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Massage
INTRODUCTION
Health and
well‑being are vital to your success as a performing artist.
Whether you are a dancer or musician, singer or actor, your
body is an integral component of your artistic expression.
Thus, it is imperative that your body moves easily through
time and space, without pain or restriction. The demands of
your art, however, can place you at high risk for
musculoskeletal injury due to fatigue, over training,
repetitive trauma, or poor postural dynamics. Taking a
proactive, preventative approach to the care of your body
should be an essential part of your daily routine. At home or
on the road, massage (in addition to adequate rest, improved
postural dynamics, and sensible nutrition) can be an effective
means for deterring performance‑related injuries.
BENEFITS OF MASSAGE
Therapeutic
touch has been in use since the early civilizations of
Babylon, Assyria, China, Japan, India, Ancient Greece and
Rome.1,2 As one author put it, “massage is perhaps
the oldest and simplest of treatments ... it can be
stimulating or soothing ... make a person feel alert or
relaxed ... relieve tension, soothe away headaches,, relax
taut and aching muscles ... above all it can provide a context
for recovery by inducing a sense of well‑being.”3
Many of you are already familiar with the calming effects of
massage.
In addition to
inducing a sense of relaxation, however, massage may also help
prevent musculoskeletal injuries. The benefits that have been
attributed to massage include relief of muscle pain and
spasms; increased blood flow to local tissues; improved
mobility between ligaments, tendons, and fascia; and decreased
swelling and cellular breakdown following strenuous or
prolonged exercise.4‑7
BENEFITS OF SELF‑MASSAGE
Self‑massage,
like any other massage technique, can minimize the potential
for serious injury by relieving the pain and spasms associated
with fatigued or overworked muscles. One significant benefit
of self‑massage is that you can give yourself a massage almost
anywhere and at anytime: at home, on tour, during rehearsal,
backstage during performance, and as part of your daily
warm‑up or cool down. A second important benefit to
self‑massage is that no one knows your body as well as you do,
no one can locate muscle spasms and tender points as easily as
you can, and no one can tell you better than yourself what
type of massage feels right.
The primary
drawback to self‑massage is difficulty relaxing completely due
to the strain of trying to reach all of the body parts that
need massaging. This is where the Body Roller comes into play.
The Body Roller facilitates relaxation during self massage by
making it easier to address those hard‑to‑reach places on your
body.
POSSIBLE SOURCES OF PERFORMANCE‑RELATED PAIN
The
musculoskeletal pain that performing artists often experience
may be related to muscle spasms and tender points that develop
following strenuous or prolonged activity.8 As
Figure 1 illustrates, the muscle spasm may cause restricted
motion in the area of pain. The combination of spasm and
restricted motion decreases the blood supply to the muscle
tissue and leads to an accumulation of metabolic waste
products. The lack of blood and the presence of irritating
waste products stimulate pain receptors in the area, which can
perpetuate the muscle spasm. Another possible explanation of
post‑exercise soreness is that individual muscle fibers may
have been torn during long training hours, which also triggers
pain receptors and can lead into the spasm cycle.
There are
several reasons why you may be prone to muscle spasms. Fatigue
is a primary culprit. Whether you are a dancer taking class in
the morning, rehearsing for six hours in the afternoon, and
then performing in the evening; or a musician sitting through
long practice sessions followed by a performance, your muscles
often do not have adequate time to recover from strenuous or
prolonged training. Fatigued muscles become weak and less able
to meet the normal demands of performing. This weak condition
leads to a stress response ‑‑ a reflexive muscle contraction
that feeds into the muscle spasm cycle.8,10
Additional factors, contributing to
muscle spasms include over-training (leading to imbalances in
strength and flexibility), repetitive trauma (caused by
repetitive motion as when playing the violin or piano), and
poor postural dynamics (such as prolonged sitting in poor
habitual alignment). And, of course, direct trauma, such as
unforeseen slips, trips, and falls, can also increase muscle
spasms.
The bad news
is that prolonged muscle spasms can develop into more serious
injuries requiring medical attention (e.g., muscle strains,
ligament sprains, tendonitis, or even stress fractures). The
good news is that you can do a lot to prevent post exercise
soreness from becoming more serious by interrupting the
muscle‑spasm cycle. Self‑massage is one effective method for
interrupting this self‑perpetuating cycle, especially when it
is combined with your own strengthening and flexibility
program that addresses your muscle imbalances and changes your
postural dynamics.
GUIDELINES FOR PREVENTATIVE SELF‑MASSAGE
Self‑massage
is an important part of taking a pro‑active approach to the
care of your body. As mentioned earlier, you are at high risk
for developing musculoskeletal injuries given the demands of
your daily activities. So, a word of caution ‑‑ when you
embark on a program of self‑care for the prevention of
performance‑related injuries, you must also assume the
responsibility of knowing when to seek expert medical advice.
This manual was developed to guide you through regional
massage that is appropriate for the typical muscle soreness
experienced by performing artists. This is not a diagnostic
handbook, and sometimes "working through the pain" is
dangerous.
WHAT
TO KEEP IN MIND?
Figure 2 illustrates the thought process that you should use
every time you perform self‑massage. With these few guidelines
in mind as you progress through your massage, you should not
only have a rewarding experience, but feel confident that you
are doing no harm. Remember to always listen to your body, and
when in doubt, to seek help from your professional health care
provider.
Figure 2 may
look a bit scary, but here's the bottom line. Self‑massage is
appropriate for typical post‑exercise muscle soreness.
"Typical" should be thought of as muscle pain or soreness that
you can locate by pressing into a tender spot and that
decreases in intensity as you massage.
Atypical pain
is pain that you cannot get your hands on. If you cannot
reproduce your pain by pressing into muscles, tendons, or
ligaments, you may have referred pain from deeper structures
which requires medical attention." A classic (if drastic)
example of referred pain is that which an individual
experiences while suffering a heart attack. The pain down the
left arm and into the jaw is referred from the heart and
cannot be relieved by massaging the arm muscles. Along the
same line of thought, if your muscle soreness or pain suddenly
intensifies, abruptly changes location, or causes radiating
numbness and tingling during the course of self‑massage, seek
additional\care.
HOW
MUCH IS TOO MUCH?
Even when
your massage feels great, it is possible to get carried away
and "overdose" yourself Classic signs of overzealous massage
are: increased pain, increased swelling, increased heat,
increased redness, decreased motion, and bruising. You may
find that some muscles or tender points are more sensitive to
massage than others, and thus will become irritated more
quickly. You will have to find the dose (length of time and
amount of pressure) that is best for you. In the event that
you are overzealous, take a break from massage for a day or
two and then start back a bit more gently.
ABSOLUTE RESTRICTIONS
There are a
few circumstances under which massage should not be performed.
The most common restrictions include malignancies (e.g.,
tumors) which may be exacerbated by increased circulation;
infection in a body fluid (lymph or blood) which may be
aggravated with increased circulation; conditions in which the
skin is unusually fragile (including infectious rashes and
boils), inflamed joints of systemic origin (e.g., rheumatoid
arthritis), areas with large bruises, varicous veins or
conditions such as phlebitis or a thrombosis, and any
undiagnosed lumps.12
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