Is Excess Muscle Tension Causing Your Pain?

Can having too much tension in your muscles cause pain? Most definitely!

I recently received a massage from a colleague. One of the benefits of teaching/working in a massage therapy school, is access to massage.

Because I know that if I just lie there and totally relax and enter a deeply relaxed state, that makes it so much easier for the massage therapist.

So many times, we have so much stress in our lives, that our muscles become tense, frequently causing pain. More than once, I have worked on someone in a clinical setting where they wanted me to "use more pressure" thinking thats what their body needed.

Being a large person, giving enough pressure isn't the issue. But almost always, these people have held too much tension in their muscles, due to excess stress in their lives and lack of proper movement.

Sometimes, they have had past injuries and some scar tissue has formed. This can add some chronic tension to their muscles, but still, they should be able to move and stretch their muscles enough to keep this scar tissue from causing so much pain.

My point is, we all need to move our bodies enough that they don't become stiff and painful, especially if you have had past injuries such as low back pain.

Joint mobility movements are one way to provide movement for your joints. Taking classes such as Tai Chi or Nia can also help. Moving your joints through their intended motions on a regular basis, is needed.

So you may need to see a massage therapist to help with past injuries or excess stress. Deep tissue massage can help quite a bit, but if you are that person who always requires
maximum pressure or pain, maybe you need to think about moving your muscles and joints more often to help relieve pressure.

Since many people can't get massage therapy as often as needed, I have some helpful tips for self-massage on my website. Click here for info on self massage and pain relief.