Fill In the Blanks

All approaches aim to increase blood flow to areas of tension and to release painful knots of muscle known as “trigger points”. “Trigger points are tense areas of muscle that are almost constantly contracting,” says Kippen. “The contraction causes pain, which in turn causes contraction, so you have a vicious circle. This is what deep tissue massage aims to break. “The way to do this, as I found out under Ogedengbe’s elbow, is to apply pressure to the point, stopping the blood flow, and then to release, which causes the brain to flood the affected area with blood, encouraging the muscle to relax. At the same time, says Kippen, you can fool the tensed muscle into relaxing by applying pressure to a complementary one nearby. “If you cause any muscle to contract, its opposite will expand. So you try to trick the body into relaxing the muscle that is in spasm.”