Weeks 1–2
Pain
Turn the headache volume down.
Manual therapy on the upper neck segments, plus dry needling into the muscles that have been guarding them. Treatment starts on visit one.
What We Treat
Neck pain and headache treatment in San Antonio.
You turn your head to check the clock and the whole day gets decided right there. By lunch it’s a headache. It’s fixable, and it starts with a cause-first evaluation, not a guess.
Sound Familiar?
Does this sound like you?
- Backing out of the driveway with your whole body turned, because your neck won’t
- A headache that starts at the base of your skull and owns the rest of the day
- Waking up on the wrong side of the pillow again and losing the whole morning to it
- Pins and needles running down your arm while you’re just holding your phone
- That knot between your shoulder blades you keep asking someone to dig out
- Catching your chin pushed out toward the monitor every afternoon around four
Two or more? Keep reading.
Why It Happens
The headache is the symptom. The neck is usually the cause.
Your neck holds up a head about as heavy as a bowling ball, all day, every day. The small deep muscles that steady it get tired. So the joints at the top of your neck take the load instead. Those joints refer pain straight up into the back of your skull and behind the eye. That is why so many neck problems show up dressed as a headache. Add a mid-back that stopped moving and a phone you look down at, and the same two or three segments get loaded over and over.
None of that shows up in a glance at your posture. It takes a cause-first evaluation to find the segment actually driving it. You’re the one everyone else leans on, which is exactly why you’ve been managing this with ibuprofen and a hot shower for two years. Find the real cause and the fix stops being a guess.
The Honest Truth
Waiting on a neck doesn’t make the headaches wait.
If you keep waiting
- The headaches stop being a bad-week thing and start being a most-week thing
- You quietly stop doing the shoulder check, the overhead press, the long drive
- Your shoulders and jaw brace against it all day, and then those start hurting too
If you start this week
- You find out which neck segment is feeding the headache, by the end of visit one
- Hands-on work gives your neck room to turn before you leave the building
- You get a plan with an endpoint, not a standing appointment for the rest of your life
Nobody walks in here wishing they had waited longer. The sentence we actually hear is “I wish I’d done this sooner.”
How We Fix It
The same four phases. Built for your neck.
Every plan has an endpoint. Here’s what the four phases look like for neck pain and headaches.
Weeks 2–6
Prime
Get your rotation back.
You check your blind spot without turning your shoulders. Mobility work and spinal manipulation give the mid-back back the motion your neck has been covering for.
Weeks 6–10
Perform
Build a neck that holds itself up.
Four o’clock stops costing you a headache. Deep neck and shoulder blade strengthening takes the job back from the joints that were doing it for you.
Weeks 10+
Prevent
Make the good weeks the normal ones.
Your desk setup, your sleep position and your overhead lifting get retested under real conditions. That’s the endpoint, not another appointment.
I have a C3-C4 fusion. When I started my head was literally locked in a tilted position. Because from the beginning to the present my rehab as been expertly planned , with personalized care - I now have more mobility and strength than I ever thought possible.
Shared by Kris B. · Neck mobility after a C3-C4 fusion
Today: turning your whole body to change lanes
The goal: checking your blind spot without thinking about it
Neck pain & headaches
Pain to Prevent
Questions, Answered
What people ask before booking for neck pain.
Only if you want it. Spinal manipulation is one tool here, and several of our therapists are certified in it, but plenty of necks respond just as well to hands-on mobilization, dry needling and targeted strengthening. You’ll hear what we recommend and why before anything happens. No is a complete answer, and it doesn’t change your plan.
Often, yes. Headaches that start at the base of the skull and wrap forward behind the eye are frequently driven by the top segments of the neck. Those segments can be tested by hand, so we can tell fairly quickly whether your neck is feeding your headaches. If it turns out it isn’t, we’ll tell you that plainly and help you find the right person.
Usually not, and it’s rarely the first step. Imaging finds wear and tear in plenty of necks that have never hurt a day, so a scan on its own doesn’t tell you what’s driving your symptoms. We start with a cause-first evaluation to find the segment and the muscles actually behind it. If imaging becomes genuinely necessary, we’ll help you get it. You don’t have to wait on a scan to start.
You get a plan with an endpoint, and you’ll have it before you leave your evaluation. Every plan runs the same four phases: Pain, Prime, Perform, Prevent. How long each one takes depends on how long you’ve carried this and what your neck needs. What you won’t get is an open tab of appointments. You’ll always know which phase you’re in and what’s left.
Book Your Visit
Ready when you are.
Request a time and a real person calls you back. No phone tree. No ‘someone will reach out.’ Just a plan.
- Hours Mon to Thu 6:30am to 7pm, Fri and Sat 6:30am to 12pm, Sun closed
- (210) 750-9004 Prefer to talk now? Call us.
- No referral needed to get started
5.0 · 300+ Google reviews
A real person calls you back
Step 1 of 5
Request sent.
That’s the hard part done. We’ll call during business hours to lock in your time.
Visit Us
Care this good, this close.
Revival Performance Physical Therapy
- 10300 Heritage St Ste 160, San Antonio, TX 78216 (opens in new tab)
- (210) 750-9004
- Fax: (210) 866-0201
- info@revivalperformancept.com
- Mon to Thu 6:30am to 7pm, Fri and Sat 6:30am to 12pm, Sun closed