making it easier on the hands. The towel is more challenging to hold and negotiate.

Place the strap around your neck and let the handles hang. Cross the hands with the right hand on the bottom and the left hand on top. The anchor is the right hand and pulling straight down. The left hand is pulling across to the left with the strap under the ear and between the nose and mouth. You will feel a more specific stretch in the suboccipital muscles with the strap compared to the towel.

Hold 10 seconds and repeat three times on this side.

Now switch the hands and stretch in the opposite direction.

And that's it. That's your towel and Mulligan Self Snag Strap stretches to help with headaches and occipital neuralgia. Do these headache stretches and occipital neuralgia exercises daily and see how things change.  

Local to the Austin area, call 512-215-4227 to learn more about how we can help you with your headaches... We have helped hundreds of patients improve their headache symptoms with our physical therapy program at CORE Therapy & Pilates in Westlake Hills, Texas.

Thanks a lot, guys. Y'all take care. We'll see you soon.

Can someone please explain to me occipital neuralgia in layman's terms! Well, watch this video to learn more. So hey, can you do me a favor and subscribe to my YouTube channel? And click on that bell so you're notified of all my content as it comes out. We put content out on holistic health and wellness with physical therapy and pilates emphasis.

At my neurologist appointment the other day, I was told I have occipital neuralgia but I really didn't understand the explanation of it. Watch this video to learn more about your diagnosis of occipital neuralgia.

My name is Stephen Dunn and I'm a Holistic Physical Therapist and I've helped hundreds and hundreds of clients over the last two decades of my career and I look forward to helping you as well.

What is Occipital Neuralgia?

So what is occipital neuralgia? All right, let's talk about it. Basically, occipital neuralgia is a fancy term for inflammation of the occipital nerve. Now the occipital nerve is a nerve that comes out of the base of the neck, right back here. It's a little nerve that comes out.

So think about like the sciatic nerve, that's a nerve most people have heard of and are familiar with. The sciatic nerve runs down the back of your buttocks and leg and a lot of people have heard of that or experienced that. Well the occipital nerve comes out right at the back of the base of your neck, right where your head and your cervical spine come together, your skull and neck come together. 

Now imagine there's a pinch on it and the way I like to describe it is that you have a hose. That hose has your signal and that hose is your nerve and it's generating the signal down that nerve. That signal is starting at the brain and it's generating down through the nerve.

Well, if your hose that you're using to water your lawn with has someone standing on it or the car's drone up and parked its tire on it, then the water might still come out a little bit but it's very much pinched and very much in a reduced capacity.

Well, imagine the nerve that's coming out of the back of your neck there, the occipital nerve is being pinched, and as it is being pinched...boom... you get these symptoms that come up and over, typically to the eyes, typically on one side more than both sides. It's pretty uncomfortable and most people don't like it very much. So that is a simple explanation of it.

There’s pressure on the nerve and the goal of treatment is to get that pressure off that nerve.

Go ahead and go to this link and download my free report on headaches and how to manage them.

Thanks for watching guys and I look forward to helping you in the future. Look out for my other occipital neuralgia videos, I've got many of them out there.

I hope that you can get some relief from this condition.

輕鬆緩解枕神經痛(occipital neuralgia) | 物理治療簡單兩招 Andy C. Tseng, DPT, MOT, MTC, NCPT || Physical Therapist, Occupational Therapist and Pilates Instructor at CORE Therapy & Pilates, Austin, TX

你有過頭痛痛到額頭、眉毛甚至眼睛的經驗嗎？這很可能是枕神經痛作祟！本片將介紹枕神經痛的成因，以及兩個簡單的緩解運動。 請在下方留言，告訴我們你或者身邊的人是否受到枕神經痛困擾...？ 建議觀眾朋友到我們網站下載免費的緩解偏頭痛電子書--

https://therapyandpilates.com/headaches/

也希望觀眾朋友點讚支持、開啟鈴鐺，並訂閱我們頻道好收看更多運動保健資訊。

#枕神經痛 #CORETherapy #頭痛

0:00 枕神經痛

0:31 枕神經痛的成因

1:27 枕神經痛的緩解運動

Do these occipital neuralgia exercises if occipital neuralgia bothers the base of your skull and behind your eye. 

