Posts
Pre and post massage for athletes.
If you’re training for a event coming up and are looking to be in tip-top shape, the needs of those pre sport verses the needs of those post sport are very different. Pre sport massage focuses on relieving muscles via light compression and lymphatic release, where as post sport focuses on repair, via slow deep friction techniques, stretching (passive and active) and mobilisation. Pre sport massage should not be invasive as massage can temporarily weaken muscles in order to aid in successful repair.
Pre sport massage
Pre sport massage is given under the assumption that the athlete is pre conditioned to the activity that they are about to undertake and is therefore a means of enhancing the natural health of muscles by stimulating blood flow to provide nutrients to muscles in a relaxed state, and the lymphatic system, to remove waste from muscles that may be lingering. The massage focus is optimisation, to reduce risk of damage (not to undo damage).
Post sport massage
Post sport massage is focussed on undoing damage caused during activity; with an emphasis on (post sport) it is never advised to get this type of massage before a sport event. The massage focuses on breaking up scar tissue, tight connective tissues, and posture. Generally it is slower than remedial massage to focus on fibre release and increasing range of movement. I like to apply trigger point therapy within my post sport treatments as it allows for a far more successful release and breakdown of scar tissue, therefore, more successful mobilisation post treatment.
TMJ and Chiropractic
You may have heard or experienced a condition called TMJ which is a condition of clicking or pain in the Temperomandibular Joint (TMJ) or jaw. It is more correctly termed TMD which stands for Temperomandibualr Disorder (TMD). These occur as a result of problems with the jaw, jaw joint, and surrounding facial muscles that control chewing and moving the jaw.
Causes include:
- Injury to the jaw, Temperomandibular joint, or muscles of the head and neck (such as from a heavy blow or whiplash)
- Grinding or clenching the teeth, putting great pressure through the TMJ
- Stress, which can lead to clenching teeth, and/or tight facial and jaw muscles
- Arthritis in the TMJ
- Disrelationship of the complex jaw joint
Common symptoms of TMD include:
- Decreased ability to open the mouth wide
- A locked or stuck jaw either in an opened or closed position
- Clicking, popping or grating sounds in the jaw joint on jaw movement
- Pain or tenderness in the face, jaw joint, neck, shoulders and/or ear, including headaches and earaches
- A tired feeling in the face
- A change in the bite, as the teeth are not aligned
Intra-oral Cranials is a technique that your Chiropractor may use that is extremely effective in improving the movement of the jaw joint and hence reducing the symptoms relating to TMD. This Cranial technique addresses the bones of the skull and jaw to normalise the relationship of the skull with the jaw and the neck, and allow the jaw to move smoothly and freely and with its normal range.
Fractures, Sprains and Chiropractic
Can Chiropractic help with a fracture (the medical term for any broken bone)? No, of course not! But Chiropractic can help if you’ve had a fracture, it has healed, but it still just doesn’t feel right.
Obviously the first thing you need to do if you suspect a fracture is go to the hospital and have it treated. Once it has healed and you are able to use it again, you may notice that it is can be painful or uncomfortable at times, or it just doesn’t feel right. If it doesn’t improve then thats when seeing a Chiropractor can be helpful.
When you have a fractured bone it is usually due to a fall. So when you fall and land with enough force to break your bone, it is obviously quite a large force. It is not only the bone that will be injured by this degree of force, there would be a number of surrounding joints and ligaments, tendons and muscles affected by the impact.
These muscles and tendons will very likely be strained, while the joints can be jarred, inflamed and possibly in slight misalignment. This will result in the joints in the area not moving freely, so when moving that part of your body, it will feel tight and restricted, and even painful. The muscles would also feel sore and possibly spasmed.
Similarly, spraining a joint can impact on surrounding joints, muscles and ligaments. Seeing a Chiropractor soon after having such an injury is important as it can improve the rate of healing, as well as reduce the level of pain. A sprain is essentially due to overstretching of a joint and hence the ligament crossing that joint will be strained, sprained or in extreme cases, torn. This overstretching of the joint will impact the alignment of that joint, and then this misalignment will continue to put some strain on the ligament. This ongoing strain can reduce the ability of the ligament to heal.
The misalignment of the joint can also produce pain, so treating the misalignment will reduce the pain, and improve the overall function. This is particularly the case when its an ankle that has been sprained (which is very common) as there are so many bones around the ankle there is potential for many joints to become affected. Then as a secondary problem, if there is some changes in the alignment of the foot joints, then the body will be compensating because of pain and also poor biomechanics, which can result in pain and inflammation in the knees or back.
Chiropractic care can be very effective in correcting these joint misalignments and so it makes sense to have some Chiropractic care at some stage after an injury such as a fracture or sprain to improve healing, decrease pain and improve overall function.
Neck and shoulder pain.
