Stuck in Stress Mode: How and Why Do Your Muscles Hold Your Tension?
Written by Jo Hodges, LMT PA#MSG015344
In 2023, a survey done by the American Massage Therapy Association showed that over 50% of clients receive massage for stress, and it’s no different here at Monacella Massage & Kinesiology. Weddings, divorces, moving, newborns, and of course, the dreaded Back-to-School Shopping. Everyone has the same questions when they’re on a massage therapist’s table – ‘What is that?’; ‘Why is it there?’; ‘How are you helping?’. The mystery of “knots” found in everyday muscle tension has stumped doctors and therapists alike for years. I’m often asked in and out of session why they keep ‘coming back’, or ‘never go away’. At some point, the same old message of ‘deep breathing exercises’ and ‘decluttering your life’ as a fix can get old, and you want concrete results. That’s where bodywork enters the picture!
Muscle rigidity, also known as muscle tension, is the body’s response to muscles being contracted for an extended period. The brain’s job is to send nerve signals all over the body to contract and release muscles, so it gets confused if you’re constantly using a certain muscle group. This can be something like answering a phone all day long at your office job, loading an assembly line in the same twisting-turning motion at your factory job, or picking up toys from your toddlers. To make it simple: your body is so used to doing these motions that it no longer understands when to stop contracting, causing what we know as “knots”!
When contracted for so long, your muscles don’t receive the proper amount of oxygen or blood flow, which can lead to a vicious cycle of tension with no end in sight. Common conditions such as sciatica can also be caused by muscles tensing up around a nerve, a result you’ll often hear massage therapists refer to as “guarding”. When your muscles “guard” (whether around bone, nerves, etc..), they’re contracting to “protect” your body from perceived harm to sensitive areas. This is why massage therapists have to be cautious of a client’s limitations with pressure, especially in the event of a past or current injury. If you’ve ever gotten deep tissue and felt like the therapist “wasn’t going deep enough”, this could be one of the reasons why!
Though acute muscle tension is common, we often see clients with chronic pain, whether physical or mental. In the case of anxiety disorders, such as GAD, muscle rigidity is one of the biggest symptoms. This can be because of a lack of oxygen due to rapid and shallow breathing, hypervigilance in social situations and atmospheres, rounded shoulders with hunched posture, increased stress, and more. Often, anxiety disorders can trigger your sympathetic nervous system with the fight-or-flight response, resulting in being “on alert” all the time – this doesn’t give your body the proper amount of nutrients, rest, or an opportunity to relax. Massage is one of the wonderful tools you can use to activate your parasympathetic nervous system and begin to regulate your muscle’s responses. Not only can massage therapy relieve the muscle tension you currently experience, but it promotes a healthier cycle in day-to-day life! Taking the strain off of your brain by working on your physical and mental health together can finally start to turn your brain the alerts “off”.
Though anxiety disorders can appear on their own, they’re often found hand-in-hand with chronic pain disorders and conditions, ranging from chronic fatigue syndrome to Lou Gehrig’s (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). With these conditions, it can seem impossible to feel better, especially if you’re expecting the transition to palliative care in the coming months. Putting together a care plan can be tricky, and often doesn’t include non-Western techniques, such as massage. Each person is different; while deep tissue massage can help with your chronic pain, relaxation (Swedish) massage can help with your quality of life and balancing your treatment plan. Not only do these sessions relieve the obvious muscle rigidity and stress held in your body, they can decrease nausea, insomnia, depression, and the previously mentioned anxiety. Massage can be a crucial step in a medical plan, whether treatment lasts 3 months or 30 years!
Muscle tension can affect all aspects of life, and feed into a loop of pain and mental stress. With the help of our intuitive and empathetic staff at Monacella Massage & Kinesiology, you can start to help yourself find that balance and spark again! That first session can help scrub away any stress you find yourself consumed by, and lead your brain and body on the right track – back to helping YOU. Have a wonderful Fall, y’all, and don’t drown in the chaos of Back-to-School!