2 Moves 3 Minutes to Relieve Your Stiff Neck And Headaches While Working From Home

Photo by Alizée Baudez on Unsplash

Waking with headaches told me that I had to do something differently

Even though I mostly worked from home before the pandemic, I am now working totally from home. Over the last two months, my neck muscles have felt more and more tense by the end of the day. 
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I've started doing three simple, quick stretches, and now my neck is feeling lighter. That's good news, because I also had light headaches every day, and even waking up with them. I suspected those were tension headaches.

Tension headache occurs when muscles of our scalp and neck become tense, such as from tension, stress, fear, or emotions. Right now - with the pandemic - we have all those causes potentially in play.

I've rarely had headaches, so I'm no expert on the various types. But one characteristic of tension headaches is that they usually don't worsen with physical activity. That certainly applies me, because I run 4 to 5km every day and I feel better afterwards for a few hours.

Here are the 3 simple exercises that helped me relieve my tense neck and clear my headaches. Hopefully, they will do the same for you.

They are simple to do and should give you relief in a couple of days - as they did me. One of the activities uses a foam roller, but if you don't have one I've provided a substitute exercise.

Why you wake up with a headache 

Firstly. Ergonomics. You know the drill, there are (literally) millions of articles since #WFH began - "about 21 million" according to Google. ​​

Google Search | Ergonomic Remote Working

My four top takeaways are the ergonomic advice are these:

1. Keep your neck aligned with your spine, and don't slouch.
2. Adjust your screen (or chair) so that the top of the monitor is at eye level. When you look at the middle of the screen, your eyes should look slightly down.
3. Get up and move about every 25 minutes.
4. Drink one glass of water for every cup of coffee.
5. Use your computer's night setting if you work into the evening regularly.

Items one and two will minimise neck strain. However, long days exhaust the muscles holding up our head. In giving up, those muscles transfer an excess load to complementary muscles in our lower neck muscles. This, in turn, strains those muscles.

When there is a strain or tension in your muscles, this sensation is transmitted to your brain as a message. Our brain will then respond to this message by adding further muscle tightness to the problem area or surrounding areas as a means of protecting skeletal injuries caused by further movement.

Our (neck) muscles will then stay contracted or partly contracted for an extended period.

Surprisingly, the brain continues to send nerve signals telling the muscle to contract even when the muscle is no longer needed for movement, i.e. when we are asleep.

This explains why we wake up with a stiff neck and a "reflected" headache — reflected from the muscles squeezing the nerves in our neck throughout the night.

The exercises will relax your muscles and prevent the strain from hanging on.

Two exercises that take 3 minutes to relieve your pain

Firstly, use a heat pack - warmed up as instructed by the manufacturer - and place that around your neck for 5 to 10 minutes.

#1 Neck Retractions (Chin tucks)

This one is key - and easy. Stand against a wall as flat as you can - heels, butt, shoulders all against the wall:

• Look straight ahead with your ears directly over your shoulders.
• Place your finger on your chin.
• Without moving your finger, pull your chin and head straight back until you feel a good stretch at the base of your head and top of your neck. (There should now be some separation between your chin and finger.)
• Hold for 5 seconds if possible.
• Bring your chin forward again to your finger.
• Repeat for a total of 10 times, or as tolerated.

Initially, do these every two hours, or on every fourth break from working (you have your timer set at 25 minutes, remember?).

#2 Roller - Longitudinal and lateral

Firstly, with the roller "laterally" across your back, roll gently up to the bottom of your neck and then down to your lower spine. Repeat until you feel a little looser in your spine. 

Move the roller down to your lower back, and allow yourself to lie gently across it, touching the floor head and feet. Rest on the roller for 60 seconds. Allow it to ease any strain in your lower back caused by sitting for too long. If this hurts, stop.

Now, turn the roller "longitudinally" - under your spine. The roller needs to be long enough for you to rest your head on one end, and have it extend from under your lower back at the other.

Spread your legs, and use them to balance your spine on the roller. Maintain a neutral spine by pushing down with a little weight through your heels, and making sure that your lower spine is not raised more than a hand-width off the roller. Keep your head in line with your spine.

Start with your arms extended down, palms upward, and outwards at 45-degrees from your body. Now, while keeping your hands and elbows in contact with the floor, move your arms slowly outwards and upwards until you find your stretch point. 

You may find this range of movement puts too much of a strain on your chest or shoulders. So the idea is to just bring your arms back down a little to the point where you feel a comfortable stretch.

Hold this position for 60 seconds.

This video gives a very complete set of instructions.

For those of you who have foam rollers, that's the job done.

To summarise - apply the heat pack and do the chin tucks every two hours. Do the roller at the beginning of the day and the end of your day at the desk.

If you don’t have a foam roller, do this

If you don't have a foam roller, here's something that will stretch your shoulders, and you can use your desk.
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• Stand in front of your desk, very close, upright, and with your butt firmly pushing onto the edge. With your palms facing forward, move your arms to a 45-degree angle and bring them back over the desk - while maintaining a straight spine and posture.
• Bring your arms back to feel the stretch in your upper back. It should be a firm, gentle stretch, and you should not be feeling anything your lower back. Hold your arms back for 30 seconds, and then repeat this two more times. Three reps in total.
• If you feel a stretch in your lower back, try to stand a bit more upright and then start again. Stretching your lower back is not the objective of this exercise.

Doing these exercises regularly has relieved the tension in my neck, and I'm pleased to say that my headaches have faded. 

Hopefully, they'll do the same for you. 

Good luck.

PS If you are looking for a good interval timer using the Pomodoro technique then I recommend Focus Me. I use the chrome extension and have it set to 25-minutes with a 5-minute break. (Not an affiliate link.)

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