Quote Originally Posted by bikelet View Post
Hey all again,

Just had a massage today with a myotherapist who told me to stretch more and self massage (with tennis balls etc). The annoying thing is- i do all this already! I'm more flexible than most yet my muscles feel awful! They really feel like ropes, esp in upper trap/shoulder/neck region. My muscles have been this way for as long as i can remember. My sister has muscles that feel even worse than mine, my mum has muscles probably equivalent to mine whereas my dad has muscles that are like butter. Did i get the short straw and inherit the wrong sort of muscles or is there something more i should be doing, perhaps mineral/nutrient imbalances? I can't see massage therapists on a regular basis ( unfortunately due to costs) though i do trigger point my self with a ball or by hand and have a massage chair at home. Thanks
Almost all the taut muscles bands that I have seen in my experience, albeit limited compared to some on these boards, has made me consider the biomechanics across the joints in regards to that particular muscle.

The chances are the posture that you are in, the improper muscle work, causes guarding, spasm, or muscle patterning affecting the alignment of the muscle across the joint, its length, and neuro input, or afferent proprioception. The nervous system responds to these changes by varying the output to muscles. The tension you are experiencing is a result of primarily 2 systems within muscles, the golgi tendon organ, and the muscle spindles.

One thing I would consider is looking at which muscles are affected, are they postural, mobilisers, or stabilisers? And consider the joint position in relation to gravity. The next step is to determine whether the problem is muscle shortening, lengthening, or strength increase, or strength decrease in these muscles, and taking advantage of knowledge regarding muscular slings to create a muscle balance programme.
External applications such as massage, although useful, will not be a long term solution to the problem.