How to Permanently Fix Neck-Related Headaches
Key insights: 60-second read
- Neck-related headaches can be referred from the top of your neck - the joints and muscles at the base of your skull can refer pain into your head and face. Not all headaches are neck-related, so always rule out serious causes first.
- A simple ball release can help you identify and reduce your headache - with a lacrosse or tennis ball at the top of your neck, you can find stiff, tight, and restricted tissue that may be causing your symptoms.
- Stress can amplify neck-related headaches - it's rarely the root cause, but it can make tight muscles tighter and sore joints sorer, and it can prevent dysfunctional tissue from settling down.
- Strengthening your neck can make it more robust - once you've mobilised and down-regulated, use a band or device like the Iron Neck to fatigue and strengthen the deep neck muscles.
- Posture is the final piece of the puzzle - if you don't address the day-to-day shapes and positions that create the dysfunction, you'll only ever get short-term relief.
If you've been dealing with headaches, it's worth taking the time to figure out whether they're coming from your neck. In this video, I want to show you how to figure out if your headaches are neck-related - or "cervicogenic" - and what you need to work on to give yourself the best chance of permanently fixing them.
We'll cover one simple exercise that can help you self-diagnose and treat any relevant areas, strength exercises to optimise your neck function, the role of stress, and the number one thing you need to optimise to help them go away for good.
Let's get into it.
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What Are Cervicogenic Headaches?
Headaches can have a number of different causes, and it's important to acknowledge that some can be very serious. It goes without saying that if you're worried in any way, shape, or form, please consult your doctor or medical professional.
That said, if we're working on the assumption that your headaches could be musculoskeletal in origin, it's important to think of them as a referred pain from the top of your neck. The joints and muscles at the base of your skull can become overloaded and dysfunctional, referring pain into your head and face.
Whether you call it a migraine or a headache, the labels can be confusing - and misleading. I'd encourage you to keep an open mind and repeat the process we're going to go through, regardless of any preconceived label, to see if your symptoms are genuinely coming from your neck.
Important: Before we start, give your headache a score out of 10 (0 = nothing, 10 = worst imaginable). If you're at 8, 9, or 10, go to an emergency room and get checked out. Once you've been given the all-clear, come back and try this.
The Ball Release: Identify & Reduce Your Headache
This simple exercise will not only help you better understand where your headaches are definitively coming from but will hopefully give you the power to reduce them in the moment.
How to Do the Ball Release
- Setup: Take a lacrosse ball or tennis ball. Place it at the top of your neck, at the base of your skull, just off to one side (on the fleshy part).
- Find the spots: Lie down on the ball. Go looking through the top three or four levels of your neck for tissue that feels thick, tight, or restricted. Put soreness aside and focus on what feels restricted.
- Hold: When you find a stiff spot, stay there and let the ball press in for 30 seconds to a minute. Don't roll around - just let the tissue release. Be aware that you may reproduce your headaches if you hit the right spot.
- Work down: Move the ball down a little at a time, spending time on each spot that feels meaningful to you.
- Work wider: Come back to the top of your neck and move the ball wider, almost behind your ear. This targets the suboccipital muscles that anchor from your neck into your skull.
- Retest: Immediately check back in with your headache symptoms. If anything has changed, you've found an important layer of your puzzle.
"If you hit a spot that reproduces your headache, there's a very good chance it's where your headache is coming from."
If you spend time working through both sides (or the side that feels most restricted) and genuinely feel something has changed, what you did mattered. If you didn't find anything at all, there's a chance your headaches aren't neck-related - but be thorough before concluding that.
The Role of Stress
Stress alone is highly unlikely to be the root cause of your headache - but it can absolutely be a piece of the puzzle. Stress isn't specific enough to cause a headache on its own. It needs something to pick on.
If you have overloaded, stiff, tight, and restricted joints and soft tissues at the top of your neck, adding a stressful environment on top can turn relatively mild symptoms into a monster. It can make tight muscles tighter, sore joints sorer, and prevent dysfunctional tissue from settling down.
Deep Breathing for Down-Regulation
If you're someone who deals with stress, anxiety, or a heightened nervous system, deep breathing can help. Here's how:
- Take a comfortable, full breath in through your nose
- Pause subtly at the top
- Breathe out through pursed lips, slowly and relaxed, all the way out
- Pause at the bottom, then repeat for 5-10 breaths
This can take you from a heightened, stressful state down to a less heightened one. If stress is amplifying the effects of your neck-related dysfunction, a simple breathing technique may help soothe your symptoms.
Strengthening Your Neck
Once you've mobilised the stiff tissue and down-regulated your nervous system, the next step to permanently ridding cervicogenic headaches is to strengthen the same tissue to make it more robust. But first, make sure your tissue isn't already too aggravated - you want to feel relatively comfortable symptomatically before starting these exercises.
Theraband Neck Exercises
- Setup: Place a theraband around your forehead. Secure it to something sturdy - you don't want it snapping back in your face.