Occipital Neuralgia exercises are the best natural solution to Occipital Headaches. Why is occipital neuralgia causing so much pain and frustration in my life? By the end of this video, you’ll have the essential stretch that no one is talking about and the number one occipital pain exercise to improve occipital neuralgia and the symptoms that it’s causing. I’ve helped hundreds of people over the past two decades suffering from occipital nerve pain, occipital migraines, and occipital headaches by teaching them the essential occipital neuralgia exercises. I look forward to helping you as well.

Occipital Neuralgia: What it is?

Occipital neuralgia is a diagnosis that one gets when their occipital nerve is compressed and causing pain or headaches. Compression of this nerve is typically beneath your skull and above your first cervical vertebra. There is seven cervical vertebrae with the first cervical just under the skull. And where that nerve comes out, it basically gets compressed. The nerve goes up and over your head to the back of your eye. So, you get pain and symptoms at the base of your skull that can go up and over to behind your eye. It is more common to be on one side but can affect both sides.

What causes Occipital Neuralgia?

Why is this compression of my occipital nerve taking place? More commonly than not, it’s a positional fault by your head being forward. Basically bad posture from looking down at your phone, slouching while driving, or whatever. By the head being forward, it’s causing compression on that nerve. And what that’s doing is its causing tightness… Or let me rephrase that, there’s tightness here in the front of the neck causing the head to come forward. So, let’s work on that.

What Occipital Neuralgia exercises should I do?

Platysma / Scalene Stretch

First, we’re going to do is two stretches for the front of the neck. Most people focus on the back of the neck, which is important but I like to focus on the front of the neck where the head is getting pulled forward.

So, there is a muscle here called the platysma. Ah, it’s a funny word, platysma. It’s from just below the collarbones up to the jaw and underneath it, the scalenes. The scalenes are attached from the ribs up to the vertebra and your cervical spine.

We’re going to use our hands. You’re going to put one right underneath your collarbone. As you put your hand underneath your collarbone, use the other hand on top of the first hand and give a little force into the body and then down towards the floor. As you do that move your neck in the opposite direction of your hands and look up and over your shoulder.  You should feel the stretch all through the front of the chest and neck. 

Take 4-5 deep breaths in this position allowing your gaze and head to go a little further with each exhale. Inhale and exhale. 

Repeat on the opposite side, and put the hand right under the collarbone. Hold in and down with the other hand and look up and over that shoulder. My right one is a little tighter. Take four or five deep breaths into that position. So that’s the stretch for the front and side of the neck. The scalene and the platysma.

Chin Tuck Occipital Neuralgia Exercise

One of the best neck pain exercises available. The chin tuck will help bring your head back and tall to help avoid compressing that nerve. 

Bring your chin back towards your throat. 

Also, think about lengthening your spine. This length of the back of your neck helps relieve the pressure off that inflamed nerve. 

Go back and up. Chin tuck. Back with the head going up.

I like to put my hand here on top of my head and think about pushing my hand towards the ceiling. Pushing my hand towards the ceiling with my chin tuck.

And that’s the chin tuck, to open that space where the occipital neuralgia is bothering you.

Do these Occipital Neuralgia exercises a couple of times a day for a few days to see if you get any relief. 

Try these products from Amazon to help with your occipital Neuralgia symptoms.

Download our Free Report

Click on my website and download the free report on headaches and neck pain. You can find that at: https://therapyandpilates.com/headaches.

Thank you for watching my video today and reading my blog today. I hope you got some value… And these occipital neuralgia exercises help improve your occipital neuralgia.

If you need more information and you like to reach out and schedule an appointment with us at CORE Therapy & Pilates, give us a call at 512-215-4227.

So, what is the one thing I can do right now to help my occipital neuralgia? Watch this video to learn more. Go ahead and do me a favor and subscribe to my channel and hit that bell in the corner so you get notified of all my new content. It’ll be really awesome if you did that.

