Why are my muscles rigid? Stress?
Stress can significantly affect the body, including the muscles and joints. As a part of the stress response, the body releases hormones like cortisol and adrenaline which can cause the muscles to tighten and become more sensitive to pain while increasing inflammation.
When stress levels are high or stress is sustained over a significant length of time, the brain continues to send nerve signals telling the muscles to contract even when the muscles are no longer needed for movement. This can sometimes last for several hours or days. The longer your muscles remains contracted, the more pain you’ll feel.
When muscles are contracted over a sustained period of time they become rigidity, often due to stress.
In clinic, I frequently see this as rigid neck and shoulder muscles, which are often painful and frequently lead to restricted or painful movement.
If muscle rigidity is affecting you, and you would like to book a massage, click here.
Related Posts
Anxiety reduction & massage?
I know that I often say that one of the benefits of massage is that it may reduce anxiety. I think most people would agree that being in hospital or undergoing hospital procedures may makes us feel anxious. So I was interested in a recent study that looked at the effectiveness of massage with or without guided imagery (a therapist talking you through a scene to help you relax), prior to cardiac catheterisation. As you can imagine anxiety is very common in patients prior to cardiac catheterisation, which can lead to high blood pressure and increase the amount of sedation necessary to complete the procedure. Fifty five patients opted to receive either a 15-minute massage (31 patients) and a 20 minute guided imagery (24 patients) in a quiet area of the hospital prior to cardiac catheterisation. Self-report anxiety levels, blood pressure and heart rate were evaluated in the research participants as well as matched for comparison to a control group not taking part in the study. The results indicated that massage, with or without guided imagery, produced significant reductions in self-reported anxiety, with the combined intervention having a more pronounced effect. In addition a lower diastolic blood pressure and heart rate were found when compared to the control group. In my experience slow, deep stokes help to reduce anxiety and as a team we often incorporate this into treatments. References Amstrong K, Dixon S, May S, Patricolo GE (2014). Anxiety reduction in patients undergoing cardiac catheterisation, following massage and guided imagery. Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice 20 (4): 334 - 338.
So massage is safe for pregnant women, but is it effective?
Last week we established that massage is safe for pregnant women. A scientific review of studies of pregnancy in massage fond that pregnant women who received massage had
- decreased depression
- decreased anxiety
- decreased leg and back pain
- reduced cortisol levels
- reduced excessive fetal activity
- lower rate of prematurity (a baby being born before its 37 weeks old)
- experienced less pain
- required less medication
- had shorter labours (on average 3 hours shorter)
Do you know the benefits of drinking tea?
I have to admit that I don't drink tea. I like my herbal teas but lets face it, they don't actually contain any tea. In a morning I like my decaf americano. But having done the research on tea, I may need to change my habits. Prof Feng and his team in collaboration with Essex University and Cambridge have been researching the impact of long term tea drinking habits. They concluded that individuals that drank either green tea,oolong tea or black tea at least four times a week for about 25 years had better brain health than people who don't drink tea. So what are the other benefits of tea?
- Daily consumption of tea reduced the risk of cognitive decline by 50% in older people.
- Improves mood.
- Protects agains cardiovascular disease.
