How Neuromuscular Therapy Can Help You

If you are a runner, athlete, or otherwise enjoy regular exercise but suffer from chronic pain, neuromuscular therapy may be able to help you. Neuromuscular therapy is a kind of soft tissue massage that works on retraining the muscles and relieving pain.

Neuromuscular therapy gets its name because it aims to work with both muscles and how the brain understands muscle pain. It focuses on locating and treating trigger points in the muscles, highly irritated points that cause pain from repeated stress. A therapist will first work with a client to locate trigger points. Then, he or she will use compression and proper timing to work down to the deeper layers of the muscle and release the stress and pain built up in the pressure point. In addition to relieving pain within the muscle, this can also relieve pain felt in tension headaches and other maladies.

This process is particularly helpful for long distance runners, triathletes, and other athletes who rely on the same muscles over and over again. Repetitive movement can build up stress and cause pain, often coming from these trigger points. Neuromuscular therapy can alleviate that pain and prevent future injuries by relaxing the muscles. The therapy will look holistically at how the muscles connect to joints and relate to the nervous system, helping to balance your whole body.

Neuromuscular therapy can also help to train muscles for improved athletic performance. Marathon and other long-distance runners often have muscles that tighten up over time from repeatedly warming up and cooling down during training. In addition to muscle tenseness, this can affect alignment through the spine and shoulders, causing pain. Neuromuscular therapy can help to retrain muscles, relaxing them and helping them to stay looser. In addition to relieving pain and tightness, this can contribute to an improved performance on race day.

If you are already suffering from an injury, neuromuscular therapy can be a great way to help you recover. The therapy will help your muscles to regain their normal strength and contraction abilities. If you’ve found that any of your muscles are overstrained due to compensating for an injury, neuromuscular therapy can alleviate the tension in that muscle and help restore balance to the whole body, speeding your recovery.

Until Next time….Take care of your muscles and they will take care of you!