Pain from Habit

Have you ever watched TV lying on your side with your head propped up on your hand and notice that your arm and hand is numb or has a deep ache and is hard to move?

What about when you wake up in the morning and your arm and hand is numb or deep pain and hard to move?

What is happening is the circulation to the nerves to that area is blocked. It may not be totally blocked, just partially or blocked.

The “cure” is movement, massage, stretching (for more range of motion) and weight lifting (to bring more circulation into the areas by building the muscle).

Also realizing what you are doing and to stop.

Let me be a Mom for a moment and tell you a few don’ts.

Don’t:

Sleep directly on your shoulders and hips.

Tuck your hand under your head for longer than a few minutes.

Fold your hands and arms and tuck them under your body while your sleeping.

Cross your legs for an extended period of time.

Notice when your hands, arms, legs and feet start to ache or go numb and what you are doing at the time so you are more aware.

Realize that if you do continue these habits, they will cause nerve damage from lack of circulation and over a short time your range of motion in your arms and legs will occur.

I sometimes have clients who come in with their arms and shoulders in horrible pain. Their shoulders are locking down, they can not reach up without pain.

They do not realize that they do not reach up at all for any reason at any time for months. For instance, drive to work, arms down, work, arms down, drive back home, same, watch TV, same, sleep, same. Their range of motion gets less and less and they don’t realize it until they try to reach up for something and cant.

A deep neuromuscular massage will help immensely. Add stretching and remember when you stretch, you have to press. For instance, place your hand against the wall and use that to stretch slowly as far as you can, then relax a little and bring your hand back to press against the wall (this resets the nerve) and stretch again a little further. Doing this in as many angles as possible will help bring you more range of motion.

Weight lifting starting with 1 - 1 ½ pound weights for arms lifting straight out, to the side, straight up, and back for more movement and to help bring more circulation into the muscles.

The type of massage that I do is on You Tube under Advanced Therapeutic Massage South Lyon.

I will be adding more soon to help.

The general rules are:

Whenever you wake up from sleep, change positions by turning, also notice if anything is numb, where it’s at, and realize the circulation to the nerve to that area is blocked.

Keep all pulse points (like your arm pit, elbow, wrist) open, even if you have to hold a pillow to keep your arm out away from your body.

Pressure points are caused when you rest upon something for a long time or every night, so if you sleep the same way every night, you will cause pain from pressure points.

Also realize if you turn your head to the same side every night, the muscles on the side you turn your head toward will be shortened and the muscles you turn your head away will be lengthened. This can cause headaches, nausea, dizziness, almost like an inner ear infection. It can cause severe pain in the neck and shoulders. So turn your head to the other side whenever you wake or keep track and change sides every other night.

These are some of the injuries that I have treated over time in my office. A few massages relieves the pain, brings circulation through the pressure points and helps heal.

I give my clients two choices, change the way they sleep or come in for a massage!