Massage and Breathing

Breathing Can Impact Stressed Muscles

Most of us have experienced stressed-out shoulders, and tension related pain. These can often result in almost crippling tension headaches. A lot of people may not also realize that the way you breathe can have a large impact on stress and stress related pain as well. Seeking the services of a professional massage therapist, can not only help alleviate these symptoms, but teach you how to help yourself.

To understand how breathing can affect tension, it is important to understand what role breathing actually plays in our body, apart from the obvious need of oxygen. Breathing can also affect the mobility of muscles, and is also intertwined with our body's stress levels, and emotional responses. An anxiety attack is a perfect example of how extreme tension combined with an emotional response, can affect our breathing. Short, sharp breaths, (hyperventilating) can restrict the distribution of necessary oxygen throughout the body.  Lack of oxygen to the body can then result in symptoms such as numbness and tingling in arms and legs, dizziness, and even hysteria in extreme cases. This can result in even more stress, and the cycle continues.

There have been 3 different responses acknowledged, when someone is faced with a stressful situation, and these are 'fight, flight, or freeze.'  The one we are interested in here, is 'freeze.' Basically we 'freeze' when faced with a situation that causes us to panic yet, we freeze with fear, which affects the way we breathe. For those of us who are terrified of spiders, or snakes, we are all to familiar with the 'freeze' affect when faced with one of these creatures. It is also becoming all too common in the workplace.

When we 'freeze,' our breathing becomes very shallow, and our ribs barely move at all. Muscles become extremely tense, which can result in pain. If this occurs frequently, especially in work situations, our muscles can become semi-permanently locked in the same pattern, which leads to pain and dysfunction. Sore, tight, frozen shoulders, stiff necks, sore backs, and a tight chest are most of the symptoms.

Blue Pacific Massage & Body Works can not only work with you and teach you how to control this 'freeze' breathing, but to acknowledge the signs when they appear, and use breathing techniques to control the situation. They can also massage out the tension in those affected areas, freeing up the muscles and easing the pain.

Breathing also plays an important part in massage . While having your massage try to focus on your breathing, slow deep and even, allow yourself to experience all those relaxing sensations. When doing deep tissue massage you want to work with your massage therapist on your breathing techniques. Most professional massage therapist will explain to you how they want you to breath while performing certain massage techniques as this can play a huge role in the releasing of tension in those taut muscles.

Call Blue Pacific Massage & Body Works to schedule your massage today (760) 680 7910. Dedicated to providing quality therapeutic massage and helping people with their over all health and wellness, with strong knowledge in the various Massage Modalities including Swedish Massage, Deep Tissue Massage, Sports Massage, Acupressure, Shiatsu Massage, Trigger Points, Manual Lymph Drainage, Stretching Techniques, Pre Natal & Post Natal Massage, Infant Massage, Chair Massage, Hot Stone Massage,  Neuromuscular Therapy.