| A common cause of headaches is sports participation. | | | | to get a headache. Think about your golf swing. If done |
| Many sports involve rapid movements. Martial arts, | | | | correctly there is little problem but most of us are still |
| various football codes, squash etc. All of these spots | | | | trying to perfect or swing and are more likely to injure |
| involve moving your body quickly. | | | | ourselves. Especially as many golfers get no exercise |
| What is happening is that your body accelerates or | | | | outside of a weekly game. |
| decelerates quickly and your neck muscles have the | | | | Even lawn bowls or ten pin bowling are not without |
| task of keeping your head from rolling around. An | | | | their hazards. You pick up a weight with one hand and |
| extreme example is whip lash injury as occurs in a | | | | swing it and release it over and over during a game. |
| rear end auto accident. | | | | You are working one side of your body only and have |
| After a good spots workout your neck muscles have | | | | created a muscular imbalance, which can often lead to |
| been rolling for ages and the muscles which run over | | | | pain and headache. |
| your skull are now tight resulting in a rear to frontal | | | | The solution to this lack of training is more training. So |
| headache. | | | | maybe you play sport once a week and you lead a |
| A problem for weekend warriors | | | | busy life, you will need to do neck and shoulder |
| This is a much bigger problem for weekend warriors | | | | strengthening exercises daily. These only take a few |
| than serious athletes. Regular players tend to develop | | | | minutes. |
| stronger muscles in the neck and shoulders. Weekend | | | | Prevention for headaches |
| warriors or mid week players do not do enough | | | | Think about the actions of your sport which cause you |
| training and therefore are more susceptible to injury | | | | the most pain. Now do these actions slower than usual |
| and headaches. | | | | but with some light weights in your hands. Practice the |
| There are many ways to stress your neck and cause | | | | stop start aspects daily for a few minutes. |
| headaches, from the crunch of a football tackle to the | | | | This will strengthen your neck and shoulder muscles. |
| jerking of a downhill mountain bike ride or the sudden | | | | Other exercises are anything where you hold your |
| frontal or lateral impact from a boxing or martial arts | | | | arms to the side or front or above your head. Move |
| strike to the head. | | | | slowly for a few minutes. Hold a water bottle or |
| It's crazy to not wear good headgear when sparring, | | | | weight in each hand and move your arms in a |
| but even if you do it doesn't completely solve your | | | | controlled way. No jerky action. |
| problem. Most headgear can wear a direct punch to | | | | It's the daily effort that will pay off for you. Remember |
| the face but it's the blows to the side of the head that | | | | also to warm up before you play and to warm down. |
| cause the most neck pain and headaches. | | | | If you injure your neck stop playing as you will only |
| Any sport can cause headaches | | | | cause more damage and create a bigger headache. |
| You don't even have to be doing some extreme sport | | | | |