Movement is life!


Sometimes the movements that once felt graceful and free become stiff and painful. It is difficult to change a familiar way of doing something, but it is relatively easy to start something new. Why is this? Changing a pattern that is well-established requires us to overcome a certain amount of resistance, whereas starting something new is like learning any new skill—it builds with experience.

Most of the people I see are experiencing pain and stiffness. They feel limited by their pain, and want to live a fuller life. There are two common causes of stiffness: muscle spasms brought on by overuse, and fibrous scar tissue that results from inflammation.

Muscle spasms can actually be the body's defense against more pain. This process is called splinting. When nerves are irritated, they send an impulse to tighten the muscle. This is the body's attempt to limit movement, so that you don't move into the direction of pain. It's like an "ON-OFF" switch that stays "ON" even when you sleep. Early, persistent, controlled movement helps calm the nerves and reduce muscle spasms.

Whenever you experience inflammation (pain, redness, swelling), your body reacts by forming scar tissue. Why? Your body can't distinguish between inflammation that is due to infection, and inflammation that is due to injury. Before effective treatment for infection was available, it was very helpful for the body to "wall-off" the injured area with scar tissue. This walling-off process helps to close the injury quickly, and delays the spread of bacteria. You're probably most familiar with this process on the skin, when a cut on your hand forms a knot of scar tissue, and then softens over time.

When we move, we are using the active range of motion. When someone else moves us, this is called the passive range of motion. Manual therapy, moving you through your normal range of motion, creates new movement patterns, and reduces the pain and stiffness that we have from overuse, and from the scar tissue that results from injuries.