- Position: Stand nice and tall. Take a step away from the band until you feel tension at the side of your neck.
- Isometric hold: Hold this position for 5-10 seconds, then relax. Repeat.
- Rotation: Keep your spine upright (imagine a rod down your spine) and rotate your head side to side, fatiguing the tissue as you go.
- Both sides: Do this on both sides. You want to feel a genuine sense of fatigue in the top part of your neck.
"If you're not walking away feeling fatigued and to some degree a little bit looser, then you haven't stimulated your body enough to prompt it to get better."
Optional Tool: The Iron Neck
If you've been following along and feel like you want a bit more versatility in your neck strengthening, one option worth exploring is the Iron Neck. I personally use it because it allows you to generate tension through 360° of motion - you can work in all directions (up, down, side to side, and rotation) with resistance throughout the entire range. It's a convenient way to hit different parts of the neck without needing to constantly adjust bands.
But let me be clear: you don't need this device. A theraband works perfectly well, as does simply lying down and using gravity as resistance. I've also seen people use weighted head harnesses or even just manual resistance from their own hand. The best tool is the one you'll actually use consistently. This is just an option if you're in the market for something a bit more specialised and want to support the channel at the same time.
If you're interested, you can use my affiliate link for 10% off:
Iron Neck (10% off) – Grant's Affiliate Link
Disclosure: This is an affiliate link, which means I may earn a small commission if you purchase through it. This doesn't affect the price you pay, and I only recommend tools I genuinely use and find helpful.
Whatever tool you choose, the goal is to generate fatigue in the neck muscles without stirring up your headache symptoms. If you're not walking away feeling like you've worked them, you haven't stimulated your body enough to prompt change.
The Number One Thing: Posture
This is the piece I alluded to at the start. If you ever want to get to the stage where your neck-related headaches are permanently better, you need to have a very mature and open-minded conversation around your day-to-day neck postures.
There has to be a reason why one specific part of your neck has become stiff, tight, overloaded, and dysfunctional enough to refer pain to your head. And based on what I've come to understand clinically, that reason is often the shapes and positions you put your neck into most throughout the day.
Common Postures That Contribute to Neck Headaches
- Looking down at your phone - this acutely biases the top of your neck.
- Reading a book or doing arts and crafts - prolonged flexion of the neck.
- Slouching with your chin poking out - this compresses the top of the neck.
- Any position where you're consistently looking down or holding your head in a forward position.
The key is to arrange your environment to support a more anatomically correct position. If you don't address these postures, all of the mobilising, down-regulating, and strengthening you do may only provide short-term symptomatic relief. It may be unrealistic to expect your headaches to go away forever if you keep creating the same dysfunction day after day.
Key Concept: If we don't take a look at the shapes and positions you put your neck into most, we'll never get a strong sense of why you're having this conversation in the first place - and what it might take for you to permanently fix this long term.
To permanently fix neck-related headaches, you need to address all the pieces of the puzzle:
- Mobilise the stiff, tight, and restricted tissue at the top of your neck using a ball.
- Down-regulate your nervous system with deep breathing if stress is a factor.
- Strengthen the neck muscles to make the tissue more robust and resilient.
- Address your posture - change the day-to-day shapes and positions that created the dysfunction in the first place.
If you only do the first three, you may get relief - but it won't last if you keep creating the same problem. Posture is the final piece, and it's the one that makes the difference between temporary relief and permanent resolution.
- Grant
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know if my headaches are neck-related?
The ball release exercise is a good diagnostic tool. If you find stiff, tight, restricted spots at the top of your neck and working on them changes your headache symptoms, it's likely your headaches are neck-related. If you find nothing and nothing changes, they may not be. Always rule out serious causes with a doctor first.
Can stress alone cause neck-related headaches?
Stress alone is unlikely to be the root cause. It needs something to pick on - like overloaded, stiff tissue at the top of your neck. However, stress can amplify symptoms, make tight muscles tighter, and prevent dysfunctional tissue from settling down. Addressing stress is an important part of the puzzle.
How often should I do the ball release and strengthening exercises?
For the ball release, you can do it daily or as needed when symptoms flare up. For strengthening, aim for 3-4 times per week. Always listen to your body - if your tissue is aggravated, ease off and focus on mobilising and down-regulating first.
What if I don't have access to an Iron Neck device?
A theraband works perfectly well. You can also do neck exercises lying down and using gravity as resistance. The key is to generate fatigue in the neck muscles - you want to walk away feeling like you've worked them.
One key insight from this video
"If you don't address the day-to-day shapes and positions you put your neck into most, all of the mobilising, down-regulating, and strengthening you do may only provide short-term symptomatic relief. Posture is the final piece of the puzzle."
Need personalised guidance for your headaches?
If you would like help making sense of your headaches, neck pain, or general musculoskeletal dysfunction, you can book with Grant either in Port Macquarie or via an online telehealth consultation.
