High Muscle Tone

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High muscle tone is often treated through massage. High muscle tone involves the low level contraction of muscles that occurs unconsciously. High muscle tone can be visually defined and have a firm appearance as well as touch during rest. High muscle tone can decrease movement, increase muscle tightness, tension and increase the chances of injury. Our massage therapists at Physio.co.uk use massage for high muscle tone to help improve movement, reduce tension and prevent injury.

What type of massage is used for high muscle tone?

Many different massage types can be used to treat high muscle tone. The most common massage types used include:

Customer receiving arm massage while in a relaxed position

When can massage help high muscle tone?

A massage can help high muscle tone in many circumstances. The circumstances a massage for high muscle tone can help include:

Above: Soft tissue massage applied to trapezius muscles

A massage for high muscle tone can help as part of a training programme. A person can be part of a training programme for various reasons. The most common reasons people take part in training programmes include to prepare for an event or to increase fitness levels. Training programmes can often become intense, working muscles harder to achieve their goals. Training programmes can also increase muscle tone. High muscle tone can make injuries more likely to occur. The high intensity and workload put onto muscles with high tone can cause muscles to stress and tighten. Stress and tightened muscles makes injuries such as muscle strains, pulls and tears more likely to happen during training. If a person becomes injured during training, this can prevent the training from continuing causing increased stress levels. A massage for high tone helps as part of training programme by preventing injury. A massage will help to loosen and relax all tightened, tense and overused muscles in order to prevent muscle strains pulls and tears from occurring.

A reduction in tight muscles can occur through massage for high muscle tone. The constant contraction of muscles that causes high muscle tone can result in muscle tightness increasing. Muscle tightness can further restrict movement, increase pain and cause poor posture. A massage for high muscle tone helps to reduce tight muscle by encouraging blood flow to increase. An increase in blood flow encourages a rise in muscle temperature. Tissue elasticity and flexibility is increased when the temperature of muscles rises. An increase in tissue elasticity and flexibility increases muscle range of movement, allowing them to stretch to its full length. Increased tissue elasticity and flexibility also promotes the relaxation of muscles, allowing them to loosen. Increased range of movement and relaxed and loosened muscles contribute to a reduction in muscle tightness.

A massage for high muscle tone helps to increase relaxation levels. High muscle tone causes muscle tightness, tension and an increase in pain. Tightness, tension and pain can restrict movement and increase stress levels resulting in poor relaxation. A massage helps to improve relaxation both physically and mentally. A massage helps to increase relaxation physically by reducing muscle tightness and tension. Friction created between the skin and fingers causes" blood flow to improve, increasing muscle temperature. Tissue inelasticity is reduced as muscle temperature increases resulting in the relaxation of tightened and tense muscles. A massage helps to improve relaxation mentally through relaxation of muscles and a decrease in pain. When muscles are relaxed, movement is no longer restricted and stress is reduced. Reducing stress increases mental relaxation. Relaxation of muscles also helps to decrease pain. A decrease in pain can further reduce stress levels and improve range of movement. Further reducing stress levels and improving range of movement increases mental relaxation.

What are the physiological effects of receiving a massage for high muscle tone?

A range of physiological effects can occur within a massage for high muscle tone. The physiological effects that most commonly occur include:

Above: Trigger point massage technique applied to trapezius muscle

An increase in temperature occurs within a massage for high muscle tone. An increase in temperature can occur within deep and superficial layers of tissues as well as fascia, a layer of tough and fibrous connective tissues underneath the skin. A massage increases temperature by friction created between the surface of the skin around the treatment area and the hands and fingers of the therapist. The friction created encourages the circulation of blood to increase. Increased blood circulation is used to increase the temperature of muscles and fascia. Increasing temperature of muscles is most effectively used to reduce tissue inelasticity and improve muscle range of movement and flexibility. Increasing elasticity and flexibility of muscle helps to reduce any build-up of muscle tightness and tension that has occurred as a result of high muscle tone.

A massage for high muscle tone involves an increase in tissue elasticity. A variety of different types of tissues can be found within the body including soft tissues and connective tissues. The elasticity of tissues depends on how far the elastin fibres will allow a muscle to stretch. A good tissue elasticity will allow muscles to stretch to their full length with no feelings of restriction or pain. High muscle tone regularly results in poor tissue elasticity which can lead to restricted movement, an increase in pain and an increase in the likeliness of injuries occurring. A massage for high muscle tone helps to increase tissue elasticity by rising muscle temperature. Increasing muscle temperature improves the flexibility of elastin fibres, allowing tissue elasticity to increase. An increase in tissue elasticity reduces muscle tightness in tension, helping to reduce pain and decrease muscle tone.

What are the benefits of receiving massage for high muscle tone?

The benefits of massage for high muscle tone are wide ranging. The most common benefits of massage for high muscle tone include:

A massage for high muscle tone can decrease tension. Tension involves the constant contraction of muscles that are unable to relax. Tension can be caused by muscle overuse, injury and high muscle tone. Tension restricts movement, increases pain and can result in muscular knots or adhesions forming. A massage for high muscle tone aims to reduce tension by encouraging relaxation of muscles. Long deep strokes are used within a massage aiming to increase muscle temperature to improve tissue elasticity. As tissue elasticity increases, the long strokes are used to stretch and loosen tense muscles. Stretching and loosening muscles encourages them to relax and get out of the state of contraction. Relieving muscles from the state of contraction decreases tension.

An increase in range of movement often occurs after a massage for high muscle tone. High muscle tone causes muscles to contract and tighten resulting in muscles shortening and range of movement decreasing. When movement is restricted, joints can also start to become stiff, further reducing range of movement. A decreased range of movement can make injuries more likely to occur and can often cause stress levels to increase. A massage will increase range of movement by reducing joint stiffness and relieving muscle tightness. Both joint stiffness and muscle tightness can be reduced when temperature increases. As temperature increases, so does elasticity of muscle tissues. Increased elasticity of muscle tissues enables muscles to relax and stretch. As muscles relax, restricted movements decrease. Decreasing restricted movement reduces joint stiffness, helping to further increase range of movement.

Injury can be prevented through massage for high muscle tone. High muscle tone causes muscles to tense and tighten. Tense and tightened muscles can increase chances of injury during short bursts of movement. When injuries occur, this can become stressful for a person as it can be very painful as well as prevent them from participating in any form of sports or activities. A massage for high muscle tone helps to prevent injury by reducing muscle tension and tightness. Tension and tightness within muscles is often caused by inelastic muscular tissues. Inelastic muscular tissues prevent muscles from reaching their full length causing restriction in movement. A massage aims to improve the inelasticity of muscular tissues by increasing their temperature. Improving inelasticity of muscular tissues reduces restriction and relieves muscle tightness and tension. Relieving muscle tightness and tension increases range of movement. Increasing range of movement reduces chances of injury during any form of movement.

Summary

High muscle tone involves the unconscious contraction of muscles whilst at rest. A variety of massage types can be used for high muscle tone including deep tissue massage, remedial massage, therapeutic massage and sports massage. Treating high muscle tone through massage can help as part of a training programme, reduce tight muscles and increase relaxation. Various physiological effects including increased temperature and increased tissue elasticity occur within a massage for high muscle tone. A massage for high muscle tone can benefit a person in many ways including decreasing tension, increasing range of movement and preventing injury. Our massage therapists at Physio.co.uk use massage for high muscle tone to help reduce stress and muscle tightness.