12/18/2025
Excellent Article!
Massage Therapy can down- regulate and up regulate muscle and fascial tone
The Nervous System Controls Muscle Tone — Not the Muscle Itself
Muscles don’t decide how tight or loose they are.
The brain and spinal cord constantly adjust tension based on incoming sensory information from:
• skin
• fascia
• muscle spindles
• Golgi tendon organs
• joint receptors
Massage and myofascial work change the information coming INTO the nervous system, so the brain changes the commands it sends OUT.
This is how you alter muscle tone.
HOW MASSAGE DOWN-REGULATES (RELAXES) MUSCLES
1. Activating slow, sustained mechanoreceptors
Slow compression, melting pressure, and long fascial holds activate:
• Ruffini endings (respond to stretch + sustained pressure)
• Golgi tendon organs (sense load and reduce contraction)
These receptors inhibit the sympathetic system and drop muscle tone.
2. Reducing protective guarding
When an area feels unsafe or unstable, the nervous system tightens muscles to protect it.
When you use slow, predictable touch, the body interprets this as safety → guarding drops.
3. Improving proprioceptive clarity
If the body has a “blurred map” of an area, it tightens muscles to stabilize it.
Touch improves sensory clarity → unnecessary tension melts.
4. Regulating breathing and vagal tone
Slow, rhythmic touch naturally shifts the horse (or human) into parasympathetic dominance, softening global tone.
HOW MASSAGE UP-REGULATES (ACTIVATES) MUSCLES
1. Using quicker, lighter, stimulating input
Techniques like:
• brisk strokes
• tapotement
• skin drag
• light vibration
• rapid fascial stretch
activate Pacinian corpuscles and muscle spindles, increasing tone and readiness.
2. Increasing proprioceptive awareness
If a muscle isn’t “online,” it often has poor sensory input.
Stimulation wakes up the neuromuscular connection, so the brain recruits it better.
3. Restoring reciprocal inhibition
Tight agonists shut down their antagonists.
If you release an overactive muscle, the underactive muscle naturally activates more easily.
Example:
Release the overworking brachiocephalicus → the thoracic sling activates more efficiently.
4. Improving movement organization
When fascial layers glide better, the nervous system allows more range and activation.
The Key Takeaway
Massage does not strengthen or weaken muscle fibers directly.
Massage changes what the nervous system allows the muscle to do.
You’re not altering the tissue —
✨ you are altering the sensory input so the brain changes motor output.
This is why massage therapists, bodyworkers, and skilled handlers can:
• switch off global tension
• “wake up” weak chains
• balance diagonal patterns
• restore proper neuromuscular sequencing
…and why the effects can be immediate and profound.
https://koperequine.com/25-of-the-most-important-and-interesting-properties-of-equine-muscle/
