1️⃣ Exercise 🏋️♂️
Those with tension headaches 🤯 often have weakness and tightness of muscles of the neck and upper back.
Strengthening and stretching 🙆♀️ the neck and shoulders can be helpful in improving mobility and endurance of often fatigued muscles.
Increased muscle endurance and neck mobility has been shown to be effective in reducing pain intensity and frequency of headaches!
Check out this video with 3 stretches that can help!
2️⃣ Get better sleep! 😴
Everyone knows that it’s ideal to get 7-9 hours of sleep. But just because you get the right amount of time ⏱ sleeping doesn’t mean that it’s quality sleep.
One of the most important parts of sleep that people aren’t taught is how to prepare the body to sleep.
Learning the basics of sleep hygiene 🛌 can greatly improve the quality of rest you get when sleeping. Sleep hygiene helps to prime the body for sleep.
3️⃣ Manage your stress 😥
Both physiological and psychological stress plays a key role in the development of tension type headaches.
Learning to manage your most common stressors can significantly reduce your headache frequency.
Incorporating daily walks, mindfulness, or regular rests breaks at work can allow your body a reprieve from stressors that build up over time.
Combined these 3 strategies can be effective at reducing the frequency of tension headaches. A comprehensive program may take up to 6 weeks to start making a difference. So don’t give up if you don’t find immediate success.