Under Pressure Therapy

Learn more about Under Pressure Therapy What is Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness (DOMS) Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is a frequent problem after unaccustomed exercise and/or eccentric exercise. Massage is a form of 'passive' exercise as the therapist does most of the work. Although it is passive, there is still muscle activation, increased blood flow, release of toxins including lactic acid and free radicals, and there are many neurological responses. Massage can be beneficial to reduce the symptoms of exercise induced DOMS but stimulating remedial techniques such as deep tissue and trigger point massage can also cause DOMS, especially if massage is unfamiliar to you. During a remedial massage, the therapist creates muscle damage and micro-tears in the muscle tissue when using deep tissue techniques. This can cause pain during the massage which is beneficial to your treatment, and it can also cause massage induced DOMS. Massage induced DOMS is very normal to experien...

Learn more about Under Pressure Therapy Myofascial is referring to muscle (myo) and fascia. Fascia to muscles, is like the casing of a sausage. Each individual muscle and muscle group has fascia surrounding it. Sometimes if you only treat the muscle tissue, without releasing the fascia, the muscle can only release as much as the fascia will allow. If however, fascial tension is released, it allows the muscle to release a lot easier as there is no tightness or restriction around muscle. A lot of tension and pain in your body can stem from tightness, scarring and trauma in your fascia, and fascia is everywhere! The largest piece of fascia runs from your toes, through your plantar fascia, up the backside of your whole body, and anchors into your eye socket near the eyebrows.  Myofascial release techniques are aimed at anchoring one part of the fascia and stretching the fascia into the direction of restriction. As fascia is throughout the whole body, pressure differs depending on what ...

Learn more about Under Pressure Therapy First of all, massage does not need to hurt to be beneficial. Different techniques, and different therapists can alter the amount of pressure to achieve healing results A general rule is that a therapist can easily apply less pressure but may struggle to apply more pressure for sustained periods of time. But why does massage hurt so good, and why do you keep going back for the pain? The physiology behind why pain is therapeutic is this: During a deep tissue or trigger point massage, the massage therapist is actually creating muscle damage, the same as when you go to the gym. Micro-tears in the muscle tissue can cause pain, but this is a catalyst for muscle repair and positive adaptations in the tissues. When pain receptors in your body are triggered, they also recruit a lot of chemicals and cells in the body to help with the speed of healing. So, although the therapist is inflicting pain, contrary to belief, we are not sadistic, but we are aware ...

Deep tissue massage Learn more about Under Pressure Therapy Like Ogres, we too have LAYERS. The musculoskeletal system is an intricate array of many muscles working together to achieve functional movement. There are many contingency plans in place so that if a nerve, vessel or muscle is compromised, there is a back-up in place to carry out the function (albeit not as well). This leads to many layers of muscles🦵🏽 Sometimes the affected muscle may lay beneath multiple other muscles in the region, and this is when deep tissue massage (DTM) is required to get to the "deep" muscles, fascia and connective tissues. The idea is to apply firm pressure, and use SLOW strokes. The faster you go, the more it hurts 😧 because the surrounding muscles try to contract and don't allow you to go deep.. Watch the 🎥  of goop, representing how the slower and more gentle your strokes are, the more the body will allow you to get into the deeper muscles Learn more about Under Pressure Therapy

How does Triger Point therapy work? Learn more about Under Pressure Therapy Manual trigger point (TrP) therapy aims to interrupt the chemical messengers that are causing the muscle to constantly contract. Therapy involves locating the knot, and applying pressure to it, stopping the blood flow to the muscle under the point of pressure. The pressure applied to the knot, and the lack of blood flow to the muscle causes pain that can be both localised (under the pressure point) and referred (pain travelling away from the pressure point to another area of the body). When the muscle is under stress, it sends out chemical messages to recruit repairing cells. When the pressure is released, fresh blood rushes into the muscle delivering these repairing cells, and forces out the toxins that were in the muscles (e.g. lactic acid and inflammatory chemicals). Slowly the muscle starts to relax and the knot reduces in size.  The art of manual TrP therapy is knowing how much pressure to use, how lon...

Learn more about Under Pressure Therapy How many people have been to a physiotherapist and come out with a piece of paper with little stick men with triangle waists on them, trying to show you how to get buns of steel. And more to the point, how many people did these exercises the amount of times per day/week that they were prescribed? A big factor to not doing the exercises is not being educated as to why you should do the exercises, except for maybe, “if you do these exercises your pain will go away”. If you have weak gluteal muscles, you are not alone as it is very common. The glute’s main role is to extend the leg at the hip (think standing up from a chair). They are also a very lazy muscle and when they have the chance, they delegate the work to their friends. These friends include the hamstrings and the lower back. When these friends get overworked, they are get tight and give you pain (what do you mean stretching helps to loosens tight muscles?!?). Well what if you are a fit per...

Learn more about Under Pressure Therapy Have you ever been told that you have rounded shoulders or that your hip flexors are tight? Has your physiotherapist or gym instructor prescribed you back exercises or glute exercises to overcome these postural deviations? Well you are probably fighting a losing battle. Massage and resistance training act as two peas in a pod when trying to correct your posture, but there is a correct order to doing it properly.  Let’s take rounded shoulders for example. Usually this is due to always having our hands in front of us, surfing Instagram on our phones or Facebook on our computers, I mean working *cough cough*. This makes the muscles at the front of our body in our chest and shoulder very tight.  To correct this posture and bring our shoulders back, our muscles on our back need to be strengthened. However tight chest muscles and increasingly tight back muscles from resistance work can cause a tug-of-war effect on your body, causing you to not...

Learn more about Under Pressure Therapy Media and so-called fitness experts jumped into action saying how bad resistance training is for children because of this one lie: "If you begin resistance training at a young age, it can stunt your growth." I even remember as a child watching my father in the gym and asking if I could lift some weights with him and he said not until you’re at least 12. This is a very common misconception that many people still have these days. The truth? There is no evidence to support this myth and in fact, resistance training should be utilised by people of all ages. Resistance training for any age can increase bone density, muscular power, strength and endurance and it can also reduce sport and recreational injuries as well as the chance of becoming overweight or obese. The British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES) say that: Resistance training that is developmentally appropriate, well supervised and taught is positive for children...