Neuromuscular Reeducation (NMR)
Neuromuscular Reeducation is a “stand-alone” hands-on technique/approach to the evaluation and functional treatment of 90+% of the soft tissue injuries a professional will see in practice. Every muscle in the body is surrounded by a smooth fascial sheath, every muscular fascicule and fibrils are surrounded by fascia that can exert pressures of over 2,000 pound per square inch. When an area is injured, whether it’s muscle, connective tissue, fascia, tendon or some combination of these elements (as most injuries are), the body handles this inflammatory response of the tissues to trauma the only way it knows how, through a hyperplasia of the affected tissue followed by a fibrous healing, the laying down of a less elastic, second grade, poorly vascularized scar tissue to protect the involved areas. Adhesions occur wherever damage and inflammation have occurred and they limit both strength and range of motion.
Once there is fibrous healing these adhesions pull us out of a three dimensional orientation with gravity. As a muscle tendon begins to stretch and encounters an adhesion, the muscle contracts to prevent any further stretching and to protect the area involved.
The result is that the muscles involved are not as strong and the range of motion is limited in the involved joint. Adhesions can affect areas that are quite small, sometimes just a few muscle fibers, and other times there can be a number of areas like that scattered throughout a muscle group.