Through comprehensive soft tissue manipulation techniques, Neuromuscular Release Therapy can relieve your pain.

What is Neuromuscular Release Therapy?

Neuromuscular Release Therapy Restores BASIC Physiological Function To Alleviate Pain

NRT is comprehensive soft tissue manipulation techniques that are designed to balance and stabilize the body’s relationship between its central nervous system and its musculoskeletal system. Once balance and stability are achieved the body can become the self sufficient, healing machine that it is designed to be, thus, eliminating painful re-occurring conditions forever.

The idea of balancing two major systems of the body may seem incredibly complex and very difficult to accomplish. Understandably, the vast complexities of the human body can seem overwhelming when trying to educate yourself about why you have pain.

These complexities are what make pain relief so difficult for modern medicine to achieve. The answers to pain relief are often so simple that they get lost in this complex world. The one question that would seem most logical to begin with seems to elude most tradition approaches to pain relief and is the one question that should be asked first….why? Why does that area hurt? The entire basis for NRT is built around this question.

NRT is based on the physiologically fundamental causes of pain. These causes are based on neurological laws that have been proven for decades. There is literally a reason for everything that exists within our bodies. When it comes to pain within our body there is always going to be a reason why its there.


Why NRT Will Answer This Question

The main focus of NRT is to identify the fundamental cause of someone’s pain. This is not the main focus of traditional approaches to pain relief. You may be confused by this statement due to the fact that there are so many things available to us that are designed to identify and diagnose our condition. Things such as x-rays and MRIs are used to pinpoint specific conditions within our body and are the most commonly used methods of identifying painful conditions. Where these methods are great at telling us what condition we are presently in, they tell us nothing about what got us there to begin with.

What’s more frustrating is when these methods have negative results. Where “no news is good news” can be somewhat relieving in certain situations, in a painful situation we want to know what is wrong. When diagnostic testing comes back negative it can be very confusing to the patient as well as the doctor. Pain is definitely present so why hasn’t anything been revealed? The answer is typically found buried deep within the muscular system of the body and NRT will find it.

Logic Is The Foundation
The techniques used in NRT to identify muscular imbalance are based on simplicity and logic. Logic is the truest form of reasoning and it is

what science is based upon. By understanding the simplest form of muscular function and logically applying that function to a particular pain condition you can quickly understand the problem at hand.

Because NRT is based on neurological laws that govern how our bodies operate we must first break down the most basic components of human function, specifically muscular function. You must understand that everything we do as human beings is controlled by our amazing brain. It is truly our life source and without it we are nothing. Whether we are sitting in front of our computer punching keys on a key board or performing meticulous heart surgery our brain is controlling every aspect of these functions.

We go about these tasks everyday of our lives with complete disregard for how or why we are able to accomplish these things. Whenever we perform any motor task, basically any form of movement, our brain tells our muscles what movement to perform and how to perform it. A muscles primary role in human function is to provide movement.

The brain communicates to muscles through neural pathways in the central nervous system. These pathways are like internal “highway” systems for communications to travel back and forth. It’s through these pathways that the brain will tell your muscles to perform motor skills.

When muscles are perfectly healthy and balanced signals are effortlessly sent through the neural pathways and motor functions are easily accomplished. If a muscle becomes injured in any way the brain will immediately protect that muscle from any further imbalance. This is called compensation and is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, components of the protective phase.

Identify The “Cause” Not Just The Symptom

Compensation can best be described as a detour in the neural “highway” system. It is a protective pattern that allows us to go on and is the very reason that we can live with pain. As one muscle goes down to injury the brain instantly sends signals to other helper muscles (neural detour) so the same tasks can be accomplished. If our brain did not have this miraculous ability to shift the workload during times of need the simplest of injuries would render us useless.

This truly amazing gift that our brain provides is also one of the biggest reasons for chronic pain. Compensation is actually a huge imbalance to our system. The longer we remain imbalanced the more permanent the protective patterning becomes. While the compensatory pattern allows us to remain functional throughout the healing process, it can simultaneously engrain future problems into our muscular system. In order to begin the pain relief process the imbalanced pattern must first be identified within the muscular system. NRT will find these patterns through very specific postural and bio-mechanical analysis.


