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Headaches: How Does Your Posture Cause Head Pain?

Last updated:
9 July 2026
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Written by
Kathryn Merrow
,
Neuromuscular Massage Therapist
This article was reviewed for accuracy by 
Linda Hayes
, BSc Microbiology and Laboratory Medicine.

In This Article

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I’ll bet your doctor doesn’t look at your posture when you tell him or her about your head pain.  Most don’t.  But, she should!

Poor posture is the most common cause of headaches.

Why?  Because muscles are responsible for most of our pain.

Tight muscles pull on bones.  Tight muscles cause bone spurs (arthritis.)  Tight muscles press on nerves and blood vessels.  Overstretched muscles get trigger points which “fire” pain into other parts of your body, sometimes quite far away.

To be fair, there are a few doctors who do look at posture.  When they don’t, it’s because they haven’t been trained in “muscular medicine” or because they simply don’t have time.

But, poor posture is responsible for most pain and dysfunction, including headaches.

You can see that there are a lot of ways for your muscles to cause head pain because muscles have many roles.

Bones act as our structure: they are our framework and support.  The role of muscles is to help us move.  Muscles move bones.  Muscles move us.

Sometimes we start using our muscles as bones.

We expect our poor muscles to hold us upright, because our posture is failing, but that’s not their job.  When our posture fails, it puts a lot of strain on our muscles.  Our muscles become unhappy.  They cause symptoms like headaches.  They cause pain in our heads and elsewhere.

How can you correct your posture?

It took a while for you to get into poor posture, and it’ll take a while for your body to remember how to be tall again.  But, you can do it!

The muscles in the front of your body have shortened.  Maybe your shoulders are rolled forward.  Those muscles need to be relaxed, or lengthened.

The muscles in your back–and the whole backside of your body, except your calves–need to be strengthened.

When you start letting your muscles do their job again, instead of trying to act like bones and support you,  you will be on the road to getting rid of your headaches.

Head Pain Natural Relief can also help you discover the causes of your headaches and knock them out, naturally!

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A note from Kathryn: I am not a medical doctor. I am someone with a lot of experience and training in how bodies get pain and how they get rid of it. The information here is educational and based on my 40+ years as a neuromuscular therapist. If your pain continues, gets worse, or you are worried about it, please see your doctor or a specialist. Your body is worth it.
About the writer
Kathryn Merrow is a neuromuscular therapist with more than 40 years of experience helping people find the causes of their muscle pain and release it naturally. Known as The Pain Relief Coach, she teaches simple, logical ways to understand your body so you can get rid of pain instead of just managing it. Pain is a symptom. Kathryn helps you treat the cause.
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