Your nerves control your muscles

Ever wondered if a tight or painful muscle in your neck, back, or leg is “just a tight muscle”?   Many of us tend to view muscle problems as separate from the spine and the rest of the body.   How do you know if you need chiropractic vs massage therapy?

Tight muscles in the neck and the back can pull your vertebra out of alignment and become a vertebral subluxation.  When such is the case, a chiropractor may adjust that bone, but the tight muscle may just pull everything out of whack again.

Muscles pull bones.  But what controls muscles?  NERVES.  Ever gone for a massage and the next day or even that night you feel the same tension seizing up on you again?  The problem is that your nervous system is stuck in a facilitated, defensive, and reactive state.  In Network we call this “defense physiology” and the resulting patterns of nervous system facilitation, muscle tension, and vertebral subluxation as “defense posture.”  We address this systemic disturbance through light contacts to the upper and lower spine to remind the brain and the body to relax.

It is often tempting to look to the site of the pain or tension in our bodies and say we just have “tight muscles,” or a “bad back,” “bad ankle,” or “bad hip.”  When this happens, remember that EVERYTHING in the body is connected and is a larger expression of the nervous system.  And come see your chiropractor!

Check out our previous post: “Why we choose wellness care

Katie Ray

Katie Ray

Great day to you! I’m Dr. Katie Ray, founder of and chiropractor at New Day. Network Spinal™ changed my life–or I wouldn’t be writing to you about this right now!–and, 10 years since my introduction to this care, I remain an enthusiastic advocate and consumer.

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