Your body reacts to a joint injury or subluxation by installing some muscle tension or muscle spasm to stabilise the injured area. This is a natural, protective reaction. Muscles have a nerve supply and require a signal from their nerves in order to contract. A muscular problem indicates irritation to the nervous system and we look to correct the cause of that. Once the nerve irritation is corrected, we find the muscle spasm subsides and once settled, you can have a massage without extra soft tissue aggravation. Often, we have massage therapists send us patients that aren’t responding to their therapy as they would expect. They recognise that this is because the muscle is protecting an underlying issue that needs to be addressed first. Once the underlying subluxation is corrected, the patients are then able to return to their massage therapists for an even better result.