Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
So you’ve just gotten your remedial massage treatment and things are feeling great! Your neck is moving much more freely, your headaches are gone, you haven’t got that same pain when you have to check your blind spot in the car, you can actually look at what you’re doing without feeling like a giant plank of wood. Everything in life feels so much easier! I’m happy, you’re happy, YAY!
Over the next week or so, you feel things starting to creep back. You’re starting to get the same old twinge in your neck when you move too quickly or stretch too far. But it’s only been a week - how can things fall backwards so quickly? So you book for another remedial massage treatment, which is great, but after a while it just feels like a never-ending cycle.
The last thing anyone wants is to feel like their stuck on a merry-go-round that they can’t get off. That’s why it’s so important to remember that remedial massage is a team effort - we can release things in the 60 minutes we have together, but don’t forget about the other 10,020 minutes (yes, I did have to Google that) minutes you have in the week!
Last week, we touched briefly on pain being a symptom, not a cause as such. There will almost always be an underlying strength differential or lack of mobility somewhere in the body that is causing instability, which then has the other muscles rush to pick up the slack. A person with neck pain, for example, might spend a lot of time in a static position without moving. We know that when muscles are underused, they become weak and in areas that have to maintain some degree of function (like the neck) other muscles that have to take on that extra load will ultimately become sore. So, if you leave your remedial massage session with those tight muscles lengthened, but you don’t work on strengthening the muscles that have become underused and continue overusing your tight muscles, you’ll be back to square one relatively quickly.
We all have lifestyle factors that contribute to what’s happening with our bodies. Whether it’s a desk job that requires long hours at the computer, carrying around a toddler, lifting heavy weights, or training for a marathon run - our bodies will learn to adapt in a way that supports it doing what we’re asking it to do. Those lifestyle factors will usually need to be modified to some capacity if they are contributing to our dysfunction. It might mean scheduling regular movement into our day to break up those long hours at a computer, carrying your toddler on both hips, pulling the weight back on your lifts to focus on form, or making sure you’re activating and stretching the right muscles.
So the best thing that you can do to maintain the progress you made in the treatment room is to make sure that you’re helping those overused muscles out. By doing your prescribed exercises and stretches at their advised frequency, you’ll be showing your overused muscles some love and giving them a break, while also giving your underused muscles a helping hand to try to make up that difference in strength.
It’s not always a fast or straightforward road, and rarely are problems solved in one treatment alone. But there are always things that you can do to help bolster you progress. Give yourself the best chance possible!
