Stress is an all-too-familiar aspect of daily life. Nearly three quarters of adults in the pre-pandemic world were already experiencing stress in the form of sleep issues, headaches or tiredness prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and those numbers have skyrocketed since March 2020.
Stress can affect your physical and mental health, relationships, job performance, and overall satisfaction of life.
What are the signs and symptoms of physical and emotional stress?
Many of us are familiar with the physical signs: headaches, muscle tension, stomach pain, high blood pressure, teeth grinding, and insomnia, to name a few.
And stress has an impact on your emotional health as well. It can make you irritable and angry. You may feel depressed, sad or anxious, or have difficulty remembering things. You may be more tired than usual. Your eating habits may shift, causing you to eat more or less than you normally do. Changes in sleep patterns are another sign. So is trouble with making decisions, solving problems, or feeling overwhelmed or on edge.
Physical therapy can help alleviate many of the symptoms of stress and improve overall well-being. Here are three of the most common approaches you’ll encounter at Fyzical Therapy and Balance Center of Lanham.
1. Stretching
No longer the exclusive territory of athletes, runners and ballet dancers, stretching is great for muscle toning, as part of a workout, and for alleviating stress. When you stretch, you release tension held in your muscles, which in turn helps to lower blood pressure and also strengthen your immune system. Deep breathing combined with stretching will help you relax and increase the benefits you derive from the stretch.
Regular stretching can help your muscles work more efficiently. As a result, it lowers the risk of soft tissue injury due to chronically tight muscles. When you incorporate stretching into your regular routine, it will help improve your posture, relieve post-exercise achiness, decrease muscle stiffness and increase range of motion.
At Fyzical Therapy and Balance Center of Lanham, a certified physical therapist will help you decide what kind of stretches are best for your needs.
2. Massage
Many of us love a massage, and with good reason! A massage feels great to tired and sore muscles. But it’s also an approach used in physical therapy.
If you’ve ever had a massage, you probably associate a massage session with feelings of calm and relaxation. Those sensations are triggered by the release of endorphins – brain chemicals that help to reduce stress hormones and increase feelings of wellbeing.
This sets in motion a cascade of other effects including reduced muscle tension, increased joint mobility and flexibility, improved circulation, lymphatic stimulation, and improved skin tone. And those are just a sample of the physical benefits of massage.
You may also experience heightened mental alertness, reduced anxiety and depression, and improvement in sleep patterns.
Whether you’re seeking relief from physical or mental/emotional stress, a massage may be able to help!
3. Soft tissue mobilization
Similar to massage, soft tissue mobilization is also a form of hands-on physical therapy. But there are some important differences. Where massage is an overarching technique involving rubbing or kneading of joints and muscles, soft tissue mobilization addresses specific areas of pain or injury.
Soft tissue mobilization is a term for a variety of techniques used to restore normal function to tissues that are inflamed, thickened due to injury, or otherwise restricted due to the formation of adhesions and scar tissue. A therapist may perform soft tissue mobilization using their hands or with the use of special tools. They may also use stretching and deep pressure to break up rigid muscle tissue.
The goal of soft tissue mobilization is to increase mobility and reduce pain. Your physical therapist will work with you to determine if this is a kind of therapy you can benefit from, and will make individualized recommendations for you.
Get in touch with us to start physical therapy
Stress can take a toll on your physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. Find out if physical therapy can help. Make an appointment with Fyzical Therapy and Balance Center of Lanham today and take the first step on the road to feeling better.