Like many of my clients, I find that the muscles at the base of my skull often feel tender or tight. The muscles in question are the suboccipitals.

There are four of them and they connect your skull to the spine. They are also connected to your eyes. They help tip your head toward your shoulder, among other actions. When the suboccipitals are tight, you could experience headaches, neck tightness, or even back pain.

Common posture habits can contribute to issues with the suboccipitals. Typical culprits are forward head posture or habitually tipping your chin up such as to look through bifocals or at a computer monitor.

To reduce tightness in the suboccipitals, some options to try include these easy things.

• Pay attention to your posture (Rolf Line) – if your head is forward, bring it back into alignment.

• Confirm that your computer monitor is at an ergonomic height. One guideline is your eyes are approximately at the level of the top 1/3 of the screen.

• Notice if you tend to tip your chin up and bring it back to level.

• Make sure your glasses are properly adjusted.

• Avoid holding your phone between your head and shoulder.

For more relief, you can also use a tennis ball, or two balls in a sock, to massage the base of your skull.