We received a great question this week for our Q&A With A Myofascial Expert!

My body has been stuck in a fight or flight response for a long time. Can working with a myofascial release therapist help?

The short answer is, yes. Work with the right type of myofascial release therapist can be extremely beneficial for getting out of fight or flight.

Many chronic pain conditions and dysfunctions in the body present with an element of fight or flight.

What Is Fight Or Flight?

Essentially, when you are experiencing a fight or flight response, the body and the central nervous system are on high alert. Sensitized to danger. In deep protect mode.

Being in fight or flight can feel like you are constantly on edge, with excess tension in the body that you cannot consciously relax.

How could you when your brain is telling you there is a threat to your body?

Even if and when you logically know you are safe in the here and now, the central nervous system can perceive something quite different. And keep your body on high alert long past any real danger.

Often this stems from past trauma that required a response of adrenaline and tension in the body.

We are excellent at perceiving “There’s a lion! Run!” Or, “There’s a lion! Kill it!”

When this happens, the nervous system kicks into high gear and floods the body with the adrenaline and energy needed to survive.

It truly is an instinct. And a gift that should not be shut down.

What Happens With A Prolonged Fight Of Flight Response?

Trouble comes when we don’t, or can’t, expend the energy and adrenaline from a natural fight or flight response.

When we aren’t able to run or kill the “lion”, the body continues to act as if there is danger. The body and brain continue to respond to a perceived threat. Even if it is no longer there.

Because this is an inherent and deeply subconscious response and natural instinct, you can’t consciously turn it off.

Even when you logically know it is not needed in this particular moment.

Over time, a prolonged and unexpended fight or flight response causes all sorts of trouble in the body. Muscles are tensed for action that doesn’t happen. The myofascial system adapts and thickens to support the tension.

More tension leads to microtrauma in the tissues because now the muscles and tendons and bones and joints don’t have proper space to move.

The myofascial system begins to adapt around these distortions and microtraumas. Restrictions, adhesions, and trigger points are all terms for these adaptations in the myofascial tissues.

Eventually, this leads to pain and breakdown in the body as the excess tension and resulting myofascial restrictions pull joints and bones into less than optimal alignment.

In addition, myofascial restrictions and the resulting shifting of bones and joints and muscle function place stress on the nervous system – the brain, the spine and spinal fluid.

Stress and tension on the physical components of the nervous system can also trigger protection in the body and fight or flight responses!

Which now keeps you trapped in a cycle of tension, pain, response, danger signal, response, tension. . . fight or flight.

How Can Work With A Myofascial Release Therapist Help?

The thing is, though, myofascial restrictions can’t just be broken up and released. Without awareness of what is holding them in place, there is a good chance of continuing to trigger a response of protection in the body.

This is where work with a John Barnes trained myofascial release therapist is MOST beneficial.

Restrictions and adhesions are there in the body for a reason. They formed for a reason. Tension in the body is there for a reason.

If that reason is because you have been stuck in fight or flight, safety must be perceived first.

John Barnes trained myofascial release experts know the myofascial system is the container of our consciousness. And that all of our lived experiences are processed through the physicality of our being.

Imagine the additional trauma the body experiences and perceives when it is already on high alert, already holding tight to protect, and someone forcefully and aggressively tries to break down those protections!

That is what happens with many traditional therapies.

They are well meaning.

But they force past subconscious protection.

And can inadvertently reinforce the need to tighten and protect even more.

A John Barnes trained myofascial expert will ALWAYS work with what your body can allow. Both on a conscious level, and a subconscious level.

A John Barnes trained myofascial therapist will NEVER force past protective bracing.

Your therapist will meet you where you are and engage with the edges of the tension your body and myofascial system are holding – in ways that your body and brain and nervous system can perceive as non threatening. So the fight or flight response can finally ease.

This can take time and repetition as your brain and nervous system navigate change. It requires a great deal of sensitivity from your therapist to your body’s responses as areas of tension are engaged with in a way that is not perceived as danger.

Specific pressures for specific periods of time must be held in specific ways into areas of myofascial restriction in order for this to happen.

As your body and brain perceive your therapist’s touch as safe and not something to protect and brace against, some tension will naturally ease. This then allows structural work with myofascial restrictions to become highly effective.

When You Are Ready For Help

I have felt what it is like to be stuck in fight or flight. I get jumpy. I startle easily. When my body is on high alert, I can feel the difference in tension in my tissues. And it doesn’t take long before I am not sleeping well, having disruptive dreams, experiencing headaches, and the return of old and familiar pains.

As a therapist, I am familiar with this cycle in myself, and in those I work with. And I know that tensions and pressures have to be eased in the body in a way that my nervous system can come off high alert.

Getting out of fight or flight is essential to restoring health to the body and to the myofascial system. Working with a John Barnes trained myofascial therapist is the BEST way I know to do this.

Your body will thank you.

When you are ready for some help, reach out for a FREE phone consultation.