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Whether you know it or not, you’re compensating for every pain, injury, car accident, surgery, and, if the shoe fits — giving birth to a child.

Although I Don’t Know Your Story…
Stretching, rolling on a lacrosse ball, foam rolling, and doing the same common-knowledge exercises as the ten people who walked through the door before you, increases compensation and, ultimately, fragility.
While the aforementioned approaches remain popular today, they don’t change what your brain perceives. And like clockwork, your muscles go back to feeling tight.

~99% of practitioners who have been deemed qualified to work with your muscular and skeletal systems ignore underperforming muscles and compensation, that doesn’t make them any less important.

The next time a practitioner who specializes in working with your musculoskeletal system tells you muscle tightness or scar tissue is the reason you’re experiencing pain, ask them, “Can you identify the muscles that are underperforming?”
Then, watch for the blank stare.
Practitioners Who Guess (and Pretend It’s More Than That)
Unlike the vast majority of practitioners who work with the musculoskeletal system, I don’t have to rely on the next best guess.
I have the skill set and years of hands-on experience to identify which muscles are underperforming.
Once confirmed, I address the underperforming muscles that aren’t receiving sufficient neurological feedback from your brain and spinal cord (central nervous system).
Besides teaching kinesiology (the study of human movement) for 15 years, I’ve held a massage therapy license for 31 years, and for most of my career, I’ve ignored tight muscles (and I think you should, too!).
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It’s Not Too Late to Change Your Mind
You can feel when muscles are tight.
To get to the root cause of muscle tightness once and for all, shift your focus to what you can’t feel.
To do that, look no further than what’s occurring beyond your conscious awareness: underperforming muscles are neurologically unable to perform their role to the best of their ability.
Your brain, which is hardwired to protect when the threat of injury is perceived, calls upon tight muscles to pull the weight of muscles that are underperforming.

You can’t have tight muscles without also having muscles that are underperforming (neurologically inhibited).

To reinforce what you read at the top of this page: you (and everyone else) are compensating for previous injuries, etc.
Truth be told, compensation has accumulated over your lifetime, and it’s gone unaddressed.
Until the underperforming muscles are fully capable of playing their role to the best of their ability, the tight muscles will continue to restrict your range of motion.
Do you feel muscle tightness throughout your upper back and between your shoulder blades at the end of the day?

The tightness you feel at the end of the day is due to muscles compensating for the stability that the underperforming muscles in your neck and upper back are neurologically incapable of providing.
As you go through your day, muscles throughout your upper back and between your shoulder blades gradually fatigue.
Even though what you feel registers as muscle tightness, what you’re experiencing is underperforming muscles unable to contract optimally to maintain postural control.
When your muscles are fully capable of playing their role to the best of their ability, your brain, which is hardwired to protect, recognizes that it’s no longer tasked with the energy expenditure required to compensate for instability with muscle tightness. 
Then, like clockwork, the tight muscles relax because they no longer have to make up for the stability that the underperforming muscles were incapable of providing.

Ignoring underperforming muscles as if they don’t exist has led to countless surgeries that could have been avoided.

If you can wrap your head around why it’s worth ignoring tight muscles and instead improving the underperforming muscles’ ability to provide stability, you’ll feel better than you have in years.

What My Clients Are Saying

He is an expert—likely the top 1% of his profession.

— Jon

Much like Leonardo’s quest to understand human movement in a time when it was decidedly unpopular, Rick Merriam has taken the time to understand how we move and how to apply a massage technique to muscle attachments when those patterns go amiss.
Having shed tears of joy and pain, I settled into my airplane seat, understanding I was forever changed.
— Barbara

Rick’s depth of knowledge and expertise are what set him apart!

— Pranay

Rick’s technique is not a regular massage, and his knowledge of the body, mechanics, and muscle attachment/anatomy is doctoral. He got my muscles activated and working correctly again.

