I would like to address Keisha's request and discuss ways to alleviate or treat headaches. There are many causes of headaches, including tension in the facial muscles such as the masseter and temporalis. To reduce tension and headaches, we will be discussing three tips and exercises.
1. Don’t do TCH
Avoid the teeth contact habit. Teeth contact refers to when your upper and lower teeth touch while your face is at rest. This is considered a bad habit as it can be worse than grinding. Dentists in Japan have found that even if you're not clenching, lightly touching your teeth for a long period of time can be more damaging than grinding. This is because the habit of touching your teeth during the day can carry over into your sleep. To avoid this, make sure your upper and lower teeth are not touching. You should aim to have some space between the two, as seen on the back and side. A technique to help with this is mewing, where the tongue is kept up and lifts the upper teeth, creating space between the upper and lower teeth.
2. Use tongue muscle to rest your face
To rest your face, use your tongue muscle instead of the masseter muscle. The masseter muscle is an overworking muscle that can cause the face to become bigger over time. To shift the tension from the masseter muscle to the tongue muscle and palate, you can try mewing, cheek squats, and tongue squats. When doing cheek squats, make sure not to use the neck muscle and to check your posture in a mirror. The goal is to lift the palate as high as possible with the tongue and to relax the neck. Each exercise should last 10 seconds and can be done 1 to 3 times a day.
3. Massage
This is not a long-term solution as you can't massage for the rest of your life. Massaging is a temporary fix for tension headaches. Target the front temporalis and masseter muscles, which are the main causes of tension headaches. However, too much massaging can lead to more pain and inflammation. A better approach is to use your fingers to massage the skull instead of the hair, and use a light, circular or up-down motion. Avoid pressing too hard. A massage gun can be a good alternative as it's less tiring and more efficient. Just be careful not to apply too much pressure. A mini version is recommended, as the big one can be too strong. Everyone's experience is different, but massaging all over the head feels good. Just be careful not to break any bones.
If you're interested in more exercises, try our face yoga app, which features tutorials and an asymmetry analysis test available on iPhone. We're also planning on hosting a Face Olympics and Yoga Expo in Beijing next year. If you're interested in teaching the Koko Face Method, check out our live stream dates, announced three months in advance, on Saturdays and Sundays.