What treatment options are there for occipital neuralgia and what’s the one thing I can do to help it right now with a simple hand towel?

Well by the end of this video you will know the essential stretch and the essential exercise that no one is talking about with a simple hand towel to help with your occipital neuralgia.

I felt hundreds of patients with this condition over my 23 year long career as a physical therapist. And I can’t wait to teach you and help you with the same thing.

Alright, so what treatment options are there available for occipital neuralgia?

So, the first thing you can do is go to your MD and your MD is gonna prescribe you medications. They might give you an injection, send you to another specialist and basically its pharmacology based. 

Another option is to go to a physical therapist where they’re gonna treat you naturally and work on things, teach you things that you can do at home to help relieve your symptoms and not rely on medications and injections.

So, MD for medications and injections. A PT for a natural recovery and natural healing of occipital neuralgia.

Towel Rotation Stretch

Alright guys, grab your towel. We’re gonna take this towel and we’re gonna put it behind your head. Right at the base of your scull and you’re just gonna let the towel kinda drape over your shoulders like this. Now, you’re gonna cross your hands. 

The bottom hand for me is my right hand, I’m gonna grab on right here. Top hand, left hand. I’m gonna take the towel, put it right under my ear right between my nose and mouth. Pull down with the right hand, pull across with the left hand and I’m gonna hold for 3 big breaths.

Now we’re gonna ops away. And now I’m gonna take my left hand is pulling down, my right hand is pulling across. The towel is right below my ear, between my nose and mouth. My elbow is up high and leading the pull. And that’s our towel rotation stretch.

Chin Tuck Exercise

Now, we’re gonna go into the next exercise. Still using the towel and we’re gonna do what’s called a chin tuck. So, you’re gonna hold the towel straight pull in this way and at the time that you’re pulling straight in this way, the chin is going straight back.

So, it’s gonna be a counterforce of pulling the hands away, this way with a slight chin tuck.

And from the side, to show you what that looks like. The chin tuck is this but with the towel in the same position. So, without the towel it’s this. With the towel, I’m pulling this way as I do the chin tuck. So, hold for about 3 to 4 seconds and do 10 of those.

And that, my friends is a very simple program to do with a simple towel to help occipital neuralgia. So, comment below and tell me how this helped you, I would love your feedback.

So now, what I want you to do is click on the link to my website and download my free report on headaches and neck pain. And it’ll get you going with some tips that you can start doing right away to help with everything that you’re complaining about.

Thanks guys for watching and we’ll see you really soon with the next video. 

Call 512-215-4227 to learn more about CORE Therapy & Pilates in Austin, Texas.

What is Occipital Neuralgia? 

Occipital neuralgia is a distinct type of headache that can cause a throbbing, piercing, or electric shock pain, usually on one side of the head, that can travel from the upper neck to the scalp, behind the ears, and possibly behind the eyes and forehead. Some patients may also experience increased sensitivity to light and their scalp can be tender to the touch.

These symptoms are caused by the greater and lesser occipital nerves when they are compressed as they exit the spine where it meets the skull, or by tight muscles in this area. Typically, this is caused when the head is in a forward position leading to closing of the joint between the skull and spine and tightening of the muscles located in the upper neck and at the base of the head. 

Most of the treatment strategies we will discuss include improving the space where these nerves exit by moving the head into a better position over the spine which increases the length of the spine. This also includes making sure the low back and the shoulder blades are in the correct position as well, typically, because when people first try to bring their head backward; they arch their back to compensate. 

Included is a 10-minute exercise routine to address the issues mentioned previously. It involves improving the posture, use of a towel to stretch the neck where the nerves are compressed, and several basic neck and spinal stretches. 

Occipital Neuralgia Exercises

Lumbar and Scapula Stabilization

The first exercise we will work on is to place the low back, or lumbar spine, in a neutral position. Start out in sitting, with your feet slightly ahead of your knees. You will then gently push into your heels engaging by engaging your hamstrings and glutes which will assist you in gently tilting your back and pelvis posteriorly. At the same time, you will also gently squeeze your shoulder blades toward each. This causes what I term the slinky effect, which helps to improve your posture and lengthen your spine. You can then repeat this for five breaths. 

