Muscle tension is a common and wide spread issue that almost every person will experience throughout their life. It typically occurs after hard physical activity such as lifting weights or running. However, it isn’t uncommon to also experience it due to dehydration or after long periods of inactivity.
Muscles are found all over the body. In fact, we have over 650! Whenever you move, your brain sends a localized nerve signal to your muscles causing them to contract. After contracting, the muscles relax until you need to use them again. When a group of muscles stay fully or partially contracted for an extended period of time, is when your muscles get tense and you may start to feel pain/discomfort.
Continuously or over contracting your muscles through exercise wears them out and causes them to feel tense, as you are literally causing tiny tears in your muscle tissue. Therefore, it is important to let your body rest and regenerate in between exercise.
Dehydration or living a sedentary lifestyle also causes a strain on your muscles due to stress and an imbalance within your body. Nearly 75% of Americans suffer from dehydration. We often hear that we should be drinking around 8 glasses of water. This is because water helps to remove toxins from your body, lubricate your joints, and help your muscles get electrolytes. These all help to keep your muscles healthy and in working order.
The average American sits for 13 hours a day. If you account for sleeping at an average of 6-8 hours, that leaves the average American at 21 hours of sedentary position! Not moving also causes stress on your body and can lead to weakened muscles. It is recommended to stand, walk around, and do an easy stretch each hour to help maintain balance within your body.
The main goal of treating muscle tension is to encourage the muscles to relax. Remedies include warm compress, stretching, and massages. Swedish massage is great for relaxing, while deep tissue massage is perfect for muscle tension. Deep Tissue relieves tension by working the deeper layers of the muscle and relieving knotted muscle fibers. Massages are also known to have similar effects to the body as exercise, as Deep Tissue Massage can also cause micro tears in the muscle fibers. 
If you tend to live a sedentary lifestyle, feel stressed, or find yourself unable to work out frequently, regularly scheduled massages can be the key to living a healthier lifestyle. Frequent massages can help relax you, keep muscle tension at bay, and keep your body in balance.
At Cloud 9 Foot Spa, we offer both Swedish and Deep Tissue Massages to help alleviate your body tension needs. For extra tense muscles, we recommend adding Hot Stones for the benefits of a warm compress and to promote circulation which can melt your tension away. Even when you’re busy, please remember to always take a moment for yourself to hydrate, stretch, and move. Affordably invest in yourself and your health with regularly scheduled massages at Cloud 9. Your body will thank you!
