Massage Therapists-particularly related to myofacial (sp?) I had a brief massage on my neck last week and I?

Question

have been in pain ever since and my range of motion is locked up and it hurts when I move my neck and it hurts in the back of my head as well, as well as down my arm. Could you please tell me what is going on-what happened to cause this, what I can do for it, etc. At first I passed it off as soreness, but it has been over a week now and still hurts! Help-any feedback would be appreciated.

Answer 1

It sounds to me like your cervical spine is "out", and is impinging on one of your nerves.  The facts that a) you report a feeling of your neck being "locked up", b) that it's radiating down your arm, and c) that you're in pain a week later all tell me this.  Best things you could do would be to go to a chiropractor and have your neck (cervical spine) adjusted, or go to see an osteopath.  The correct chiropractic adjustment, or series of adjustments should fix this immediately (like w/in a week or less the pain should be gone).  How deeply did you let this guy work on you?  Some CMT's would be able to fix this, but as not all can or could, I really feel you're better off to visit a chiropractor or osteopath.  If you don't want to do either of these things, I would suggest acupuncture, or some cranio-sacral work.  Until you can get this taken care of, you could also try some neck stretches and Range of Motion exercises to see if you can spontaneously get the situation to fix itself.

Answer 2

I would say just the opposite and they probably didn't work you enough and only released part of the tightness and not the reason for the tightness in your neck which is really a result of your overall posture.  What do you mean by brief massage?  10 minutes? 20 minutes?

Noting caused it but you really and how you let it get to that place in the first place.  Stop eating sugar, caffeine and simple carbs.  Look at what you are feeling.  What are you stressed about - you hate your job or your partner or your mother or whatever.

Pain is usually not really caused by the spot where the pain actually is.  It is a result of something else.

Ice, rest, take your favorite anti-inflammatory.  Stretch, drink water, relax.  Take care of yourself.

Answer 3

I am currently studying myofacial release. What happened was the massage therapist performing this technique did it incorrectly. They over worked you so to speak. This technique has to be done very, very slow. What you are experiencing happened to a student in my class after one of the other students worked on her. My teacher said to drink lots and lots of water. See a better therapist! They can help to flush out the toxins that are now built up in that area. All the things one of the other answerers suggested would be very beneficial. Good luck and best wishes!

Answer 4

Why did you go to massage therapist, were you in pain before?  The pain down your arm could be serious.  You might have a herniated/buldging cervical disc.  Does it hurt when you cough or sneeze?  Try a reputable chiropractor and if it doesn't improve within a week I would get an MRI of C-spine.

If you were in pain before you received massage it could just be coincidence that your pain felt worst after.  The reason for this is because inflammation usually takes 12-24hrs to set in.

Did he perform a strong massage?  Did he crack your bones?  CMT should not be performing adjustments and if he did he is in the wrong and should be held liable.  If you are in a state that requires licensure for massage therapists you could track him down through the state board of licenses.