Many of us live with permanently stiff shoulders or a neck that seizes up from time to time. Our modern lifestyle is a major culprit, with computer work (especially on laptops) putting a lot of strain on the neck and shoulders. Out-of-control stress levels don’t help either. One of the worst environments for neck and shoulder pain is a high-pressure work environment with badly set-up computers and cold air flowing down on you from air conditioning. With this sort of combination of stress, poor ergonomics and the tendency to tense up the shoulder muscles in response to cold, it’s not surprising that so many people suffer from stiff neck and shoulders.
Other things that can trigger neck and shoulder pain are prolonged driving, freehand writing or drawing, occupations involving a lot of repetitive use of the arms (hairdressing comes to mind), and playing some musical instruments.
So what can be done? Obviously it’s important to address anything in your lifestyle that might be contributing, which could involve a rethink of your work or leisure patterns. I’ve included a list of other tips at the end.
But what if your shoulders and neck are still sore after doing everything you can to relax them? This is where acupuncture comes in.
Japanese acupuncture uses several needling techniques to melt tension in the neck and shoulders. Another technique that is great for neck and shoulder pain is moxibustion – the use of a warming herb on the tight, painful areas. Cupping is also very useful. But much of the treatment is done away from the local painful region– as it is just as important to treat the constitutional pattern that Oriental medicine sees as causing disruption to the flow of energy, as we see this as underlying the neck and shoulder pain. This ensures that treatments will have a lasting effect.
We usually see an improvement within 4-6 weekly treatments, and when this happens we scale back the frequency of sessions as your body “relearns” this state of reduced tension. Eventually most people will just need the occasional top-up session every few months or so during periods of particularly intense activity or stress.
Tips for relieving neck and shoulder stiffness:
- Make sure your desk is properly set up. Many offices these days have ergonomic guidelines and it’s also possible to have an expert review your set-up.
- Give your neck and shoulders a break by taking lots of breaks from computer work, or other intense activities like writing freehand, drawing, music practice or driving. Aim to have a break where you get up, walk around and stretch after every 20 min of typing etc.
- If at all possible, avoid sitting in air-conditioning, or wear a scarf (or a top with a collar that covers your neck).
- Warmth helps most people with this sort of pain, so try hot showers or heat packs.
- Try to build some type of relaxation into your day, like meditation, yoga or Tai-Chi. Another really useful strategy is to focus on becoming aware of shoulder tension as it builds up and repeatedly and deliberately relax and drop your shoulders. Tricky to do at first, but it gets easier with time.
- It is also often possible to strengthen other muscles in the upper body so that your traps don’t take all the strain. If you go to a gym, ask one of the trainers to show you how to strengthen these muscles.
Benefits of Trigger Point Therapy
Trigger Point Therapy focuses on relieving referred pain or sensation (pain, tenderness, pins and needles, numbness and burning). A trigger point is a point of bound / taught fibres in a muscle, often referred to as muscle knots, a point of heightened tenderness or sensitivity, which prevents full usage of a particular muscle. Active trigger points have predictable referral patterns, some causing pain locally to the effected trigger point, others referring to other regions of the body. Due to this referral, a domino effect in terms of pain or injury can occur if trigger points are left untreated; this meaning an area previously unaffected by referred sensation may become affected.
From a patients perspective.
Trigger Point Therapy is a compression of the point of tenderness, which temporarily heightens the sensation already experienced due to additional pressure being applied to the area. The pressure must be held and maintained in order to obtain a release; in terms of sensation, it feels as though the practitioner holding the point is slowly releasing pressure, in actual fact the point is releasing / relaxing, which gives a sensation of relief as muscle function is improved and referred sensation is reduced.
Trigger Point Therapy with Massage.
Massaging an area with active trigger points can be painful; however, when massage and trigger point therapy is combined a practitioner can release muscles far more effectively. Remedial massage greatly increases blood flow to muscles, while trigger point therapy releases regions within muscles with restricted blood flow, thus providing nutrients to depleted muscle fibres in a more effective fashion. Active trigger points create a local twitch response (often confused with a muscle spasm); if a trigger point is left active after massage it won’t be long before it becomes tight and sore again due this twitch response, as the muscle is over engaging. Releasing trigger points allows for far greater fibre release with slow / stretching massage, which increases range of movement and encourages capillary growth, resulting in healthier muscle fibres.
In terms of performance: Clients who I have treated with trigger point therapy gain longer periods of relief and suffer less issues with their lymphatic system in terms of acid and other waste build up in their muscles; this meaning greater endurance and performance. If you enjoy sport and like massage, this is definitely something to consider within your fortnightly to monthly massage. Note: Trigger points take time to release, so treatment should be focused on a specific area of the body, not all over, to get the best results.
Stress and your body, part 3.
