Keep your muscles strain free between massages
As we all know massage is a truly effective (and amazing!) way to release muscle tension and strain but we encourage our clients to keep their body’s tiptop between treatments so massage can be enjoyable and even more effective.
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How does massage release strain?
Massage techniques work with the body’s connective tissue and muscle fibres. By introducing techniques such as remedial, trigger point and myofascial one of the things we can do is ‘talk’ to the proprioceptors (the neurons that tell the brain where the muscle sits on the body and the tension level) and convince these guys that tight and strained is not the way the body is supposed to be. Over a few sessions we can re-program them to tell the brain when the muscle is tight so a message can be sent to release the muscle and you can get on and enjoy your day.
This can help your posture and increased range of movement/ mobility around joints to keep everything moving comfortably.
A few things to help you train your muscles:
Breathing is the simplest and most effective way of recognising where tight muscle is and helping release it. Throughout the daily stresses and strains we can forget to breathe (yes really) and this results in shoulders hanging around the ears, sore lower backs, tight glutes and often tight hips. A few minutes of deep focused breathing will bring your awareness back to levels of tension and release it. Plus it will help you de-stress as you remember breathing is the secret to life!
An exercise to re-train the muscles is to lie on your back and starting with your toes work up your body, tensing and releasing muscles. Tense the muscle on the inhale then release the muscle on the exhale and see what a difference it makes!
Staying hydrated is soooo important to release tension. Dehydrated muscles can’t function properly and tend to stay in a state of action, water will help the muscle fibres release and stay ‘fluid’.
Make sure you maintain your levels of magnesium and calcium – these minerals are vital to the release phase of muscle activity.
Stretching daily is vital to releasing muscle fibre and keeping those proprioceptors working properly. And ask your massage therapist for some stretches specific to your needs.
