My Muscles are Too Strong for My Body
by Dennis Gibbons, LMT
“I work out on a regular basis, I do my aerobics and watch my diet, why do I constantly hurt and feel uncomfortable?”
“Why do I re-injure myself when performing activities I have done for my whole life, this never happened to me before!”
“Since I have been working out, I am experiencing joint tightness and discomfort, why?”
Over the last 22 years these are questions and statements that I have often heard. When I first began working in the profession of Massage Therapy I often treated the symptom that was presented. That is why two statements have stood out to me over the years, and that is how Muscle Release Therapy, MRTh® was developed. The first of the two statements was given to me by Dr. Tom Maday, D.C. a chiropractor in Tucson, AZ and also who I consider my mentor, “where it is, it ain’t!” What he meant was often times where the individual is experiencing the discomfort is not what is at the root of the problem. The second statement was from Rudolph Nureyev when I posed the question to him, “What makes you a different dancer that people would come from all over the world to watch you dance?” His response, “I have learned to dance to the energy of the audience, not only to the music and choreography.”
This journey into chronic and acute pain has taken many twists and turns over the years but in the past few years with the addition of the Functional Movement w/Pilates Machines℠ to our WellnessCenter I have discovered that people really do not, nor are they able to move functionally. They were moving alright, but in a dysfunctional way. One primary reason for this dysfunctional movement is that many people have been so concerned on developing the larger and more dynamic muscles of their body; they forgot that they need the smaller postural muscles to help balance them while moving. It is these smaller muscles that maintain the intricate balance necessary to move and function within the permissible and conditioned movement that we perform on a daily basis in a way to avoid trauma.
While performing Muscle Release Therapy, MRTh® the therapist is evaluating each muscle, primarily the phasic or dynamic muscles first, to assess where they were at in movement when the trauma stopped them. Remember it does not have to be the direct trauma, but the compensation action that the body took to prevent us from injuring ourselves further. Once these muscles are treated the therapist will move to the next layer and insure that the postural muscles are in balance. How does this balancing treatment work? The therapist will palpate the muscle tissue, determine in which direction it was traveling, facilitate the movement so that it is able to complete its action potential cycle and allow the movement to finalize. What this permits is the proper placement of the tissue so it is in proper position to respond to its next directive from the brain.
As a muscle is improperly used over time, it will develop strength and a neurological priority in the movement patterns that develop. When a muscle is not used, it weakens and succumbs to the stronger muscle. When the larger muscles are developed, even though we ascertain that we are working the smaller, they will over power the others and create this imbalance and dysfunction in movement. We hear so much about the development of a strong core that we believe that these muscles are to look like “Popeye” look a likes. A strong muscle does not necessarily mean that it has to be “ripped” to have strength. The postural muscles need to be strong so that they are able to maintain a balance to the body so functional movement is allowed to take place. What this means, is that they need to be able to be in a position to function on demand.
Many people use their large Quadriceps to initiate walking, what this normally presents in our office is chronic hip and knee pain. Oftentimes people have developed their shoulder muscles to such a degree that the shoulder joint is unable to work properly, resulting in chronic shoulder and neck pain. This is when our muscles have become too strong for our bodies.
The process that is incorporated at our WellnessCenter during Muscle Release Therapy, MRTh® and Functional Movement with Pilates Machines℠, is to remove the large muscles from the equation of initial movement and allow the postural muscles to work. This process generates a remapping of the neurological process that takes place in the Parietal Lobe of the brain. The larger muscles are meant to fire for a short period of time and rest, while the postural muscles will fire for longer periods of time. This permits the skeleton to move the body along and creates a true reliance on the brain for proper directives.
In summary, too often individuals are strengthening their muscles to move, when in reality they become too strong and inhibit their ability to function properly. In the Anatomy of Movement, the Skeleton is the primary mover, the Joints need to decompress to properly allow that movement, and the Muscles are what initiate that movement. In proper tensegrity the continuous pull comes from the postural muscles and the movement or discontinuous push comes from the bony structures. It is this tensegrity that is the proper balance the body is achieving so that the individual is able to function with minimal or no discomfort. If the wrong muscles are too strong, the tensegrity will not be in balance and the opportunity for discomfort or injury will present itself. The more the imbalance the more likely the injury or the body’s inability to avoid that injury will be present.
Learning and practicing proper movement will help all of us have more Wellness in our life. This is accomplished by reducing the internal stresses caused from the imbalances that the Musculature system will create when we are too strong for our body.
Dennis Gibbons, LMT
Owner and Creator of Muscle Release Therapy, MRTh® and Functional Movement w/Pilates Machines℠