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Bracing (Chronic Muscular Tension)
Bracing is the root of a large number of common health conditions from acne to yeast infections. This article discusses this widespread condition, which is greatly helped by practicing Skilled Relaxation.
Bracing is a curiously appropriate word. It is just like someone trying to “brace for impact,” in the event of a crash or collision. Too many people are constantly braced for impact, in a state of constant tightness and tension. Interestingly, bracing is usually below people’s conscious awareness, which means that bracing typically cannot be felt by the person who is doing it. The majority of people in this country brace for 24 hours a day without even knowing it. Did you ever wake up in the morning feeling stiff and sore? You were even bracing in your sleep, so pronounced is your pattern of carrying chronic stress and muscular tension in your body.
Bracing is usually a full-body phenomenon that occurs in layers. Most people only become aware of the outermost layer (external skeletal muscles) when the area braced starts to manifest physical pain. Common areas where bracing is typically felt include shoulders (raised up towards ears), jaw (which causes the grinding of teeth), head (which causes headaches), and back and hips (creating stiffness and pain). However, any muscle in any part of the body can be chronically tense due to bracing. Bracing also occurs in deeper areas of the body (internal muscles, including some organs). Pain is not usually felt in these areas, but serious health conditions can arise.
The reason it is so important to understand bracing is because although you do not feel it, this tension can affect any part of your body and eventually cause serious health problems. Bracing, like any long-term factor causing illness, takes years to finally show symptoms and even longer to show damage that physicians can detect with current instruments.
The technical description of bracing is “chronic electrochemical discharge of myoneural junctions due to excessive sympathetic activation in the hypothalamus.
What bracing is… and isn’t (described by Jan DeCourtney, CMT):
It’s been my experience that it takes a while for most people to understand what bracing is and know if they are doing it.
What bracing isn’t:
- Your headache (or backache, etc.)—that’s only a small part of your bracing.
- Raising your shoulders (for example) when you’re under stress—that’s tension or clenching, which can be a part of your bracing, but is only the tip of the iceberg.
- Gone when your neck or other painful area stops hurting (for example) after a massage—that is only part of your tension, and your full-body bracing still remains!
What bracing is: constant, full-body tension, most of which you cannot feel.
Some people think if they feel themselves tense up, and have some muscle tension or pain, they are bracing. They are right, but that is only a small, external sign of bracing. I believe most individuals are only aware of about 1% to 5% of the total-body bracing that is going on.
It’s true that most people brace. I don’t think I’ve seen a single person yet in my massage office who doesn’t brace. You may have to take a leap of faith to believe that you are bracing and begin the practice of Skilled Relaxation. If you are not sure if you are bracing, here is a hint: healthy muscles do not feel hard like rocks or bones, feel sore or tender to touch, nor are they flabby. Healthy muscles are soft, pliable, and firm and feel comfortable when touched or massaged.
In my massage practice, seeing people brace is an everyday event. It is true that most people are not aware they are bracing—especially those who are the biggest bracers! A person who is a strong bracer can be very active physically and feel fine most of the time. One of my challenges as a massage therapist is helping the big bracers understand why, after I have gotten their necks, shoulders, or backs out of pain, it is important that they begin self-care (Skilled Relaxation) for eliminating the bracing in the rest of their body.
Although massage often greatly helps muscular problems, for a person who is bracing, massage may not be enough. For example, you might temporarily alleviate the pain of a recurrent backache by getting massage, and this is a good thing. However, it does not mean that your bracing has gone away. What has happened is a few tight muscles on the outermost layer of your bracing have relaxed, and all the other muscles and layers continue to be tense even though you cannot feel this tension. Another painful episode could easily be triggered because your body is still very tight.
Bracing can begin as early as infancy. Besides being the root of many health problems, bracing may eventually lead to atrophy (weakness) as muscles become exhausted.
Excerpt from Recapture Your Health, by Walt Stoll, MD and Jan DeCourtney, CMT, Sunrise Health Coach Publications, 2006, p. 35-37.
