If your neck is always stiff and achy, and/or you’re suffering from tension headaches, you need to understand how your suboccipital muscles contribute to your pain.
Take a look at the picture below, then palpate the area on the back of your head, where it meets your neck. That’s where your suboccipital muscles are located.
There are 4 muscles involved in the suboccipital region, also called “Upper Cervical Spine”. These muscles are deeper than all other muscles in the back of the neck and they are very strongly connected to our eyes to give the feedback to the larger neck muscles as to where the head is positioned.
The purpose of these muscles is to provide fine motor function in movements of the head. These deep, small muscles work very hard, as the larger muscles that move the head are refined by the suboccipital muscles.
As the neck starts to flex at the lower cervical, our eyes always want to look forward. The head and the upper cervical spine starts to extend, the suboccipitals start to shorten and hold the back of the skull to the top two vertebrae (Atlas and Axis) and lock it in place. These muscles are also a common area to develop trigger points that can cause terrible headaches.
Approximately 50% of the neck rotation should come from the first two vertebrae. The rest of the cervical spine splits the other 50% gradually rotating less and less as you progress from C3 to C7.
The suboccipital area is very prone to get stiff and immobile, when the upper cervical spine can’t rotate properly, that motion get picked up by the lower cervical spine, which we want to be actually more stable!
Usually, if you do a proper myofascial release treatment to the suboccipital complex, then stretch and mobilize the suboccipitals, your condition improves tremendously and you finally get a relief from the sometimes excruciating pain.
There’s no need to suffer, when there’s a solution for your problem!
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I’m offering a 30 minute complimentary phone consultation where you can tell me more about your condition and learn more about how a Pilates/corrective exercise program can help you achieve better strength and less pain.
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