Are you troubled by leg cramps?

Previously I explained the scientific theory for  "How does massage reduce muscle pain?" in the short term .  But what about the long term? I would like to introduce to you the "descending pain suppression mechanism." The brain is not a passive receiver of sensory messages, but rather a centre that interprets them and makes constant adjustments accordingly. For example, everyone knows that the way you perceive pain will be influenced by whether you focus on it or think of something else instead. And it seems reasonable to suppose that evolutionary selection may have favoured those individuals who could ignore pain signals for long enough to take actions that let them escape and survive danger.

Unpleasant cutaneous sensations stimulate nuclei within the mid brain.  These nuclei in turn initiate activity in the descending spinal tracts that release endogenous opiates (inhibitory neurotransmitters) within the spinal segment receiving the painful input.  This diminishes the intensity of the pain transmitted to the higher centres. Sports and Deep Tissue massage techniques can reinforce a naturally occurring discomfort, causing much greater release of opiates and achieve a more profound pain suppression.

The most common reason for booking a treatment with Vitality Therapy is muscle pain due to your"knots". So what do we mean by "knots"?  Technically speaking they are either  Trigger points (or Myofascial Trigger Points to give them their correct name) or hypertonic muscles. There are six key elements that cause acute or chronic muscle pain:

1. Ischemia: the lack of blood flow to soft tissues that causes hypersensitivity to touch.
2. Hypertonic muscles: very tense muscles or muscle spasms.
3. Trigger points: highly irritated points and bands in the muscles that refer pain to other parts of the body.
4. Nerve entrapment/compression: pressure on a never by soft tissue, cartilage or bone.
5. Postural distortions: imbalance of the musculoskeletal system resulting from poor posture while siting at a desk.
6. Bio-mechanical distortions: imbalance of the musculoskeletal system resulting in faulty movement patterns e.g. poor sports techniques.

If you have had a treatment with us, we may have talked to you about importance of deep breathing,  if you have tension in your neck. Shallow breathing, thoracic breathing, or chest breathing is the drawing of minimal breath into the lungs, usually by drawing air into the chest area using accessory muscles rather than throughout the lungs via the diaphragm.  This means that you over use some of the accessory muscles of breathing, including the scalenes and sternocleidomastoid muscles both of which are located in the side of the neck.  The scalenes elevate the 1st rib during inspiration and the sternocleidomastoid raises the sternum.  Unfortunately, these accessory muscles aren’t built for routine respiration, and they exhaust and eventually injure themselves which may result in pain and/or a reduced range of movement (i.e. inability to turn your head fully from side to side). People shallow breath when they are nervous, stressed, anxious, or when they concentrate.  So simply stopping and taking one deep breath after you send each email, can reduce the over use of your scalenes and sternocleidomastoid.