We’ve all heard somewhere along the line that muscles have memory. So do they? Yes and no. What does that really mean?
The Muscles Themselves
Muscles themselves only have a little “memory”. Myofascia is designed for movement, and it molds itself to the stress that it experiences. In that capacity, if the myofascia has been shaped by habitual movement, the muscles will only be used to, or even able, to move within that range. So in that sense, muscles do have a memory.
The Bigger Picture
More to the point, it has more to do with the nervous system’s relation to the muscles. When the nervous system generates an impulse, neurons talk to each other – a line of communication is opened, potentially where none existed before. But once that line of communication is established, every time those neurons speak to each other it reinforces the connection. Of course this is why practice makes perfect – every time we do a particular action, our brain gets better and better at coordinating the muscles to do it. incidentally, when we start resistance training, the initial gains in strength are more due to improved communication between the brain and the muscle than any physical increases in the muscle itself.
This is what we’re really talking about when we say muscle memory – these habitual patterns of movement. When we learn how to do something a particular way, it can become very hard to undo it. For instance, you know how you can identify many people by the sound of their footsteps? This is because when we learn to walk we develop a unique gait. It takes over a hundred muscles working in coordination to walk and we all learn how to do it in a slightly different way. These patterns become ingrained and the connected neurons prefer the familiar. This is also why we massage instructors harp on our students to use proper body mechanics all the time – if you start by learning it the wrong way, it will be much harder for you to learn it the right way.
These connections, once learned, go on autopilot. And a good thing too. Who would want to have to constantly think about putting one foot in front of the other, or the position of your tongue while you are speaking? But once they become unconscious, we also lose some awareness about what we are doing. This is fine if things are working the way that they should, but when things are off we need to bring the awareness back.
When we get injured, we can develop bad habits, maybe habits that were necessary while we were hurt (limping), but no longer serve a purpose once we’re better (continuing to limp after healing). Our bodies adapt wonderfully to remain functional in response to these things. But once your body has found a way it likes to do things it can be hard to get it to go back to do it the right way, the optimal way.
Can it be done? Of course, but it may not be easy. Stroke victims can relearn to do things that they lost because of the neurons that knew how to do it dying. It is a matter of re-patterning.
So What Does This Mean?
For our clients, this means we need to understand how these patterns affect them. What factors were in place when developing these movement patterns? Did they break their leg as a child, or have something disrupt their development? Was there an injury? Athletic training? How long has it been there? The old saying that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks is somewhat valid – It’s a lot harder to break a habit that has been there a long time because to break a habit, you are really creating a new one to replace it.
Progress will be slow with long-term patterns. I have found that often, clients will feel some relief after massage, but it is short lived. This is because although massage is great, once they leave my office their old patterns begin to dominate again. I always tell my students that even if they come and see me once a week, there are 168 hours in a week – leaving 167 hours for them to undo everything that we worked on in that session. It is vital to educate your clients about what they need to change and think about in between sessions to let the work take hold.
Another implication is that as much as we work on the soft-tissue, it will have little to no long-term effect if we don’t address the neurological functions that maintain the pattern. It’s akin to eating one healthy, nutritious meal (your massage) amidst a sea of junk food (their bad habits). It won’t have much of a lasting effect. It is a process, and one that the client must be on board for. They won’t change until they are willing and ready to.
Reboot
I love Muscle Energy Techniques (MET), PNF (Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation), and Neuromuscular Therapy (NMT). I will focus on MET here, but use a variety of NMT techniques. They are all techniques that reboot the system by resetting the lines of communication. MET uses the higher thinking of the conscious brain to reprogram the lower order unconscious functions.
In every case you come across, resetting the interface between the brain and the muscles will make your job easier. You recruit the most powerful force in your client’s body, their brain, as an ally. If you neglect to address the neurological dysfunction, those old habits will be actively working against you. Most often this also clears the way to reveal the problems as well. MET will reduce hypertonicity (excess tension in the muscles) so the knots really stand out in the tissue.
Re-educate
Once you’ve done your part as a massage therapist, then you have to recruit the client to do their part. Do your best every session to give them something to go home with that they can do to take some ownership of their healing. An exercise, a stretch, a new movement pattern, a breathing exercise, or just some homework to take note of their posture once or twice a day. These things will help to begin the process of creating new movement patterns. Awareness is key.
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