Self Massager
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Self Massage Therapy Techniques For Headaches
Chances are if you are like most Americans you have had a headache, as a matter of fact when it comes to the rate of chronic headaches in America, studies have shown that roughly 45 million Americans suffer from them each year. While I would suggest that seeking the service of a professional massage therapist, many times you can utilize self massage techniques, which may speak to men more than females. The reason being, men still have a lower rate of seeking massage therapy services than women do. But these techniques will for everyone.
With men suffering slightly more than females, 25 million men on average, while female average about 20 million that experience chronic headaches. This represents a statistic of chronic headaches that is roughly 1 out of every 6 Americans. Here are some more startling statistics that might be alarming to you.
Headache statistics according to the American Headache Society:
• Every 10 seconds, someone in the United States goes to the emergency room with a headache or migraine.
• More than $1 billion is spent on over-the-counter medications to treat headaches and Migraines.
• The lost work due to migraine disease costs more than $13 billion every year in the U.S.
Follow these self massage techniques that are listed here and you will diffuse the severity of your headache or migraine.
1. Drink plenty of water before and after doing these massage techniques (most important)
2. Take your thumbs and press them firmly into the bridge of your nose, just underneath your forehead. Direction of pressure is in towards one another, pressure is firm but not causing pain. Hold for 7 - 10 seconds, breathy deeply. Repeat 2 -4 times
3. Take your thumbs and now place them just underneath your forehead, with the pads of your thumb very close to the bridge of your nose. But this time you will press firmly upwards towards your forehead, again not causing pain but utilizing firm steady pressure. Taking deep breathes while holding this pressure. Hold for 7 - 10 seconds and repeat if necessary.
4. Take both hands and pinch and then pull your skin tissue just below you eyebrows and hold. Direction of and pressure of pinch is away from face and pressure is firm, with a hold of about 5 -7 seconds and repeat.
5. Take your thumbs or your middle 3 fingers and press them firmly into the sides of your temple. You can add a slight circular motion here as well, this is very effective. Hold for 7 - 10 seconds using form but steady pressure.
6. Sinus suffers can press into the sides of their nose and move fingers firmly away from their nose towards their cheekbones. Working both sides at once and working multiple points along the ridge of your nose. Direction of pressure is in towards your face and moving away towards your cheekbones.
7. Optional: If you have something that is foam in nature or hard plastic protected with some padding, the goal here is to get something that you can put behind your head and lay the back of your head on just underneath your skull (sub occipital area)
I have tried these massage therapy techniques many times in the past with great results; most times headaches disappear almost immediately. If you have any other techniques I would love to hear about it, thank you.
About the Author
Robert C. Vignoli has been a massage therapist for over 10 years and is an expert in cutting edge
massage therapy techniques
. He currently co-owns Roman Paradigm Massage, but now he is helping to improve the massage industry by building a "hands off" massage business model. MassageSpace.net is the new MySpace for Massage Therapist, learn more @ http://www.think-diagonal.com
Simple Self-Massage Technique For Headache Sufferers
Suffering from chronic constant headaches can be debillatating. Headaches can be painful all around the head or can be on one side or can focus on a particular spot. The chronic pain can be throbbing or a consistent dull ache.
Headaches can range from slight and mildly annoying through to sever and debilitating. Whilst there are many different reasons why headaches can occur, one of the more typical causes is muscular tension. This muscular tension can be the result of physical injury to a muscle or muscles, tightness in the muscles from a repeated activity in which muscles are contracted for extended periods of time or just plain stress. Trigger points which are the result of muscular tension can be associated with the cause of headaches.
But what are trigger points? "
One definition of a trigger point is that they are "hyperirritable spots in skeletal muscle that are associated with palpable nodules in bands of muscle fibers". They may also be considered as localised areas of pain that develop in muscles due to overuse or chronic spasms. Trigger points have the property that they create a reproducible and predicable pain pattern when it is activate.
One of the more relevant and surprising muscles in which trigger points can lead to headaches is called the sternocleidomastoid muscle (SCM for short). This muscle is in the front of your neck which is probably why most people don't consider it when they get headaches or neck pain - you normally get pain at the back of the neck, very rarely is there pain in the front. However trigger points in the SCM can cause a tremendous amount of pain and discomfort but it's always referred somewhere else.
Frontal headaches or pressure across the forehead may well be the result of trigger points in the SCM. Also SCM trigger points can send pain to the eye, the sinuses and even make the back teeth sore. Other symptoms include scalp tenderness right at the top of your head, dizziness, visual disturbances and even increased production of mucous.
So where is the SCM and how do you massage it?
The SCM lies on the front and side of the neck, both left and right sides and attaches to the sternum (sterno), the clavicle (cleido) and the mastoid process (mastoid). It splits into two parts from the mastoid process, one going to the clavicle and one to the sternum. When both left and right SCMs contract at the same time then it brings the head forward and down, allowing chin to fall to the chest. When just one of the SCMs contract then it rotates and tilts your head to one side.
The good news about trigger points in the SCM is that they can be easy to address with self-massage. To work out where your SCMs are then look in a mirror and turn your head slightly to the right and tilt your left ear to your left shoulder. The SCM will bulge on the left as the muscle contracts. You should now be able to grasp hold of the muscle between your thumb and forefinger and follow the muscle virtually along its whole length.
Once you have located the muscle then grasp the muscle between thumb and fingers and massage (as with any self-massage be careful and mindful of sensitive areas - within the front of the neck there are nerves and blood vessels which need to be avoided). If you find any sensitive areas then these are likely to be trigger points and may refer pain to other parts of your heads. Massage these sensitive areas by holding for a few seconds and then apply direct pressure in small circles for a few seconds. Leave the point alone for a little while and then return to it.
With repeated massaging then the sensitivity and pain levels should decrease. As with any massage then the mantra "no pain no gain" does not apply. Pain that is tolerable is ok but any excessive levels of pain are not appropriate. If pain and symptoms persist then please consult you health care professional.
SCM self-massage is easy to do and can be highly effective for reducing headaches. If you massage these muscles regularly over a period of time then the tender points in the muscles should become less and pain associated with SCM trigger point diminish.
About the Author
Richard Lane is a trained and accredited massage therapist in Sydney. He provides mobile massage services to the Inner West of Sydney through the
Inner West Mobile Massage
site. He also provides a resource for remedial and therapeutic massage therapists in Australia allowing therapists to list information about their own therapeutic massage clinics, including
Remedial Massage Melbourne
