In Depth View

What is Neuromuscular Therapy?

   The daily clinical experience of thousands of massage therapists, physical therapists and physicians strongly indicates that most of our common aches and pains-and many other puzzling physical complaints-are actually caused by trigger points, or small contraction knots, in the muscles of the body. Pain clinic doctors skilled at detecting and treating trigger points have found that they are the primary cause of pain in roughly 75% of the time and are at least a part of virtually every pain problem. Even fibromyalgia, which is known to effect millions of people, is thought in many instances to have it's beginning with trigger points. ( Travell and Simons 1999, 12-19; Gerwin 1995, 121;Fishbain et al. 1986, 181-197).

What causes a Trigger Point?

Muscles develop trigger points in reaction to stress. Stress can come in the form of trauma or injury, overuse or repetitive use, nutritional deficiency and even hot or cold temperatures.

Trigger points cause pain and tenderness in our tissues. The pain may be local or referred to other points in the body. The pain may be felt as burning, sharp, numb or a tingling type of pain. Trigger points may cause headaches, back pain, joint pain or they may mimic many types of symptoms of tendinosis/tendinitis, bursitis, arthritis, tennis elbow and carpel tunnel, sciatica, TMJ or other ligament injuries.

The good news is, if you have done the rounds from Doctors to Physical Therapy, medications, exercise, rest and even surgery and you still suffer from unresolved pain issues, Neuromuscular Therapy may be for you.

What is Orthopedic Massage?

Orthopedic bodywork uses a wide range of tests and soft tissue modalities in its aim to reduce the adaptive load your body is coping with. This type of bodywork is specific, dynamic and not your usual "lie on the table and receive" form of massage.

First there are tests used to determine where exactly the dysfunction may be coming from. Then a variety of soft tissue manipulations may be used-- from active and passive movement, reduction of adhesions, deactivation of trigger points, increased lymphatic and Venus drainage, stretching and or re-educational movements-- to bring about restored function and increased health of the body.