Massage therapy for asthma experiences......
Massage and asthma symptoms
This post is a personal account of how massage therapy has helped relieve my asthma symptoms. I am not giving any medical advice (we leave that to your GP) or encouragement to replace medicine with massage, but I wanted to share my personal experience of how massage helped my asthma symptoms. Like everything, we always ask you to consult your doctor first.
I was diagnosed with asthma at about four years old. Fortunately, my asthma has always been very mild; I’ve never had a serious asthma attack, and I’ve been managing it for the past few years with daily inhalers and regular asthma reviews with my GP or an asthma nurse. I occasionally had a mild cough and tight chest. I consider myself lucky – when it’s bad, sufferers can experience wheezing, shortness of breath, coughs and trouble breathing.
I do, however, get a lot of chest infections (asthmatics tend to be more prone), which leave me ill, laid up in bed and very tight chested. After a bad one in the summer of 2014, my chest felt tight and my breathing restricted for months afterwards.
But then, at the start of the following year, something very odd happened. I was a few months into my sports massage training at the London School of Sports Massage and we were focusing on neck, shoulder and chest massage. I remember a course-mate putting her forearm across one side of my chest, leaning on it and then getting me to take a deep breath. All of a sudden, I felt a release in my chest – it felt lighter, less tight and even my voice got slightly deeper! She did the other side and I suddenly felt that I could breathe properly!
So what happened there?!
When treating my chest, my course-mate was working on my pectoralis muscles (or ‘pecs’), which have a tendency to get very tight. This is because we often do activities that bring the shoulders slumping forward, causing those muscles to become short and tight. This can include sitting at a computer, driving, holding a baby, coughing – life in general seems to create this posture and unless we stretch or massage these muscles, they will become short and feel tight.
In my case, my pec muscles had become very tight, restricting my breathing, and massaging them helped to relax and lengthen them, alleviating the feelings of tightness and making it much easier for me to breathe. Ever since, I have been regularly stretching these muscles, self-treating them using a tennis ball and getting treatment from other massage therapists. This has helped keep any feelings of tightness at bay, and as a result and under my doctor’s supervision, I have slowly started to reduce my medication. I don’t believe massage can affect asthma directly (so don’t stop taking your medication without talking to your doctor), but it can help relieve symptoms such as feeling tight chested.
Remember:
Always talk to your GP when it comes to managing your asthma and asthma medication. And if you would like some information or advice on looking after your respiratory muscles to help manage symptoms, we’ll be happy to help.
This post is a personal account of how massage therapy has helped relieve my asthma symptoms. I am not giving any medical advice (we leave that to your GP) or encouragement to replace medicine with massage, but I wanted to share my personal experience of how massage helped my asthma symptoms. Like everything, we always ask you to consult your doctor first.
I was diagnosed with asthma at about four years old. Fortunately, my asthma has always been very mild; I’ve never had a serious asthma attack, and I’ve been managing it for the past few years with daily inhalers and regular asthma reviews with my GP or an asthma nurse. I occasionally had a mild cough and tight chest. I consider myself lucky – when it’s bad, sufferers can experience wheezing, shortness of breath, coughs and trouble breathing.
I do, however, get a lot of chest infections (asthmatics tend to be more prone), which leave me ill, laid up in bed and very tight chested. After a bad one in the summer of 2014, my chest felt tight and my breathing restricted for months afterwards.
But then, at the start of the following year, something very odd happened. I was a few months into my sports massage training at the London School of Sports Massage and we were focusing on neck, shoulder and chest massage. I remember a course-mate putting her forearm across one side of my chest, leaning on it and then getting me to take a deep breath. All of a sudden, I felt a release in my chest – it felt lighter, less tight and even my voice got slightly deeper! She did the other side and I suddenly felt that I could breathe properly!
So what happened there?!
When treating my chest, my course-mate was working on my pectoralis muscles (or ‘pecs’), which have a tendency to get very tight. This is because we often do activities that bring the shoulders slumping forward, causing those muscles to become short and tight. This can include sitting at a computer, driving, holding a baby, coughing – life in general seems to create this posture and unless we stretch or massage these muscles, they will become short and feel tight.
In my case, my pec muscles had become very tight, restricting my breathing, and massaging them helped to relax and lengthen them, alleviating the feelings of tightness and making it much easier for me to breathe. Ever since, I have been regularly stretching these muscles, self-treating them using a tennis ball and getting treatment from other massage therapists. This has helped keep any feelings of tightness at bay, and as a result and under my doctor’s supervision, I have slowly started to reduce my medication. I don’t believe massage can affect asthma directly (so don’t stop taking your medication without talking to your doctor), but it can help relieve symptoms such as feeling tight chested.
Remember:
Always talk to your GP when it comes to managing your asthma and asthma medication. And if you would like some information or advice on looking after your respiratory muscles to help manage symptoms, we’ll be happy to help.
22-25, F
