Stress and muscle tension

Massage therapy places an important role in reducing the effects of stress on the body and muscle tension. Receiving massage therapy on a regular basis contributes to maintaining a positive quality of life by favouring wellbeing. Often, people tend to call on the services of a massage therapist when they are affected by serious physical problems or feel a deep need to relax. However, massage therapy has much more to offer and plays a preventive and essential role.

Massage therapy and the nervous system

Massage has a soothing effect on both the body and the mind. It reduces nervous excitability and dissipates the effects of stress on the body, including muscle tension and anxiety, resulting in substantial mental and physical relaxation.

Massage stimulates the production of endorphins, a hormone freed by the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus, which acts as an analgesic on the body and provides a feeling of wellbeing. Endorphins help to counterbalance the accumulation of adrenaline and cortisol, hormones produced when stress is experienced, and to reduce their effect on mental and physical health. In other words, massage:

rebalances hormones of stress, which provides a state of calm;

releases accumulated tension;

calms the nervous system;

improves the quality of sleep;

reinforces self-esteem;

stimulates the immune system;

slows the aging process.

Reducing muscle tension

Unfortunately, muscle tension is often the cause and result of persistent pain. Muscles tend to contract automatically around a painful area to protect and strengthen it. Through a phenomenon of compensation, pain can then lead people to adapt their movements or adopt a poor posture to avoid feeling it, which will further increase muscle tension and pain.

By working on fascias and muscle chains, massage considerably reduces tensions and spasms and in so doing, pain and physical discomfort. Reducing these tensions allows us to give muscles and joints back their flexibility and range of movement. In so doing, the body can move easily and carry out the multitude of tasks demanded of it on a daily basis.

Minimal joint or muscle pain that is ignored can result in a more serious pathology that will require a more substantial intervention from the therapist. Used preventatively, massage can help avoid the appearance of physical problems, which is why it is important not to delay in seeking a consultation.

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