Twitchy muscles...

[?Aini ?VanillaIceCream]

I have a regular client who comes to me mostly to address tight neck and shoulders/upper back. He loves really deep work, and sometimes I dread working on him because I end up sore. He is a pilot in the airforce.

Today he came in and said all was groovy, and rather than spend the whole hour on upper body, let's go ahead and do a full body massage.

As I was doing opening effleurage I noticed some twitchiness around T11/T12, and he involuntarily contracted all the muscles in his lower back. His Rhomboids (major & minor) were bilaterally spongy and far more pronounced visually than usual. He actually told me I was using too much pressure (a first for him)!

When I got to doing detail work on the erectors the poor guy nearly fell off the table, his back spasmed so much. I spent some time doing very light CFF--you could hardly call it friction, it was so light--and some stripping down the spine/erectors.

After the session I told him I though he should go see a chiropractor, as I think he has a compressed nerve (although I don't diagnose!!!), and massage didn't seem to ease it at all.

Any ideas what else could be causing the twitchy muscles and sponginess?

 

[ne14funstuff]

FWIW - hubby is sitting here reading over my shoulder - says T11-T12 is where a pilot's g-forcd suit hits them when they are flying.... you might ask your client what type of flying he does, how his flight suit fits him, etc to see if that might be a component of this problem.

Could also be an intersegmental problem caused by relaxing things that haven't been relaxed in a while and the tiny stuff didn't "unhinge and relax" along with the rest of the musculatrue.....


Hope this can help your thought processes a bit.

 

[ncmitchell38]

Twitchy muscles...

One of the best techniques for back spasms, or at least I certainly think so, is to place one hand on the sacrum, use your other hand with either your fingers or thumb to palpate the spinous processes starting at T12 and gently rock the sacrum back and forth. Then work your way up the spine slowly, looking for the vertebrae to loosen up and flow. This is very gentle, it does not require much pressure at all.
You might also refer him to a Chiropractor for some traction on his mid to lower back.

 

[Chasity]

Twitchy muscles...

Ella, your idea to have him checked out by a DC is a good one. At least then y'all will know if there's something going on that's not of soft tissue nature. Nerve impingments or malfunctions are serious, and there's a particular window of time available to correct them.

Spasms are tricky. Does he have any history of stroke, or anything else in the brain or spinal cord? Any trauma or surgeries? Diseases like polio? Is he on any meds? Many have side effects that ppl simply aren't aware of.

I know that sometimes my muscles jump or twitch as I float between levels of consciousness, even if I don't fall asleep. Or I'll twitch as a muscle releases. But the contraction you're describing sounds odd indeed. I've had some clients who can't loosen up but looking back I think that was more of a passive-aggressive power struggle than anything else. He acted like he couldn't relax when I'm betting the truth was that he wouldn't. I've also found that my muscles contract when I'm super-excited or trying to hold back some emotional release (whether it would manifest as laughing or crying didn't matter).

I like the sacrum idea too You can always try that; I'm curious as to how it comes out!

Hugs,
~Jyoti