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Category: Physical Therapy

  • Your fight or flight muscles (part 3) – accessory breathing muscles

    Your fight or flight muscles (part 3) – accessory breathing muscles

    What other muscles get activated during the fight or flight response?

    Overcoming Chest Breathing: How Stress Locks Your Neck and Chest Muscles

    In my two previous blog posts, I explained how the psoas and masseter muscles hold tension when your sympathetic nervous system (the fight-or-flight response) over-activates. However, the tension pattern does not stop there. Chronic stress also recruits your accessory breathing muscles.

    What Are Accessory Breathing Muscles?

    These small muscles reside in your neck and chest. Your body activates them automatically when you stop practicing deep diaphragmatic breathing and fail to expand your rib cage.

    Under normal circumstances, your body safely engages these accessory muscles to assist your breathing during heavy exertion, such as vigorous exercise. However, using them for daily, relaxed breathing is highly inefficient. Wellness professionals call this habit chest breathing, a dysfunctional pattern where your rib cage lifts upward toward your chin rather than expanding outward.

    The True Cost of Chronic Chest Breathing

    When daily stress locks you into chest breathing, your neck and chest muscles work overtime. This constant over-activation keeps your body trapped in a perpetual fight-or-flight loop. By training your body to return to lateral rib cage expansion, you can release chronic neck tension, lower your stress hormones, and restore optimal respiratory health.

    The chronic overuse of these neck and chest muscles leads to fatigue, tension headaches, neck pain, jaw tension and upper back pain. By breathing in this way, you are also stimulating your flight or fight nervous system in an ongoing feedback loop. It is important to have a breathing assessment if you have any of these symptoms.

    Breath re-patterning is an important part of a holistic approach.

    At Halcyon House, both Jennifer and I will assess your breathing pattern as part of our treatment assessment. We will recommend breathing practices that will assist you in regaining optimal and efficient breathing.

    Part 1
    Part 2
  • Your fight or flight response (part 2)

    Your fight or flight response (part 2)

    What other muscles get activated during the fight or flight response?

    In April’s newsletter, I discussed how the psoas muscle tightens during a fight or flight response as protection and a way to escape. This month, I’d like to discuss how the masseter and temporalis muscles can also become active during a stress response. Have you ever caught yourself clenching your teeth together during a stressful event. The masseter and temporalis act together to bring the teeth together. This function is for chewing food. However, this action can become a habit in response to stress.

    a diagram of the muscles of the head including the temporalis muscle and masseter muscle.

    The over-activation of these muscles can cause: Tension headaches, especially at the temples Jaw/TMJ pain Teeth wearing Painful chewing Jaw locking or cracking.

    At Halcyon house, we have several treatments that can help with this including:

    • Nervous system regulation/awareness: noticing when we are clenching
    • Relaxation techniques: learning to relax the body to reduce overall tension
    • Breathing practice: optimal breathing promotes a calmer/less reactive nervous system
    • Acupuncture: fascial acupuncture points
    • Massage: myofascial release of tension patterns in muscles and fascia
    • Craniosacral therapy: nervous system regulation
    • Neuromuscular re-education: establishing optimal use of these muscles, both contracting and relaxing.
    Part 1
    Part 3
  • What are fight or flight muscles?

    What are fight or flight muscles?

    These are muscles that activate when we are in a sympathetic reaction (fight or flight). This can be in reaction to something in our environment that doesn’t feel safe, something happening internally (a physical stressor) or in our mind (stress).

    One of these muscles is the Psoas. This muscle does several actions that support us in fight or flight. It helps lift our knees up to run (flight) or defends our core (fight). If these muscles activate and then turn off again, we might not feel any consequences. It’s when these muscles turn on and stay on that we will notice symptoms. These could include hip pain, back pain, restricted breathing, fatigue and nervous system dysregulation (anxiousness, depression).

    The tightness of the psoas muscle will also be increased with prolonged sitting.

    The Halcyon House staff have many practices/treatments that will support you in releasing tension in the psoas:

    • Acupuncture
    • Massage
    • Craniosacral therapy
    • Somatic based movement/yoga
    Part 2
    Part 3
  • What is craniosacral therapy?

    What is craniosacral therapy?

    We’ve been asked this question many times since I began offering this service at Halcyon House. Here’s a brief description of a very nuanced therapy:

    It is a hands-on technique that was developed by Dr. John Upledger (Osteopath) in the 1980’s while working at the University of Michigan. He explored the nervous system

    connection from the brain through the spinal cord (cranium to sacrum). This connection was through a connective tissue covering called dura mater and cerebral spinal fluid that flowed inside it. He discovered that by moving the bony parts of the system, it allows the

    fluid to move more freely. He found that you can feel this as a physiological rhythm. This craniosacral rhythm can be felt through the practitioner’s hands with very light touch.

    What can someone expect when having a craniosacral therapy session?

    • Lying in a comfortable position on a massage table with clothes on
    • Very light touch in different parts of your body to assess
    • Focused attention to areas of the body that present with restriction
    • You might feel physical or emotional responses during and after the session
    • A return of your system to homeostasis (general health/well-being)
    • Relaxation

    Typically, I will recommend sessions every 2-4 weeks for 4 sessions to assess the effectiveness. You should notice progression/improvement over this time. I will also provide you with additional practices that you can do between sessions to support this progress.

    Interested in a session?

    Robin Davidson
    Sara Sheppard
  • Vagus Nerve

    Vagus Nerve

    The vagus nerve is the longest and most complex of the cranial nerves, acting as a critical communication highway between your brain and your internal organs. It serves as the primary component of your parasympathetic nervous system, which controls your body’s ability to relax, rest, and digest.

    Here is a breakdown of how it functions and how you can actively engage it to reduce stress.

    Anatomy of the Vagus Nerve

    The word “vagus” means wandering in Latin, which perfectly describes its path.

    • Origin: It begins at the brainstem, right at the base of the skull.
    • Pathway: It travels down both sides of the neck.
    • Reach: It branches out into the chest and abdomen, connecting directly to the heart, lungs, and digestive tract.

    The Brain-Body Connection

    The vagus nerve provides a continuous loop of information between your mind and your body. It acts as the “brake pedal” for your nervous system. When you experience stress, your sympathetic nervous system triggers a “fight-or-flight” response, raising your heart rate and blood pressure. The vagus nerve counteracts this by releasing chemicals that lower your heart rate and signal to your brain that you are safe.

    Activating the Vagus Nerve: Diaphragmatic Breathing

    You can consciously stimulate your vagus nerve to trigger a relaxation response. The most effective way to do this is through diaphragmatic breathing (belly breathing).

    You can practice this by following these steps:

    • Hand Placement: Place one hand on your chest and the other hand on your abdomen.
    • Inhalation: Breathe in deeply through your nose. Feel the hand on your abdomen rise and expand, while keeping the hand on your chest as still as possible.
    • Exhalation: Exhale slowly. Feel your abdomen release and move inward.

    Deep, slow breaths—especially when the exhalation is longer than the inhalation—instantly stimulate the vagus nerve, sending a powerful signal to your brain to calm the entire nervous system.

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