NEUROMUSCULAR MASSAGE: What Exactly Is It?

While everyone has heard of a massage before...Neuromuscular massage or NMT is another specialized form of massage techniques available to you that addresses pain.
You must remember that your nervous system controls everything in your body, including muscle tension and as well as the amount of pain you can bear.

Whereas a standard "relaxation" massage will work on the general areas of your back...NMT is a deep tissue massage that is applied directly to individual specific muscles, ligaments, connective tissue & tendons that are often in a standard relaxation type of massage.

The patient will sit in a specialized massage chair. The therapist will be using their thumbs, finger tips and even the elbows to explore every fiber tissue looking for bands of muscle fibers that are tighter than the rest of them. Such excess tension in your body's muscles can result in restriction of your bodies blood flow in that area.

These areas will be treated until they "release". NMT will improve blood flow, reduce their pain and truly release pressure on nerves caused by prior soft tissue and muscle injuries.

People often wonder why a neuromuscular massage therapist will be working on one area when it hurts them somewhere else. The reason is Neuromuscular massage assists to release trigger points and intense knots of tense muscle that release pain in other areas of the body that are linked by the same muscle. This is known as "Referred Pain". For example: Relieving a tense trigger point in your back...could help ease pain in your shoulder or even reduce headaches.

What Does This Have To Say About Your Massage Therapist?

This means that your NMT therapist is educated in:

a) The physiology of your nervous system

b) Its effect on the muscular and skeletal systems.

c) Is educated in kinesiology

d) Is Educated in biomechanics of the body

e) Is educated in how to work in a clinical or medical environment

What Are The Benefits Of Neuromuscular Massage?
Neuromuscular Therapy will be used to address each of the five elements that cause pain in every one of us:
The lack of blood supply to soft tissue: This results in extra hypersensitivity when touched.

Trigger Points: These highly irritated points in muscles, which refer pain to other parts of the body. Do you remember we spoke about how releasing a trigger point in your left shoulder could release or stop those terrible headaches? That's right, two areas that do not seem to have anything to do with each other...are actually connected by muscle.

Nerve Compression: This is simply pressure on a nerve caused by any of the following:

1) Bone

2) Soft tissue

3) Cartilage

Postural Distortion: This is a fancy way of saying your body needs a muscle alignment every now and then just like your car needs realignment after hitting too many potholes!

Biomechanical Dysfunction: This refers to the imbalance of the muscular skeletal system resulting in faulty movement patterns such as:

1) Poor lifting habits

2) Terrible golf swing

3) Lousy tennis stroke

4) Incorrect typing posture

If you are living with constant pain and think that you may benefit from neuromuscular massage therapy, give your local therapist a call and ask if they specialize in this form of massage therapy. Talk to them about your current situation. If you are a good candidate for this form of massage, why not give it a try? You deserve to live your life pain free.

Greg Sawyer is an Atlanta Massage Therapist for over 12 years now

Learn more about Atlanta neuromuscular massage at his website.