— Adrienne

Rick got me back to feeling normal again after my hip replacement and, more recently, post-shoulder surgery. I recommend giving Rick a try if you’re in pain or not happy with where you have gotten with your physical therapy.

— Liz

I haven’t felt how I feel today in 30 years, and I have Rick Merriam to thank for that!

— Drew

Rick overdelivers!
— Keith
Even though I was skeptical that anyone could restore stability and improve function, I was willing to try anything. So, four days before my race, I went to Rick. The first thing Rick noticed was that I was wearing the wrong type of shoe for my foot and the way I walk. He recommended a better shoe, which I purchased that day.
Rick worked with me for two hours, and I could not believe the difference he made in such a short time. I went from hobbling after painfully finishing 3 miles to easily running 10 miles.
— Deidra

I suffered a severe injury a few years ago, and surgery, rehab, chiropractic, and ART [Active Release Technique] didn’t help. But then I found Rick, and I was able to start exercising again.

— Russ

A friend sent me an article on plantar fasciitis that Rick wrote. It blew my mind and gave me hope. We had three sessions in total. The payoff: I don’t feel that horrible foot pain anymore, and I can walk barefoot around the house.

— Misty

The squeeze is worth the juice!
— Walter

I had a full travel day on Wednesday, and as I was walking up the jetway, I realized that I had spent several hours walking and sitting at airports and on airplanes with ZERO sciatic pain!

— Craig

I haven’t been to the chiropractor in nine months, and I canceled my shot. My husband is thrilled that he doesn’t have to watch me stretch in front of the TV anymore. Thank you, Rick!

— Sheryl

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The Skill Set ~99% of Practitioners Lack

Whether your lifestyle is active or sedentary, most practitioners who have met the requirements to work with your musculoskeletal system don’t have the skill set to determine how you’re compensating differently from the ten people who walked through the door before you.
To see for yourself, look around the room; you’ll notice you’re doing the same mindless common-knowledge exercises and one-size-fits-all stretches as everyone who’s had a hip replacement, for instance.
Inconvenient Truths
Compensation is cumulative.

The common-knowledge exercises that have been said to be therapeutic have increased compensation and fragility for decades.

While difficult to feel, it’s impossible to walk away from having done common-knowledge exercises and one-size-fits-all stretches for weeks on end, and function better than you did before the pain, injury, or surgery.
When underperforming muscles that, by definition, aren’t receiving the optimal amount of neurological input to contract optimally aren’t identified and addressed before a one-size-fits-all exercise is performed, the underperforming muscles don’t get stronger.
Lacking specificity, common-knowledge exercises and one-size-fits-all stretches have forced countless people, who didn’t know what they didn’t know, to undergo surgeries that could have been avoided.
First-Layer Knowledge Everywhere You Turn
The first sign of first-layer knowledge: practitioners who focus on where you feel pain and muscle tightness.
First-layer knowledge has most practitioners saying, “Your piriformis muscle is tight”, which confirms what you feel. 
And…
Going by feel is chasing a sensation and a symptom. 
Imagine how productive you’d be if you regularly stretched your piriformis muscle when it wasn’t actually tight to begin with.
Having worked from a position of second-layer knowledge for decades, I’m confident when I tell you that, in most cases, the piriformis is underperforming (and not tight). 

While hundreds of billions of dollars have been thrown at chasing neck and low back pain in recent years, most practitioners who work with the musculoskeletal system don’t have the skill set to find the positions where you have instability at a spinal joint.
As you follow this train of thought to its logical conclusion, here’s more second-layer knowledge to process: When you ignore tight muscles and instead take the less-traveled path of addressing the underperforming muscles that are neurologically incapable of playing their role to the best of their ability, the increased stability will have you functioning better than before the pain or injury.

Read in-depth client testimonials.
Neuroplasticity allows your brain to reorganize and ultimately remodel at any age.
For neuroplastic changes to take effect, your brain has to recognize increased stability in positions where there’s instability at a spinal joint, for instance.

