Stand at Attention to Keep Chronic Tension Headaches Away
By Paul Bacho In order to get permanent relief from chronic tension headaches, you must do two things: get rid of tight and spasmed muscles in your neck, shoulders and upper back that cause chronic tension headaches by restricting blood flow to the back of your head and irritating nerve endings there correct your posture so that the tight and spasmed muscles don’t return This article deals with the second point. The best way to correct your posture is to simply pay attention to the way you sit and stand. Whenever you catch yourself slouching, assume the military posture. This posture has to be maintained the whole day, whether youre sitting, standing or walking. Why? Because the military posture doesnt overload the musculature. When youre in this posture, youre upright. Your shoulders are back. Your head is up and back. Your stomach is in and tight (your chest needs to be out a little bit, too). (Not sure if youre assuming this posture correctly? Then stand sideways to a full-length mirror. You should be able to draw a line from your ear through your shoulder, hip, knee, and finally through your ankle. This line should straight, with no curve at all ). By keeping your head up, shoulders back and stomach tight, youre taking all the pressure off of the muscles that have a tendency to fatigue and spasm - the muscles in the back of your neck and shoulders (particularly the trapezius). And when these muscles spasm, they become overloaded, which often results in a tension headache. When youre in a proper posture at work as a course of habit, these muscles wont be under any undue strain during the day. As a result, youll be able to sit, stand, walk and perform all of your daily activities free of pain. However, when youre first starting to incorporate the military posture, youll have to do a couple of simple stretches and exercises in order to get your body used to that proper positioning. My patients who have developed poor posture tell me that it hurts when they try to stand up straight and pull their shoulders back. Yes, it will hurt you, too - at first. There are several reasons for this pain: 1. Being stoop-shouldered with your head tilted forward all day (for many years, most likely!) has resulted in the adaptation of the musculature in your back to that position. By assuming a correct posture, youre now taking these muscles and forcing them to go in the opposite direction that theyre used to going. 2. These back muscles are longer than they should be because of your previously poor posture; theyve become stretched out. By practicing proper posture, youre now contracting them when you pull your shoulders back. This contraction causes pain. 3. The muscles themselves arent strong enough to hold your torso back. By having hunched over for so many years, youve been stretching those muscles. They havent had to work to keep you in an upright position. Now they do. 4. As you pull your shoulders back, youre going to be stretching out your chest muscles. This will cause pain in these muscles because theyre used to being in a shortened, contracted state. Allow me to explain this last point. There are two muscles in your chest, one big, one small. The big ones called pectorals major. The small ones under the big one and is called pectorals minor. Both of these muscles insert into and onto the shoulder joint. When you maintain a bent-over posture, as you might by working at a computer terminal all day, you tend to roll your shoulders in. The result: Your chest muscles shorten. At the same time, the muscles in your shoulders and upper back are being stretched and lengthened. So, as you leave your chest muscles in a shortened position for extended periods, those muscles adapt to that shortened position and become tighter. Heres an analogy. Lets say youve broken your arm and its in a sling for several weeks. Finally, your doctor removes the sling and tells you to move your arm. You cant! Of course, eventually you can, but youll most likely find that several weeks will pass before you have full range of motion. Thats because your arm has adapted to being in an abnormal position. Only diligent exercise will allow it to regain its former flexibility and strength. The same thing is true with your shoulder and chest muscles. As you stoop over, your shoulder muscles become stretched out, while the chest muscles shorten. However, when you assume the military posture, you shorten and strengthen your back, while at the same time you stretch and strengthen your chest. Paul Bacho is a certified athletic trainer in Cleveland, Ohio with over 28 years experience treating patients with chronic pain. He’s also co-author of “How to Get Permanent Relief From Chronic Tension Headaches,” a holistic program that he’s used to help people from all over the world get rid of their tension headaches. For more information, go to http://www.tensionheadaches.org Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Paul_Bacho http://EzineArticles.com/?Stand-at-Attention-to-Keep-Chronic-Tension-Headaches-Away&id=384742 failing to pay back payday loans unsecured 30000 bad credit loan personal no credit loan final paycheck louisiana
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