After having read Parts 1 and 2, you will now have a much better understanding of how your body can change when it is dealing with stress, and how these changes present themselves as symptoms. Having just gotten through the end of a year, christmas, and possibly sending your children back at school, you may very well have experienced first hand some of these manifestations of stress.
In this article I will explain how treatment can help. It is helpful to address the symptoms to make you feel better and more comfortable, but it is also very important to address the the cause ie the stress itself, and hence reduce your body’s’ reaction to it. Symptomatically we can change the pain and muscle tightness that occurs in the neck and shoulders by correcting any misalignment and jamming up in the vertebrae of the neck and upper back. By treating the spine at these areas we are improving movement of the spine and stimulating the nerves to flow freely and thereby stimulate the muscles to relax and work more freely.
The diaphragm can also be treated by a very gentle release that helps it relax, which then allow the ribs to release. Sometimes the spine at the level of the diaphragm may need an adjustment to help it release, and possibly some work needs to be done on the muscles between the ribs. This results in reduction in tightness and restrictions in movement, and allows improved breathing.
The jaw is another issue. When it tightens it can potentially tighten many areas of the skull, which can become very uncomfortable. The jaw can be released directly by working on the muscles and with gentle pressure to the jaw joints. Often it is necessary to look at the whole skull. With that we test for any jamming of the areas of the skull where the many bones that make up the skull join each other. This treatment is gentle and even relaxing , and has great results in reducing tightness and any headaches associated with it.
These are all ways to reduce any symptoms, but it is also important to address the degree to which your body reacts to stress. As seen in previous articles your body will react to stress, there is no changing that. But you may notice that your body will react in differing degrees with different stresses. Sometimes even to the point where you think it is excessive, or an over-reaction. The degree to which your body reacts is different for every person and is influenced by your past experiences and emotions. If we have had a bad experience in the past we will often be more sensitive to something similar happening, this is due to a learned response, or what can be called body memory.
There are two ways that we can look at these reactions. One is using the technique of Neurolink, the other is a techniques called Neuro Emotional Technique (NET). If you have been coping with stress for a while, it may be difficult for your body to come out of that response once the stress has stopped. Neurolink is a technique that resets your body and Nervous System. Just like a computer that has crashed when it has been overloaded with tasks and needs to be rebooted, our Nervous System is similar and Neurolink can ‘reboot’ your system.
NET is a technique that works on a deeper level to find out why we are reacting strongly to something, and what experiences in your past have led to this strong reaction. It also resolves and releases the memory of these past experiences that is being held in your body. This helps reduce any reaction of fear or anger or sadness, for example, that your body may currently be exhibiting.
Stress and your body, part 2.
Now, after reading Part 1 in last months newsletter, you may have a better understanding of how readily our body reacts and changes in response to stress. These changes will often occur without us having any awareness of them, but there are many other changes that occur that that we can feel. Many patients present to me with various aches and pains, that very often have an underlying cause of stress. When we are dealing with stress our body reacts in certain predictable ways. There are 3 muscles that will always tighten in response to stress. They are your diaphragm, your upper Trapezius and your Suboccipital muscles.
Your diaphragm is a sheet of muscle that sits like a dome and divides your internal body in half. It sits below your lungs and heart and above the rest of your organs, and is important in breathing as it moves down to help your lungs draw breath in and up to help push air out of your lungs. When it is tight it is not able to move down and this results in feeling short of breath. As it is attached to structures on the inside around the level of the lower ribs, any tightening of the diaphragm can pull on these structures and often create a twist in that area. This can result in pain in the back, along the spine, around the ribs, and sometimes even pain on breathing.
The upper Trapezius muscle sits across the top of your shoulders and up into the lower neck, as it tightens it will pull the shoulders up and pulls the neck down into the shoulders. This affects your posture and will create discomfort in your shoulders, between your shoulder blades and also your neck. It can also cause a pinching of the nerves in your neck resulting in numbness or a tingling or pins and needles sensation in your hands or fingers.
The Suboccipital muscles are short muscles that join the back of your skull to the upper neck. Any tightness in these muscles will cause your head to tilt back. They can give you pain in the upper neck and in the back of the skull. Tightness in these muscles together with the Trapezius muscles creates poor posture and stiffness running from the skull to your shoulder blades, resulting in neck and shoulder pain as well as headaches. Sustained tightness and resulting poor posture in this area can often result in achiness in your upper arm.
Another common reaction to stress is clenching or grinding your teeth. Apart from this being damaging to your teeth, it causes very tight jaw muscles. This in itself can give you pain around the jaw which can feel like a headache. These tight muscles will also affect the upper neck and temples due to where they attach, and cause neck pain and stiffness and headaches.
Stress is a part of every persons life, and it can be positive, such as it being a motivator, but it can also cause problems. Just like everything in life there needs to be balance for there to be health and wellness. Stress can be balanced by exercise and relaxation, so it is important to find forms of exercise and relaxation that work for you, and incorporate that into your daily life.