Neural Tension for Movement Professionals
Have you felt as though despite doing mobility work and fascial release work, you’re not seeing the expected increases in your range of motion or flexibility? Have you had clients or experienced yourself discomfort after doing typical mobility work? Neural tension is a situation people can experience in varying degrees and could account for the above observations. For some people, neural tension could be the reason they seek out help from medical professionals because it could be negatively impacting their daily life. Sciatica and thoracic outlet syndrome are two examples of neural tension however neural tension can occur with any peripheral nerve. For other people, neural tension might simply be affecting their progress over time as they work on their physical wellbeing.
The nerves that run from our spinal cord and throughout our bodies are the peripheral nervous system whereas any nerve cell in the brain or entirely within the spinal cord, are the central nervous system. The peripheral nervous system are nerves that either relay information from the brain to the body (efferent) or they are nerves that collect information from our body and surroundings and relay to the brain (afferent). These nerves are cord-like in nature; they do not change shape or length but they glide within their sheaths and surrounding soft tissues. This glide is imperative to allow for smooth, gliding, human movement. A nerve that is excessively tensioned, perhaps by soft tissues adhesions to the nerve or excessive stiffness of surrounding tissues, would be irritated by stretch-type forces. This could account for why you might notice in yourself or clients that stretching is causing discomfort when there is underlying neural tension.
Physical therapists are typically trained in diagnosing, assessing, and treating neural tension. While people with symptomatic neural tension should be referred out to a healthcare professional, movement professionals could include versions of these flossing and gliding moves within movement sessions to support neural glide along with the general glide of soft tissues in the endeavor to increase or maintain mobility and improve movement quality and function. Fortunately, neural tension is so gentle in nature that there is little risk to incorporating it for people who experience asymptomatic neural tension. However, if after incorporating neural gliding or flossing, you or your client experiences an adverse response, this would be good reason to stop incorporating it and refer out to a health care professional.
What does neural tension feel like?
These are some of the ways a person might experience neural tension:
Burning
Numbness / reduced sensation
Tingling
A hard stop in movement
Referred pain
What can cause neural tension?
Restrictions from bones/joints which put compressive forces on nerves or nerve roots
Excessive stiffness or rigidity of soft tissues (including muscles and fascial tissue)
Injury / trauma
Repetitive motions
Changes to disc structures
Information regarding neural tension has long been held within physical therapy for very good reason. As mentioned above, when neural tension is chronic, effecting daily activities, and causing pain or dysfunction, it is necessary to be diagnosed and treated by a physical therapist.
For movement professionals, we can safely incorporate these gliding motions and strategies in a way to support the glide of nerves and soft tissues. By doing so, I’ve seen remarkable results with clients and in my personal experience.
If you’re interested in learning more, my Neural Tension & Glide for Movement Professionals course provides more information and guidance. You can be notified of the next scheduled course by subscribing to my newsletter.