Archives for April 2019

Hi guys, Tricia here from Live Free Massage, and today I want to talk to you about a technique that I use that gives my clients a lot of success on relieving their pain and chronic tightness. This technique is called NeuroKinetic Therapy or NKT. NKT uses a style of muscle testing to identify compensation patterns in the body. It also helps me as a therapist to narrow in on which muscles to release and which muscles to activate and strengthen. So, to give you an example about what I mean by compensations – take somebody that has chronic tightness in their hamstrings. No matter how much they stretch, their hamstrings are always going to be tight. Now why is that? – Well, when a muscle is working for other muscles that are weak or not firing properly, then these muscles can never relax because they’re always overworking. One common muscle that the hamstrings will work for are the glute muscles. So I’m going to demonstrate how quickly you can lengthen your hamstring muscles just by activating that weak muscle. First I want to show you the end range of my hamstring length. Notice where my hand stops on my foot. Now I’m not going to stretch my hamstring but instead activate my glute muscle by doing a hip extension movement about five times. Now I’m going to recheck the length of my hamstring. Look how much range I gained in just five seconds. So if chronic tightness is something that you struggle with, come on in for a session of NeuroKinetic Therapy. It will give you the knowledge that you need to start balancing your muscles and reliving your pain and tension. I’ll see you next time.

An Easy Way to Increase Muscle Gains in your Workout:

Ever see people at the gym working hard but hardly working the muscle they intend? A giveaway is that they are swinging their entire body or jerking their arms, hips, or legs. Their focus is to get the heaviest weight from point A to point B – a good thing. But what they don’t realize is that they are compensating with other muscles to move the weight, resulting in more pain – a bad thing. To make matters worse, the intended muscle group isn’t working all that hard and your gains will be minimal. At the end of the day, your body doesn’t care what muscles it uses, it’s going to engage everything it can to do what you are asking of it, often leading to more pain than you intended.

So for example: if you are performing a straight-arm side raise with a dumbbell, you might compensate by shrugging your shoulder or even side bending to get the weight up. This defeats the purpose of your workout and you may end up hurting yourself.

So to make sure you are getting more muscle gain in your workouts without more pain:

1. Find out which muscles you are working for each exercise.
2. Focus on engaging that muscle.
3. Use a light enough weight that your movement is controlled.
4. Stabilize your core.
5. Move smoothly from point A to B.
6. Then lower the weight with control.

NOTE: Sometimes complex exercises that use multiple muscle groups (i.e. squats) can make it hard NOT to compensate. So try exercises that isolate the muscle you want to strengthen, then build up to these complex moves.

If you believe you have been compensating and are experiencing muscle pain during exercises, then make an appointment with me for Neurokinetic Therapy. We can solve your compensation patterns to relieve your pain and create stronger, more balanced muscles.