Muscle tension is like a car that's idling too fast. The car is revved up and working hard putting wear and tear on the motor.
With muscle tension your muscles are working hard, but are not doing anything that's useful. The tension doesn't help you move and it certainly doesn't make your muscles stronger.
It does, however, cause a lot of wear and tear on your body. It strains the tendons that hold your muscles to your bones. It pulls the joints tighter together which not only causes horrible grinding and crunching sounds, but also causes the cartilage in your joints to wear out.
The tension limits your movement, interferes with your co-ordination and may make you more accident-prone. The tense muscles burn up the fuel in your muscles, making you feel tired.
They also create the equivalent of car exhaust - toxic waste products (called metabolites) that fatigue your muscles and make them feel sore and achy.
It's important that you get your tension under control. Not only will you feel more comfortable, but you'll also prevent a lot of problems from occurring, from kinks in your neck to early arthritis.
To manage your tension, it helps to know what causes it.
Stress is one of the major sources of muscle tension. When under stress, you become like a turtle trying to pull its head into its shell. Your shoulders round forward and lift up as your head pulls back.
If your stress level is high, you may actually notice your shoulders around your ears. More often than not, the stress isn't quite so significant and the shoulder muscles simply tighten up.
Just sitting or staying still for periods of time will also cause your muscles to tighten up. By remaining static, you are in a sense training your muscles to lock your back or neck in a certain posture.
When you begin to move, your muscles remain tense in an effort to maintain your position. It takes some time for the muscles to realize that they can let go and relax.
The longer you sit without moving, the more you train your muscles to lock into position and the longer it takes to release them.
In looking at the way that tension is created, you can see that the areas that are most vulnerable to tension are your neck, shoulders and back.
 Ways to Manage Tension!
Massage plays an important role in helping you deal with your tension. Your massage therapist, like a mechanic, can adjust how fast your "muscle motors" are idling.
Massage has a twofold action. First, it helps induce a relaxation response in your body. This reduces the common defensive reactions in your body, including that turtle-in-the-shell action of your neck muscles.
Relaxation causes your brain and nervous system to slow down and this in turn lowers the tension level of all the muscles in your body.
Secondly, with massage your muscles are pulled and stretched. This physically releases the muscle.
In addition, the sensations that your muscles feel, both conscious and subconscious, give your brain information about the level of tension that exists in your muscles. This helps your nervous system to adjust your muscles to a normal level of tone.
The wonderful thing about massage is that its effect on tension is almost instantaneous. You feel the tension leaving your body immediately. You don't have to wait days or weeks to see results.
Soma Yoga is an effective form of mind-body training that involves movement and re-education. Somatics goes directly to the root cause of most chronic muscular pain: the brain and the way in which it senses and organizes the muscles and movement.
By learning to regain awareness and motor control of muscles, the brain can remember how to relax and move the muscles properly. This process of sensory motor training creates more body awareness, increased flexibility and range of motion, and an overall sense of well being.
Soma Yoga particularly helps relieve pain and disability associated with common health complaints such as: headaches, stiff or painful joints and muscles, fatigue, poor posture, breathing problems, impaired movement, accident trauma and whiplash effects, back pain, repetitive use/stress injuries.
20/20 Rule: For every twenty minutes that you are inactive, spend twenty seconds moving. This helps ensure that your muscles don't have the opportunity to lock into any particular position.
Shoulder Rolls to release tension in your neck and shoulders. Lift your shoulders up toward your ears. Then slowly roll your shoulders in a big circle moving them back in large circles. Repeat several times in both directions.
Neck Rolls:. Drop your head straight forward toward the floor and let it hang for a moment. Be sure to keep your back upright. You may feel a slight stretch in your neck or upper back. Then slowly roll your head to the right. Continue until you feel comfortable stretch on left neck. Let your head roll back down and continue the movement around to the left. Repeat several times in both directions.
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