Muscles causing headaches - Suboccipital Muscles - Dr Gert Ferreira - Chiropractor in Centurion

Suboccipital muscles - Dr Gert Ferreira - Chiropractor in Centurion

In the last part of our series - Muscles causing headaches - are we looking at the group of muscles named the Suboccipital muscles. There are 4 muscles in total in this group and all 4 will be discussed in detail. They can cause a nasty headache but they are treatable. 

Anatomy:

There are 4 muscles in this group:

    1) Rectus capitis posterior major:

            Origin - Spine of C2

            Insertion - Lateral portion of inferior nuchal line

            Action - Extension, rotation and lateral flexion of head

            Nerve supply - Suboccipital nerve

    2) Rectus capitis posterior minor - might be absent 

            Origin - Posterior tubercle of C1

            Insertion - medial portion of inferior nuchal line

            Action - Extension and lateral flexion of head

            Nerve supply - Suboccipital nerve

      3) Obliquus capitis superior

            Origin - Transverse process of C1

            Insertion - Below inferior nuchal line

            Action - Extension, rotation and lateral flexion of head

            Nerve supply - Suboccipital nerve

    4) Obliquus capitis inferior

            Origin - Spine of C2

            Insertion - Transverse process of C1

            Action - Extension and rotation of head

            Nerve supply - Suboccipital nerve

These 4 muscles are mainly there to support the head in posture.

Common Injuries:

These muscles are most commonly injured during whiplash and poor posture or stress.

Pain pattern:

Subocipital muscle referral - Dr Gert Ferreira - Chiropractor in Pretoria
As you can see these muscles refer from the back/base of skull all the way to the eye and the forehead area. These muscles are normally involved along side Trapezius, Sternocleidomastoid and Splenius musces.

How a chiropractor can treat this muscle:

Typically a Chiropractor will do an array of soft tissue work (muscle work) that includes, massage, myofascial dry needling (wrongly referred as Acupuncture), kinesio taping (RockTape), Ultrasound and even Fascia "release".

A Chiropractic adjustment will be delivered to the affected neck vertebrae to "reset" the body system and try to get homeostasis.

Home treatment includes:

Stretching 

Ice or Heat therapy - Click here for a blog on Ice therapy, but heat therapy can work just as well

For more infomation please feel free to get hold of us:

012 663 1572

082 803 1949

dr.gertferreira@gmail.com

Regards

Dr Gert Ferreira

Chiropractor in Centurion - Pretoria