Massage Pathology Chronicles

An increase in muscle tension with or without shortening, resulting from excessive motor nerve activity, may terminate in a rigid zone in the muscle called a spasm. Some additional causes include straining of a muscle, dehydration, and trauma. The contraction that occurs during a muscle spasm is involuntary. The brain sends signals to the muscle to contract, which are not willed by the body. When we exercise, we use voluntary contractions of muscles to execute the work. In a muscle spasm, the brain sends a mixed signal to the muscle to contract that is not willed by the person. Upon meeting with the client, the therapist must ask the client the cause of the muscle spasm to help establish all of the muscles involved. Massage can then increase local circulation to the spasm and mechanically lengthen and spread the muscle fibers apart. A responsibility of the therapist is to communicate to the client about the pressure and the effectiveness of the techniques being applied.

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Tags: Massage Therapy Pathology, Massage Pathology Chronicles, Massage Therapy Pathology and Muscle Spam

This entry was posted on August 3, 2009 at 8:51 pm and is filed under Musculoskeletal Pathology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.