Getting Started

During the initial analysis spastic and overused muscles will be identified and targeted for treatment. Prolonged compensatory patterning can cause immense damage to the muscular tissue involved. Simply identifying the pattern is only the beginning. In order to effectively restore normal function we must reverse the imbalance. Remember the imbalance is a “detour” in the neural highway, so by re-establishing the correct pathway we can eliminate the “detour” all together.

The main problem that NRT looks for in damaged muscle tissue is a condition called ischemia. This simply means a lack of blood within a muscle and is one of the biggest reasons for muscular pain. Over time as muscles compensate to protect us they will undergo many unhealthy changes. The more a muscle protects the tighter it will become, thus, squeezing everything within it like a garden hose, namely blood vessels. This will greatly restrict the amount of blood that flows through that muscle.

Blood means many things to our body, but the thing it means most to our muscle tissue is oxygen. Muscles are workers and they need to breath. Imagine how irritated and unhealthy you would become if you had to continually work in a physical environment without enough air. Oxygen is the foundation of a healthy muscle. This is the absolute key to the overall success of NRT.

The muscle tissue that has been targeted for treatment will now undergo very specific and intense hands on therapy. Once ischemic tissue has been identified the tissue will be manipulated so that blood flow can be restored. This is accomplished through very precise pressure applied to the effected muscle. The depth of pressure depends on the condition of the area, as some areas can tolerate much more pressure than others. The greatest thing about NRT is that your brain literally guides the therapist through this entire process.


Who To Trust

 

A skilled therapist can listen to your brain through touch. Remember, your brain has a built in alarm system. If too much pressure is applied to an area the brain receives a signal from the area that it is basically being invaded. The brain sends back an immediate respons e of protection. The first response is to spasm the muscle or pull away from the pressure being applied. This spasm should be felt by the therapist and will determine the correct amount of pressure to be used. More importantly, along with the spasm, the brain sends signals to the blood capillaries to close and shut down the blood supply to that area. This defense tactic is the exact same thing that happens when you bump your leg on a table and get a bruise. It is there to protect us and if it didn’t exist we could bleed to death internally from a simple bruise. Shutting off the blood supply to an area that we have already determined doesn’t have enough blood would be very counterproductive. This happens the second a therapist applies too much pressure. Unfortunately, many therapists believe in the “no pain, no gain” approach to muscle work. This may be acceptable in some situations; however, from a curative standpoint it will never work.

When too much pressure is applied the brain will fight and defend against the pressure and the results will be more pain and damage to the effected tissue. On the other hand, too little pressure will not stimulate a brain response at all. The correct amount of pressure needed to restore blood to the tissue hangs right on the edge of what is called a myotacic reflex, or simply a guarding reflex. This reflex is commonly referred to as your pain threshold. Applying the correct amount of pressure will cause the brain to react by dilating the blood vessels at the exact area of pressure.

This restores very precise blood supply to the damaged muscle. This process is repeated many, many times to get through layer upon layer of effected muscle tissue. As the blood supply is restored the muscle can once again breathe and the internal environment of that muscle is restored.




It's Simple

The internal environment of a muscle is vitally important when trying to establish balance. The three primary things that a muscle needs in order to be healthy and balanced are blood flow, strength, and flexibility. Blood flow is the foundation for muscular health and without it strength and flexibility can never be maintained. You cannot build a ten story building by beginning construction on the second floor; you must first build the foundation. Establishing blood flow to damaged muscle tissue provides that solid foundation for successfully eliminating your pain.

Some of the most difficult cases have been completely fixed by simply allowing the muscles to breathe again. Compensatory patterns are eliminated, neural pathways are restored, and proper strength and conditioning can be maintained.

NRT is not a “cure all” miraculous new invention; it is simply the most logical place to begin.