Engaging Muscles Massage

MASSAGE Magazine recently posted about shoe options, self-care to prepare massage therapists for the demands of the job, and pricing. Because I contributed to all three conversations, they listed me as one of their top engagers.

When you stretch, you unknowingly go against what your brain is hardwired to do: restrict your range of motion to protect you from injuring yourself.

If you stretch before going for a walk or run, for instance, your muscles are weaker for having stretched them.

As a result, on every step, your feet are on the ground longer.

Because stretching makes your feet less responsive to what the ground brings on every step, you're, without knowing it, more vulnerable to injury.

Although walking doesn't require as much muscular effort as running, static stretching also negatively affects the timing of joint movement in the walking gait cycle.

Because muscles can't decelerate motion as well as they would without stretching, there's more force on your joints.

The bottom line: You can wrap a bow around the research that shines a positive light on static stretching, and it still takes more than it gives back.

While your IT band can feel tight, in most cases, your muscles aren't restricting range of motion because they're tight.

Instead, muscles are underperforming (i.e., neurologically inhibited).

Self-massage with a foam roller doesn't improve the contractability of muscles that are neurologically incapable of playing their role to the best of their genetic ability. (i.e., underperforming muscles continue to go unaddressed.)

For this reason, you keep feeling the need to foam roll your outer thigh and hip.

Rinse and repeat, in other words.

Static stretching, in particular, doesn't decrease the chances of an injury.

Instead, static stretching dampens the neurological input to muscles, making them less responsive and, as a result, increasing the chances of injury.

Stretching in all its forms is an input that's not specific to any muscle in particular. For this reason, stretching doesn't change the threat of instability that our brain is hardwired to perceive.

Because stretching fails to remodel our brains, the results are consistently short-lived, allowing compensatory motion to accumulate.

Your body has a history.

All the injuries, surgeries, and pregnancies over your lifetime add up to more and more compensation. Compensation, in other words, is cumulative.

For this reason, the most popular recent exercise to achieve popularity doesn't produce the same results for everyone. (e.g., A Bulgarian Split Squat.)

Isometric exercise improves strength and load tolerance before doing exercises requiring dynamic movement.

Before Botox injections for thoracic outlet syndrome, consider what won't paralyze your scalene muscles for 3 to 4 months, or even worse, the removal of your 1st rib. The link is in the comments.

When I see the number of steps being promoted to get people to move more, I think about how most athletic shoes don’t complement the way our feet function, which increases compensation and, for instance, encourages plantar fasciitis.

A new post! The link is in the comments.

Bunions are less about genetics and more about wearing athletic shoes with a tapered toe box. Over time, your brain settles into a position of stability where your 1st metatarsal and proximal phalange go in opposite directions, and it's far from optimal.

While the health benefits of taking more steps are parroted by plenty of folks who promote fitness, most of them don't mention that you're walking in athletic shoes that, in more ways than one, don't complement foot function.