Rather than move in the direction of becoming more and more fragile as you grow older, which is what stretching, actively releasing muscles, spinal adjustments, and arch supports allow for—decide to take the wheel now—and remain antifragile as you grow older.

Proof that compensation is cumulative.
Is this your first time reading that underperforming muscles are the reason for instability, and ultimately, muscle tightness?
Remaining true to its nature and without your knowledge or consent, your brain is hardwired to signal muscles to tighten to compensate for the stability that the underperforming muscles are neurologically incapable of providing.

Body of Work (the Highlights)

My 31 years of experience as a licensed massage therapist include thousands of one-on-one sessions as a nationally certified personal trainer.

Since serving as the biomechanics consultant and massage therapist at ESPN, where I worked with sports and work-related injuries for on-air talent and the great people behind the scenes, I have devoted a great deal of time, energy, and attention to developing an approach that includes getting to the root cause of pain, improving performance, and preventing injuries before they occur.

Most recently, I taught kinesiology at the Parker University School of Massage Therapy in Dallas, TX.

I wrote the foreword for the 1st edition of Joseph Muscolino’s Kinesiology textbook. I’ve also been quoted in Runner’s World UK, Massage & Bodywork, and Massage Magazine.

I’m a member of the ABMP (Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals) and the AMTA (American Massage Therapy Association).

Is pronation bad? How about overpronation?
To begin with, pronation is normal. And if you overpronate, that’s normal for you!
When you walk, your lead foot initiates shock absorption, which, when free to move, starts a combination of motions that end all the way up at your jaw.  
When you swing a golf club, pronation of your spine and pelvis occurs from the top down, making your foot the last part of your body to pronate.
Regardless of the activity, artificially supporting your arches weakens the muscles throughout your foundation and prevents your feet from functioning as they were designed to move when interacting with the ground. 
If you want to learn more, listen to my conversation with Steven Sashen, the founder of Xero Shoes and the host of The Movement Movement Podcast.

Get Back Spring In Your Step 

If you have plantar fasciitis (PF), you lost the spring in your step long before the heel pain and calf tightness began.
Until muscles throughout your trunk and spine are neurologically capable of providing stability, the muscles in your feet won’t generate the force required to push efficiently into the ground.  

Improve neurological feedback to underperforming muscles so they can perform their role to the best of their ability.

Whether you have neck, back, hip, knee, or foot pain, the neuromuscular deep tissue massage technique I provide will have you walking away from my treatment table with more muscles engaging at the right time, giving you more spring in your step.

FAQ

When I received a deep tissue massage, I was underneath a sheet or wearing a medical gown, and the massage therapist used lotion or oil. I noticed you address muscles through athletic clothing; why is that?

Answer: Since providing deep tissue massage at the gym on the main campus of ESPN, I’ve preferred to address underperforming muscles through athletic clothing.

Because my massage technique doesn’t require sliding or gliding along your skin, there’s no need for massage oil or lotion.

For example, after using a deep tissue massage technique to address the areas where your muscles attach to your pelvis and the IT band (a thick band of fascial tissue that covers the length of your thigh and crosses your knee), I use the same approach to address the tendons that attach your gluteus maximus and TFL to your femur and lower leg. (See image above.)

Increase Stability Online

When you work with me online. I’ll show you how to perform isometric exercises in positions where your muscles cannot provide stability.

Most Read Blog Posts

What No One Tells You About Releasing Your Piriformis Muscle
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Plantar Fasciitis Has Little To Do With Your Foot

Address

Engaging Muscles Massage

12700 Hillcrest Rd Ste 125 #143, Dallas, TX 75230

Engaging Muscles Massage is less than a mile south of the LBJ freeway (635) and across the street from the Dallas County Tax Office.

Travel

Engaging Muscles Massage is 25 miles from Dallas Love Field Airport and 30 miles from DFW Airport.

Texas Massage Therapy License:  MT110566