Neuromuscular Therapy

Neuromuscular therapy is a precise, scientific method of health treatment verified by extensive clinical research. Skilled practitioners are able to locate and eliminate neuromuscular trigger points, which occur particularly in muscle, tendon, and ligament regions, which cause stress, restriction and pain. Advanced therapy techniques are utilized, and treatments act to help return the body to optimum neuromuscular integrity and balance. Flexibility, balanced strength, and vitality increase often dramatically.

Neuromuscular therapy is a form of pressure therapy which has its origins in the Oriental Healing Arts of Acupressure and Shiatsu. In Japanese, “shi” means finger and “atsu” means pressure. Western science has utilized the fundamental principals of Oriental Pressure Therapies and devised a new therapy which incorporates a broad base of techniques from numerous forms of currently used body therapies. It is based on the documental finding of eminent scientists and physicians and employs sound physiological laws to obtain the desired result of normalizing neuromuscular functioning in the body.

The benefits of neuromuscular therapy include:

• Decreased body toxicity
• Greater flexibility
• Greater freedom of movement
• Increased circulation
• Increase energy and vitality
• Increased sense of well being
• Improved postural patterns

During the initial examination, the therapist notes:

• Sensitivity to pain
• Temperature and firmness of tissue
• Postural distortion
• State of muscle tone and contraction

A thorough examination is made of all trigger points in the general area of complaint as well as silent trigger points in the common referral zones in order to determine which triggers are contributing factors to tension and pain. The areas of pain referral are remarkably consistent and reproducible in the same individual, but vary significantly from person to person. The therapist will therefore make a chart of areas within each painful muscle, ligament and tendon which will require therapy. Depending on the location of the painful condition, the therapist will use the thumb, hand, elbow, or small soft-tipped pressure bar to manipulate for approximately six to 10 seconds to obtain maximum  release. Specific movement exercises are then provided for developing and maintaining muscle strength and flexibility.

As a result of treatment, patients commonly experience:

• Increased mobility
• Increased tissue warmth
• Reduction or cessation of pain
• Relaxation of the connective tissues
• Softening of the nodular mass at the trigger point

Neuromuscular therapy allows a reversal of the stress-pain cycle.

Pressure specifically interrupts afferent impulses to the spinal cord, reduces the intensity of the nervous activity within the tissue and mechanically forces out toxic irritants which have accumulated at nerve receptor sites. The muscle then relaxes, circulation is increased, and the body returns to normal neuromuscular integrity and balance.

There is a certain amount of occasional discomfort in any deep muscle therapy. The greatest discomfort is usually experienced after the first treatment. Mild pressure does not elicit pain in normal healthy tissue; therefore the presence of pain during the physical manipulation of tissues is a valuable guideline to the therapist. It indicates those areas where adhesions, muscular spasms, trigger points, and cellular toxins are located. Continuous feedback from the patient is encouraged to  insure that the therapy is conducted with the minimum degree of pressure necessary to carry out the process successfully and achieve the  maximum results.

As a rule, neuromuscular therapy clears the way for rapid results; however, healing is a biological process which takes time. The duration of the total therapeutic program depends on:

• How much damage has been done?
• How rapidly your body heals.
• The state of your general health.
• Those stress factors influencing your life.
• The length of time the condition has existed.
• The ongoing benefits of therapy are to a certain extent related to you.
• Individual programs of exercise and diet can be designed which will aid in the avoidance of future stressful patterns.

Stress-Tension-Pain Syndrome

Normal Tonus

Both the nervous system and the muscular system are involved in the stress-tension-pain syndrome. Tonus is a neurological interchange between the muscle, the spinal cord and brain. In the normal state the brain maintains a low level of tonus in all muscles. Superimposed on this low level is a fluctuating level implemented by a reflex arc within the spinal cord and determined by the condition of each muscle, ligament,  and tendon and by the conditions around their receptors. Receptors are specialized nerve endings which adapt out of the body to its immediate environment by way of input into the nervous system.

Hypertonicity

When there is a state of stress such as that which results from traumatic injury, lack of exercise, faulty diet or the daily stress of life, then increased sensory stimuli enter the spinal cord. Such stimuli entering the cord will evoke a strong motor response which is up to 10 times greater than the sensory stimulus, and it may involve the action of whole groups of muscles. This multiplied motor response is a natural physiological protection as exemplified by the reaction elicited when stepping on a thorn or touching a hot stove. However, when muscle receptors are continuously stimulated due to injury or other forms of stress, then the muscle develops a focus of intense nervous activity and  the amplified motor response results in a muscular state of “high tone”  or hypertonicity. Blood vessels in the area become constricted, circulation is slowed, and metabolic wastes accumulate around the receptors. This waste will further intensify the receptor’s sensory input firing to the cord causing yet stronger motor stimuli to be received by the affected muscle, thus raising the tension to still higher levels.

Trigger Points

The cyclic condition of stress and tension gives rise to pain and the formation of trigger points, which may persist long after the original causation has ceased. The trigger is the point of the strongest input to  the spinal cord and is the point of the strongest motor returns from the cord back to the muscles. This focus of metabolic accumulation becomes a small mass of drawn-up muscle fiber which is tender to pressure. This trigger has command over the pain and the tension of the muscle.

Referred Pain

If the stressful condition and the resulting high intensity barrage of sensory stimulation to the cord persist, then there can be a spreading effect to other tissues of the body remote from the trigger point site. Strong stimuli may pass up or down the cord to another segment and out to another muscle thereby causing referred pain and malfunction.

Recurring Pain

In severe  cases, hypertonic muscles set off a pain cycle that is neurologically facilitated and thereby becomes chronic. A law of neurophysiology known as the Law of Facilitation states that once a nerve impulse of stimulus has traveled through a specific route, it is easier for the next impulse to make the same passage, and then for all succeeding impulses, the passage will be even easier. The pain was transmitted through a specific neurological pathway, which then becomes facile or of easy passage. The pain then continues or reoccurs along this pathway as a result of the slightest stress.

Stress Reduction

Nearly every tight muscle is a candidate for acute pain when a little more stress is imposed on the organism. When a muscle is already close to the threshold of pain, then a minor stress to the body such as bending, reaching, or sneezing may be all that is necessary to set off pain. There are many forms of stress, but there is only one stress reaction, namely muscle tension and vasoconstriction with liberal releases of adrenaline to keep the process going. Stress may be physical, mental, or emotional, but the nervous system’s reaction is always the same. Stress conditions set the stage for pain.