By: Angela Landeros, Physical Touch Body Work and Inner AIP
Cramps can bring on panic-inducing events. You frantically think: RELAX IT! RELAX IT! Walk around, stretch it out, drink some water, and maybe pop a magnesium pill. Or you can stay calm, open your HOTSHOT bottle, and take a sip. BREATHE. This too shall pass.
No matter when or where we get cramps or muscle spasms, we tend to freak out. That’s our body’s way of telling us to find a solution — like when one of my clients wants to crawl or jump off of the table halfway through a massage session.
Massage has benefits which are well known and some which are less well known but equally important. Here are just a few:
- It helps to relax the body and mind while stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system. That’s the part of the nervous system that sends blood to our organs instead of our brain and muscle tissues. Essentially, rest and recharge.
- It helps the circulatory and lymphatic systems to increase blood flow and nourishment to our tissues and detoxify our body, getting rid of free radicals and excess lactic acid — a.k.a. junk.
- It helps relieve tension in fascia and muscle groups to improve the tissue’s ability to stretch, contract and give the joints freedom in motion. Namaste, right?
My professional massage services focus on the stubborn long-term and short-term functional limitations caused by overuse, overload or injury. Whether you’re an athlete or you’re stuck at a desk nine hours a day, we all have asymmetrical issues. We lean to one side; we put most of our weight onto one foot or we can’t twist to one side. The list is endless! Even the most dedicated athlete has a dominant side. Our brains control our body’s messages between nerves and muscles. So what if something is wrong with our communication system?
What if it’s a pinched nerve, a compressed or bulging disc? Or you overloaded the muscle to the point of miscommunication between nerve and muscle? Muscle failure! You’re going to have some kind of muscle malfunction in some form, typically causing a pain response.
Most all of my clients fall into one of these categories. Two clients of mine told me about HOTSHOT as a solution to their muscle cramp problems. I wondered if HOTSHOT could stop a muscle cramp, couldn’t it also stop a muscle spasm? After all, we wanted to treat whatever was causing the pain. So did it matter how the pain was caused as long as it stopped the pain response? Whoa! We had to find out.
On the next scheduled appointment my client drank the 50ml bottle of HOTSHOT before we began our session. We always work to achieve all those benefits listed above, as well as decrease his overall sensitivity.
It turned out that the only thing capable of helping decrease the reactivity and sensitivity in his muscles was the HOTSHOT itself. Right away his muscles were not the same. I was able to perform deeper tissue work because the muscles were not on high alert. It allowed him for the first time to be able to relax more. This made working on his flexibility 40% more possible. This was a big deal. I immediately thought of a number of clients who would benefit from this new product right away during their massage session, in their athletic activities, or for unexplainable muscle cramps and spasms.
MORE ON THE HOTSHOT BLOG
The Nerve is the Boss of the Muscle: Take control with HOTSHOT. Here’s how.
Train Smart this Winter: 6 off-season training tips.
Australian World Champion Crowie Alexander: “Cramps are so debilitating and performance limiting.” Read his story.