Muscle spasms or cramps usually catch you by surprise. You might be nodding off to sleep or engaged in vigorous exercise when your muscle or muscles contract without warning. A spasm that vanishes quickly is harmless, but prolonged muscle contraction leads to a painful cramp.
Involuntary spasms can happen in your neck, back, hands, arms, thighs, abdomen and rib cage muscles, but the most common muscle cramps are in the feet and calves.
Stretching and Treatment
Certain medications, dehydration, and overexertion can all cause muscle cramps. Stretching before and after exercise is always a good precaution, but massage gets to the heart of the problem by addressing trigger points and relaxing tense muscles.
At Massage Envy, our professional therapists focus on getting your muscles what they need -- increased blood flow, which brings healing nutrients and oxygen to your underlying tissues while carrying away waste products. The result is a reduction in stiffness and swelling, as well as increased flexibility, all of which reduces pain.
Types of Massage
Your massage therapist will identify the best type of therapy for your particular situation. Each has its own benefits:
- Sports Massage Therapy decreases muscle soreness before and after any type of exercise, and can be focused on a particular area of your body
- Trigger Point Therapy focuses targeted cycles of pressure and release on specific areas of your body that sometimes refer pain to other areas
- Hot Stone Envy™ decreases muscle spasms and encourages deeper muscle relaxation with smooth, heated stones placed in key areas on your body