Ripping the masquerade off muscle syndrome

Myotherapy to me is a lifestyle, not a treatment. It is not because I am sick or anything but myotherapy harmonizes with my lifestyle as a pianist, journalist and athlete. Many who experience chronic pain, especially in the back or waist, tend to think this is part of the aging process. That’s all masquerade. Muscle syndromes are caused by trigger points that have nothing to do with aging.

In Cebuano, you might call it “pamanhud” or directly translated as numb or pain. On self-medication, the knee-jerk reaction is to take pain killers or pain relievers or use ointment or balms and a little massage. All these do little to ease the pain. Massage or pain relievers can hide the pain, but not eliminate the source of the pain. It gives a fake feeling that somehow the pain is gone. It is perhaps because we are masqueraded from understanding the nature of muscle syndrome that we are easily deceived by this great pretense.

Muscle insult.

Muscles are the largest organ of the human body. By the lifestyle, occupation or pre-occupation we lead, these muscles can be “insulted” or injured. Repetitive motion from sports, nature of job or workouts can “insult” muscles and cause trigger points. Simply defined, a trigger point is an irritable spot in the muscle. Trigger points also develop because of lack of use or overuse. Once developed, it can stay there for years. These can relapse into muscle spasms that with time are activated by stresses like overstretching, overtraining, overloading, exposure to cold or internal diseases.

Research has shown that long term results of trigger points can shorten knotted muscles so that it pulls neighboring muscles and enlarge the areas of pain. Shortened knotted muscles can inflict “havoc” to the body causing more pain, fatigue, limits motion and pinched nerves that the person tends to think he is sick. In a sense he is, but it is not a disease that is debilitating – at least not initially.  

If you are a regular gym-goer or is into physical and endurance training, or if you lead an active and stressful job, it is most likely that you will develop trigger points or your trigger points will be activated. Even if you are doing regular aerobics, weights training and training with a fitness trainer, trigger points cannot be avoided because there is always a tendency to overtrain or overstretch. Fitness trainers need to be extremely sensitive about this, but then they are just human beings like you and me.

Ummm, that stretch.

Myotherapy erases and relieves trigger points through compression. It is the art of relieving chronic pain originating in muscles and its connective membranes, the fascia by stretching out muscles out of its spastic condition to its original length and then strengthen this to make it more pliable and prevent return of trigger points.

If you have a lifestyle for fitness training or sports, you must also have a lifestyle for myotherapy. You might say, one cannot be without the other. To eliminate trigger points, myotherapy is done by applying gentle pressure to the muscle and finding spots of extreme tenderness. Pressure is then held on the muscle for a few seconds. This pressure can be pretty painful. While treatment is going on, a patient is advised to inhale and exhale. The amount of pressure applied is said to vary from person to person, area to area and trigger point to trigger point.

Some gym clubs incorporate stretching and massage in their personal training packages. The problem or drawback with these gym stretches or massage is that these are done broadly on gross muscle mass and the tendency is, the trigger point is triggered even more that as a result spasms set in. There is discomfort, soreness and pain and it becomes difficult to go back to exercise.

Ordinary massage and stretching in the gym is no trigger-point treatment. Myotherapy isolates the muscle where pain is originating, reeducates the muscles and brings it back to its strength and functionality.

If you are not into sports or just happen to lead a not so active life, myotherapy is a good pain management system for chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, arthritis, scoliosis, carpal tunnel syndrome, headaches, cramps, leg, knee and foot pain, to name some.

When in pain, myotherapy should be taken as a first resort instead of the last resort. It spares you from surgery, needless pain, harmful drugs and unnecessary costs. If myotherapy works on you, surgery is avoided. If it does not, then you have been spared from side effects while ensuring that little is lost.

Myotherapy is pretty expensive per session. But if you think about how much some people, especially women, spend on make-up, cosmetic surgery and other concoctions that masquerade the flaws of the physical being, the expense is more of the same. Many people are too busy spending on what they look outside and neglect investing on strengthening the inside. I stopped wearing and using make-up because the investment is not worth it.

Your muscles talk where your lips can’t. If you can spend for expensive lipstick, how about indulging on strengthening muscles if only to enhance your looks and well-being inside and out?