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Muscles Facts! -Muscles make up about 40% of total body weight. -Muscles cannot push, they can only pull. The reason the arm can push is muscles in the back of the arm pulling on the elbow! -It takes half as long to gain muscle than it does to lose it. -To take one step, you use 200 muscles. -The skeletal muscles, which are the ones that can be controlled by conscious thought, work with the skeleton, or the bones, to move the body. They attach to the skeleton with tendons, which are cords of tough tissue. -The only muscle that never tires is our heart. -No matter how much you exercise you can not increase the number of muscle cells you have. By getting bigger, via strength training, you are simply increasing the size of each muscle cell. -There are more than 639 skeletal muscles in your body.

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Just a few reasons why you should get massage! More Flexibility/Mobility Stronger flow of blood/nutrients Ejects metabolic waste Reduces pain Eases delayed onset muscle soreness Enhanced performance Relaxation Reduced injury risk Optimized recovery

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For each pound of muscle gained,up to 10 km of new blood vessels appear. The same when you gain fat. Get your head around that!

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The biggest factor in back and hip pain is frequently the psoas muscle. Many believe the psoas muscle is one of the most important muscles in the body. The number of problems caused by the psoas is quite astonishing. These include: low back pain, sacroiliac pain, sciatica, disc problems, spondylolysis, scoliosis, hip degeneration, knee pain, menstruation pain, infertility, and digestive problems. The list can also include biomechanical problems like pelvic tilt, leg length discrepancies, kyphosis, and lumbar lordosis.The psoas can torque your spine to the right or left, pull it forward and twist the pelvis into various distortions. Frequently one psoas will shorten and pull the spine and or pelvis to our dominant side. The distortions of the spine and pelvis can also show up as a short or long leg. This all results in scoliosis, kyphosis, lordosis, trigger points, and spasms in back muscles trying to resist the pulling of the psoas. It can also pull the spine downward, compressing the facet joints and the intervertebral discs of the lumbar spine. The pressure can cause the discs to degenerate, becoming thinner and less flexible. This degeneration makes the discs more susceptible to bulging or tearing, especially with twisting and bending movements. The way we stand, walk and sit can distort the psoas. If we walk or stand with our chin in an overly forward position the muscle will tighten. Sitting through much of the day causes the muscle to shorten to keep us bio-mechanically balanced in our chairs. Over time we develop a normal way of holding the psoas that is dysfunctional.

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Massage works on your muscles to help reduce tension. This directly applied pressure improves your flexibility. When tight muscles are relaxed, you are able to move the muscles and the joints through a greater range of motion. As a result, your muscle fibers are strengthened throughout the entire fiber's range of motion. In contrast, when your muscles are overly tight, training results are limited by the lack of flexibility. This is one of the many strength training benefits massage will give you. You will see and feel a difference in the size and strength or your muscles!!

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So this is the structure of a muscle.