“Chronic tension … is worse than merely wasted effort; it initiates a vicious circle which plunges the area into deeper and deeper metabolic debts, draining energy from other parts of the body, producing ischemia and toxic wastes, creating discomfort, and eventual disuse.”–Job’s Body by Deane Juhan
When I first started massage therapy school, I had a hard time looking at the pictures in the anatomy books. Drawings of bodies were stripped of their skin and other outer layers to give us a better idea of how muscles interconnected with bone, how organs rested inside their specific regions of the body, how lymph and blood flowed powered by the movement of bone and muscle. It took me a while to disconnect from that twinge of surprise caused by having to look at a body as parts, rather than a whole. But learning about those parts has led me to understand the ways that massage therapy can lead a body toward wholeness.
Everyday millions of people sit inside the only body they will ever have and experience pain. The amazing thing is that pain does not have to be a normal part of every day life for most people. It’s an anamoly–one that can be eliminated with attention to self and to that one-of-a-kind body given to you at birth.
While there are multitudes of ways to care for your body, I chose to become a massage therapist because I was drawn to the idea of touch as healing. I went into school with a vague idea of the extent of the healing power of touch and left with an astounding awe at what the body is capable of on its own while also respecting that my field is one that can aid the body, your body, to health, strength and well-being.
While your skin continually replenishes itself throughout your lifetime, there are parts of your body that are very unlikely to replenish themselves. Once they are gone, they’re gone forever. For instance, you are born with all the nerve and muscle cells you will ever have. Once a nerve dies–it is not replaced. Torn, destroyed, atrophied, scarred muscle is never replaced by muscle–only scar tissue.
Cutting off nerve stimulation to a muscle cell begins the process of muscle cell death. Within as short as three months, lack of nerve stimulation causes the muscle to weaken considerably. The good news is that within this time frame the muscle can recover its full capacity if nerve stimulation begins again. If the nerve stimulation continues to be interrupted, after four months tissue damage begins in earnest. If stimulation returns at this time, you regain only a portion of your muscle’s functional ability. After one to two years the lack of nerve stimulation causes muscles to break down completely. Once that muscle is lost it is replaced by other tissue–either fat deposits or connective tissue–but never again by muscle.
You see where this is going don’t you? If you get a zing or a zap of nerve pain in your shoulder or your arm or your foot, don’t think it’s just normal. It’s not. When you have pain, your body is telling you to pay attention and do something about it. What you choose to do is up to you, but I’ll tell you–massage therapy is one really great way to get pain to stop zinging and zapping you.