Towel Chin Tuck

Next is an exercise to help stretch your neck. You will take a towel and place the edge underneath your neck while in a seated position. The edge of the towel will not be on your head, but on the second cervical vertebrae underneath where your neck meets the base of the skull.

You will then take hold of the edge of the towel and pull gently forward while tucking your chin in. Simultaneously, you will gently press your heels into the ground and flatten your low back to further lengthen the spine.

Make sure when doing the chin tuck that you are not extending your neck by looking upward, but you are engaging the muscles in the front of the neck and getting into a “double chin” position. What this will do is to improve the space where the occipital nerves exit the spine at the levels of the first and second cervical vertebrae and the skull. You can repeat this for five breaths as well. 

Towel Rotation Stretch

This next exercise is called a Cervical Snag. It is effective in improving the motion of her upper neck. You will begin in a seated position with your feet slightly past your knees. You will have a towel and place it again on the second cervical vertebrae below the skull.

Now, cross your left arm over your right arm on your chest and take the edge of the towel. Performing this simultaneously, you will gently pull down on the edge of the towel with the right hand while you pull the other end of the towel with your left arm at the level of the neck while rotating your head to the left.

Hold this position as you take in two deep breaths while lengthening your low back. Come back to the neutral position. You will now do the other side by crossing the right arm over the left arm. Taking each side of the towel, now pull down with the left arm while pulling forward with the right arm and rotate the head to the right. Hold for two breaths, and then relax back to a neutral position. 

Rotator cuff exercise

Next, we will perform an exercise to help retrain the shoulder blades and rotator cuff muscles that are in the shoulder. In the same seated position, take the ends of a towel or Theraband while bending your elbows next to your side at a perpendicular angle to your shoulders.

Then, pull the ends away from each other while squeezing your shoulder blades together and engage the muscles below the notch in your shoulder blade called the Infraspinatus and Teres Minor. This is accomplished by rotating your arms backward. While doing this, make sure to flatten your low back and perform a chin tuck to bring the head over your shoulders instead of forward. 

Upper Trapezius Stretch

The next exercise is a stretch for the Upper Trapezius. In the same seating position, and without arching your back, you with placing your left arm behind your back and take your right hand to the top of your head.

You will then gently bring your head to the right and hold until you feel a stretch in your upper shoulder. Then, repeat for the other side by placing your right arm behind your back and using the left hand to pull the head to the left.

Hold each side for two breaths. You can modify this stretch by placing by holding the side of a chair instead of placing your arm behind your back. 

Levator Scapulae Stretch

Next, is a stretch for your Levator Scapulae. It is the same sequence as the Upper Trapezius stretch performed before, but now you bring your head down and nose pointing into the armpit opposite of the side you are stretching. You can hold each stretch for 2 breaths and then repeat on the other side. 

Spinal Twist

These next exercises are to increase mobility in your thoracic spine, which is the middle and upper section of your back. The first is for rotation. Again, in the same seated position, take an inhale and on the exhale rotate to the right while pressing the left hand into the left thigh.

Then switch positions by rotating to the left and pressing the right hand into the right thigh while looking over your left shoulder. Come back to the neutral starting position. 

Side Stretch

Now, while maintaining the elongated spine, reach down to your left side and side bend your back toward the left. Hold for two breaths and then return to the starting position. Then repeat on the right. Next, lift your right arm up and then bend to the left side to assist in stretching the right side of the body. Repeat for the right side. 

Shoulder Rolls

Now, finish up by performing some shoulder rolls. In the same seated position, length your spine and gently roll your shoulders back by taking deep breaths. This concludes the regime for the Occipital Neuralgia exercise! 

Check out what Hopkins Medicine has to say about Occipital Neuralgia.  Please try physical therapy with an experienced clinician before trying the surgery they discuss as I have seen very little relief from it.