Video Transcript: Learn Nerve Glide Exercises for Headaches and Neck Pain

Hi, everyone! Dr. Orit Hickman here from Pain Science Physical Therapy. 

And, I wanted to show you a quick exercise that I feel is one of my go-to exercises for neck pain and headaches that start from the base of the skull. So, these headaches are called suboccipital headaches, and they typically start right along the base of the back of the head. And, they can travel up the sides of the head and come up into the forehead. 

There are also headaches that will sometimes come from the behind the ear and jaw region and travel up the side of the face. And, they’re nerve headaches. So, they’re coming because the nerves that come from the base of the skull called your suboccipital nerves or the nerves that come out of the base right at the bottom of — or the right at the top of the neck called your c1, c2 nerves are irritable for whatever reason. 

And, I’m prone to these types of headaches. So, after I panic, I usually lay down and do a series of exercises. And, the exercises are for a combination of low back and neck pain, but there is another video that is geared specifically towards nerve glides for back pain. So, check out that video if you want to know what my whole series of exercises is. But, this exercise that I’m going to show you is the one that I really like to do specifically for the pain that’s coming from the base of the skull, these suboccipital headaches. 

So, you need to find a nice, comfortable place to lay down. This can be on your bed or it can be on the floor. I’m going to do it here on the mat table so that you can see me move. 

Nerves really like blood movement and space. So, if you’re having a headache and that headache is happening because nerves are irritated, then doing things to slightly, gently glide the nerves and move the nerves are going to allow the nerves to feel more comfortable. 

Stretching the nerves or putting them in a position where you’re stretching them for long periods of time might feel really good in the moment, but over the course of the time is going to make those nerves more irritable. And, you might even notice that your headaches are happening more frequently. So, a lot of times, people will be like, “Oh. I really love to stretch my neck out. It feels so much better when I stretch. Everything feels really, really tight.” And, the problem with that is that if your pain is coming because of nerve sensitivity, your nerves are going to become potentially more sensitive. Over time, that’s going to irritate things. It’s not actually going to help, so it feels good in the moment, but isn’t the long-term strategy that we want to employ. 

So, the way that we do things are — really the idea is to give your nerves a little bit of movement, a little bit of blood flow. And, even going for a brisk walk can really help with headache if it’s because of the nerves are sensitive. 

But, I’m going to show you my exercise. I really like this exercise. And, what you’re going to do is you’re going to lay down, and you’re going to do a movement. It’s a combined movement, so you got to get a little coordination. It might take a little bit of practice. 

But, what you’re going to do is you’re going to tilt your pelvis gently under. So, when I do that (if you can imagine your pelvis as a soup bowl,) I’m actually rocking the soup bowl this way. So, arching the back is that direction and rocking the soup bowl this way is the direction that you want to go. 

Now, at the same time as I tilt the pelvis back, I’m also going to move my head. So, I’m going to tilt the pelvis back, and I’m going to gently look back towards the back wall. And then, I’m going to relax my head and relax the pelvis at the same time. So, I’m going to tilt the pelvis. I’m going to look up at the wall behind me. I’m going to relax my head, and I’m going to relax my pelvis back down. This is not a big movement. I’m not trying to really crank my head way back or crank my pelvis way back. So, you’re not trying to crank, crank, crank. Get it here, and then back down again. This is a really gentle movement. And, what you’re doing here is you’re gently gliding and moving your spinal cord. And, what that does is that the spinal cord gets a little bit of movement. The nerves that attach to the spinal cord get a little bit of movement. And, it gives them a little bit of blood flow, and that’s something that tends to make the nerves happy. You do about five or ten of those, and you repeat them as you need to throughout the day. 

I hope this helps. Let me know. Definitely give me a thumbs up if you thought this was a good video and leave a comment below if you have any questions or concerns. Good luck! Have a good one.