by Chris Watts

Stress comes in many different guises.  The butterflies in the stomach prior to a sporting event where the adrenals are switched on are geared to make you alert and primed for the game ahead.  This type of stress is instinctive and hard wired to our systems to keep us sharp and focused. It tends to be short-lived and very positive for the mind and body.

Then there is the longer term, more persistent stress induced by tight deadlines at work, fatigue, poor diet, smoking, lack of exercise and very important, persistent physical tension from long hours at the desk or past injuries that haven’t healed well.

From a physiological or functional point of view, stress is a huge constrictor of the body structures. Blood circulation diminishes, lymphatic drainage slows down, and muscles tighten.  The longer one experiences stress, the tighter the tissues become, until your body feels like it is protected by an armoured coating! Your body is toxic and very irritated on all levels.  I have worked as a Stretch Therapist for over 9 years here in Hong Kong and have witnessed this protective shield on numerous occasions.  You can watch those highly stressed clients enter the studio, flapping around uncontrolably, phone always on and tension is oozing out of their every pore. No treatment seems to work for them on the long term.  More importantly, I noticed that they are not happy people, in fact grumpy. When you ask them if they are experiencing any pain, they say “no – just tight all over”.

Their body chemistry has perfectly masked the pain and dysfunction within the joints, tendons, and aching muscles.  They are also very dehydrated and have never consumed any minerals or vitamins and many live on caffeine stimulants.  One client told me he never drank water because he disliked the taste.  His nervous system was chronically in a state of spasm and I could barely touch him.

How do you deal with this level of physical and mental stress?

As manual therapists, we get the opportunity to really evaluate the psychological worlds of our clients.  It is well understood how linked the mind and body are, where health and well-being are concerned.  It is so much easier to begin the de-stress treatment by realigning the client’s posture, achieving symmetry and attempt to bring the body structure back to an anatomically neutral position where the center of gravity is running directly through the skeletal structures.  This effectively removes any unnecessary strain and tension in the muscular system which can easily cause an overload and lead to pain.

Remember… pain is always a sign of physical dysfunction… which always leads to mental anguish as you cannot help but think of it and certainly cannot concentrate fully on the work you are doing.  There are over 100 forms of manual therapy, from Active Isolated Stretching™ where we engage the client in making physical changes, to gentle energy work such as Reiki and Body Memory; subtle but powerful for unwinding the tissues.

To successfully reduce stress, many actions have to be undertaken.

Some of them, I like to take myself:

1. Increase your water intake, eat more fruit and vegetables and less processed food and have a more alkaline diet
2. Spend more time on your own body with activities such as massage, stretching, yoga, pilates, etc
3. Give yourself a detox once a month with green tea, fruit juices, a sauna…
4. Go to bed early. It is during your sleep that your body will regenerate itself

At Stretch, we specialize in a safe and therapeutic approach to stretching to try to achieve an athletic range of motion in all the joints. Removing the muscularskeletal resistance at this deep level will improve circulation and Oxygen supply and increase you energy level.

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