Upper Body Muscle Imbalance Considerations for Massage Therapists
By Rick Kaselj of Exercises For Injuries
Massage therapists spend most of their days working on muscle imbalances in their clients. The cause of those muscle imbalances can be an old injury, poor posture, prolonged sitting or a motor vehicle accident.
Your clients are getting the benefits of massage when it comes to their muscle imbalances, but one thing that will help them get better results faster is to include muscle imbalance specific exercises.
I know you probably give a few exercises to your clients, but let me highlight some of the common mistakes that I see massage therapists make when giving exercises to address muscle imbalances.
Just Focusing on Stretching in the Neck
A common area that massage therapists work in is the neck. Often times they recommend stretching to help with the neck muscle imbalances. Kind of like this exercise:
Stretching helps deal with the symptoms that are going on in the neck, but often do not address the problem that is going on in the neck.
In order to help address the problem in the neck, you need to focus on strengthening. Of the three muscle contractions, you must focus on the isometric contractions of the neck in order to help with muscle imbalances.
Here are two exercises that you can do with your clients that will help them out:
Not Spending Enough Time on Stability
It is common to give clients with lower back pain exercises for core stability to help with their recovery.
More and more research is coming out that support core stability as essential for injury recovery and prevention when it comes to the upper and lower body. Yes, core stability can help with shoulder, hip, knee and ankle injuries.
This is a video that will give you a solid example of an exercise that you can do:
Getting Clients to Floss at Home
Massage therapy is like the six-month cleaning you get at your dentist’s office, and doing self-massage at home is the daily flossing one does for dental health.
Something that I give my clients is self massage exercises. I will use a foam roller or a ball (tennis or softball). I will work on muscle imbalance areas in the upper body, for example the latissimus dorsi, sternocliedomastoid and pectoralis major.
I don’t have a video for the upper body, but here is one of my favorite muscle imbalance exercises for self-massage of rectus femoris (thigh):
Improving Mobility
With our clients driving and sitting so much, it is very common for there to be a decrease in movement in their mid-back (thoracic spine). This decrease in movement in one area leads to greater stress on other areas, including the shoulder and lower back.
Incorporating exercises that help increase the movement in the thoracic spine will drastically help your clients with their muscle imbalances and decrease the stress in their shoulder and lower back.
Make sure to incorporate exercises that target all 6 movements of the thoracic vertebrae and not just extension.
Here is a thoracic mobility exercise with the foam roller that I find effective:
Get Better Client Results
The bottom line is addressing upper body muscle imbalances will help your clients get better results.
Educating them on muscle imbalance exercises that can help speed up the process will help your clients get faster results and see the benefit of seeing you.
This will lead to happy clients, repeat clients, and more referrals.
In the end, it is a win-win for everyone.
The Last Word on Muscle Imbalances
I know you work on muscle imbalances all day long. I know you give exercises to your clients. I hope highlighting some common mistakes that I see when it comes to exercises for upper body muscle imbalances will help out.
I know if you implement the tips from above and the muscle imbalance exercises, you and your clients will see the results and benefit right away.
About the Author
Rick Kaselj is a personal trainer in Vancouver, Canada that specializes in designing exercise programs for clients recovering from injuries. Rick has trained thousands of clients and completed his Master’s of Science degree focusing on injury recovery. Rick shares with other fitness professionals and exercise enthusiasts, the muscle imbalance strategies he uses to prevent injuries, overcome injuries and bust through fitness plateaus in the Muscle Imbalances Revealed program. You can get more information about his program by visiting http://MuscleImbalanceRevealed.com .
