NMR For Athletes

Athletes and those who push their bodies to extreme limits of human physical performance are amongst those who will benefit from NMR the most.

Injuries involving soft tissue (muscle, fascia, tendons, ligaments or a combination thereof) will recover better and faster with the proper, timely application of NMR techniques.

After an injury is incurred the body begins the protective healing process that forms tough and less elastic scar tissue and adhesions. Scar Tissue and adhesions can be a principle source of pain and limit both range of motion and strength.

NMR can greatly reduce or effectively eliminate these strength and motion limiting tissues, relieve pain and allow an athlete to return to their former level of performance sooner.

Injury, whether acute (sudden onset) or chronic (as in overuse injuries), is one mechanism by which the body will form scar tissue and adhesions. There is, however, another mechanism by which almost every athlete develops performance altering adhesions: simply stated it’s hard, intense physical activity…I.E…training and competing. As anyone well educated in exercise physiology will tell you, intense exercise causes micro tears in muscle tissue. The post-exercise soreness you feel is due in large part to this “muscle micro tear trauma” and over time (weeks, months, years) these micro trauma events build up and adhesions form. These adhesions can go largely unnoticed because they form so gradually over time, like layers of an onion.

Adhesions make it harder for your muscles to work at top efficiency. Every movement you make involves a very complex and specific chain of neuromuscular events. Based on what movement is to be executed, specific muscle fibers are recruited (and contracted) in a specific sequence. A build-up of adhesions, though subtle and gradual, eventually forces changes in neuromuscular recruitment patterns that can degrade skill and limit muscular strength and stamina.

When you perform in the athletic realm, your body must overcome two forms of resistance: Internal and external. External resistance is mostly gravity related as you run, jump, lift or throw on abject ect. Atmospheric density, wind, water, or the forces generated by an opponent are some other obvious forms of external resistance.

Internal resistance, simply put, is the resistance present within your muscles and all related connective tissues as they glide and move against one another. One of the main reasons athletes’ warm-up and stretch prior to activity is to reduce this internal resistance. Adhesions that build up over time throughout your musculoskeletal system can be a significant source of internal resistance that can adversely affect your skills and your muscular output.

You can’t clear a great deal of built-up adhesions on your own by stretching, even with an assist. This is primarily because you can really only stretch your muscles in a length wise manner and a great deal of adhesions don’t form parallel to the fibers. External devices like foam rollers can go cross-fiber, but only in a very limited way and not nearly as specifically and effectively as a good pair of hands.

Even if you’ve never really been injured NMR can help you perform better. With NMR treatment you’ll be looser, stronger and multi-joint movements will be more fluid and powerful. You won’t be as vulnerable to injury, especially the “overuse” type. Athletes report back to me that they can throw harder, swim and run faster and longer, increase weight lifting personal records overnight and so on. Think of the build-up of scar tissue and adhesions as “muscle rust”. Think of NMR as “muscle rust remover” or as a “super warm-up and stretch” that really lasts.

NMR is the king of soft-tissue techniques. It will clear your muscles (and related connective tissues) of pain-producing, performance robbing adhesions better and faster than any other technique/modality out there.