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Neck

Neck pain and tension headaches

Stiffness, restricted turning, and the headaches that come from the base of the skull — the classic desk-work complaint.

What it typically feels like

  • Stiffness turning your head to one side
  • An ache across the top of the shoulders by the afternoon
  • Headache starting at the base of the skull, wrapping to the temple
  • Tightness that returns within days of stretching it

If you work at a desk, this is probably why you are reading this page. The head weighs roughly five kilograms held upright — and considerably more, in terms of load on the neck, once it drifts forward towards a screen.

What usually causes it

  • Screen height. A monitor too low pulls the head forward for hours a day.
  • Phones. The same problem, worse angle.
  • Stress, which is not a metaphor here — people hold tension in the upper trapezius, and it shows up as a stiff neck by Friday.
  • A shoulder or upper back problem that the neck has been compensating for.

Why the headaches

Trigger points in the upper trapezius and the muscles at the base of the skull refer pain in a recognisable pattern — up the back of the head, behind the eye, into the temple. People treat these as headaches and reach for painkillers, when the actual source is a knot of muscle in the neck that responds to treatment in minutes.

If pressing a specific spot in your neck or shoulder reproduces your headache, that is a strong clue.

What treatment involves

Releasing the tight structures, restoring rotation, and settling the trigger points that are referring pain. That usually gives quick relief.

Making it last is the other half: sorting the screen height, the posture and the strength work, because the tissue will simply tighten again by next week if it is put back into the same position for forty hours.

What is actually in the neck

Seven small vertebrae carrying the weight of a head that weighs about as much as a bowling ball, held up by muscles that also have to turn it, tilt it and hold it steady all day.

Sternocleidomastoid
The rope you can feel down the side of the neck. Turns and tilts the head, and it is the muscle most often behind pain that runs up behind the ear and into the temple.
Upper trapezius and levator scapulae
The two that run from the neck down onto the shoulder blade. Both work overtime holding the shoulders up, which is what a stressful week or a badly set-up desk quietly asks them to do.
Suboccipitals
Four short muscles at the very base of the skull. Small, deep, and closely tied to headaches that start at the back of the head and settle behind the eye.
Cervical facet joints
The small paired joints guiding each turn of the neck. When one stiffens, turning to that side is limited in a way that feels blocked rather than tight.

Why it goes wrong

Almost all of it comes back to load and position rather than damage. A head held forward of the shoulders multiplies the work these muscles do, and they respond by shortening and developing tender points that refer pain into the head and face. That referral is why neck problems so often present as headaches, and why treating the head gets nowhere.

3D anatomy See the structures involved on the interactive model

The honest next step

This page describes what is common, not what you have. The only way to know is to have it assessed — and your first session includes a full assessment, so you leave knowing what is actually going on.

Book an assessment Call 07922 884 788