By Dan Vidal
The Arndt-Schultz Law is one of the fundamental principles of Neurosomatic Therapy. It states that weak stimuli excite physiological activity, moderate stimuli favor it, and strong stimuli arrest it.
This means that you can’t just dig into those tight spots and bully those trigger points into submission!
This also means that the correct amount of pressure you need to release a deep trigger point might actually be too much pressure for the more superficial layers of tissue above it – thereby causing the superficial tissue to contract, generate pain, or go into spasm.
The key is to work in layers. Always be mindful of what you’re feeling and be patient.
A good way to structure a self treatment session is to start by using lymphatic drainage and myofascial release techniques to treat the more superficial layers of tissue. Once you have worked the superficial layers, then you can move on to more direct techniques such as trigger point therapy.
Paying attention to the way your body is responding and being systematic about the way you treat yourself will yield the best results.