Tension headaches are often caused by things we deal with every day, such as poor posture and tense upper body muscles. In many cases, people will just take some pain medication and wait for the pain to go away, but this only treats the pain rather than targeting the root cause of your headaches. With physical therapy, the root cause of headaches can be identified and treated, and there are two types of tension headache physical therapy that are especially helpful.
1. Manual therapy
Manual therapy is a type of tension headache physical therapy where the hands of the therapist are the medium of treatment. Their hands are used to move the neck, shoulders and upper back through various movements. The movements are designed to do several things that can help reduce the frequency of tension headaches.
For example, some manual therapy movements are used to stretch the tense muscles that may be causing tension headaches. Other movements are designed to mobilize, or massage, the soft tissue in the neck to release more areas of tension and improve blood flow.
2. Ergonomic recommendations
Ergonomics is the idea that a task can be fitted to the person doing it. This idea can be applied at work and at home, and it’s a key part of physical therapy for tension headaches. The recommendations the therapist will make typically varies depending on the person and their daily activities.
A person who works in an office and spends lots of time sitting may get recommendations to improve their seated posture. Improved posture places less strain on the neck muscles, which can help decrease the number of tension headaches you have. For people in more active jobs, ergonomic recommendations are more likely to focus on the movements they do. An example would be that a painter would be shown arm movements to use that cause less tension to build up in the shoulders.
Get the best tension headache physical therapy from Panther Physical Therapy
Are you ready to ditch those daily tension headaches? Panther Physical Therapy is ready to help you meet this goal. Our team will evaluate you to figure out the root cause of your headaches, and we’ll then create a personalized physical therapy plan to treat it. These plans are intended to provide you with benefits such as:
- Decreased pain
- Reduced headache frequency
- Improved upper body posture
- Increased neck muscle strength
Take the next step to start treating your tension headaches at Panther Physical Therapy. Contact our team today for more information or to schedule an appointment.