http://www.bodytechnician.com/neuromuscular.html
NeuroMuscular Therapy (NMT)

[NeuroMuscular Therapy (NMT) is a modern, logical system of massage therapy. NMT is based on understanding how the neuromuscular system functions. Neuromuscular principles help me understand what's causing your pain: trigger points, posture, etc, and how to treat it. The nervous system controls everything in the body, including muscle tension and pain.

NeuroMuscular Therapy's approach to massage is very detailed massage of muscles, tendons, ligaments, connective tissue, etc. Precise massage therapy releases problem areas that are missed by general massage.

NeuroMuscular massage techniques often use the thumbs or fingertips to explore tissues in detail. Elbows or forearms are also used, when necessary. Tense muscles often form bands of muscle fibers even tighter than the rest. These are areas of hypertonicity and ischemia. Searching thoroughly, I can feel bands of tight muscle fibers; the areas that are in the most trouble. These are found and treated until they release.

NeuroMuscular Therapy has grown to include treatment of the craniosacral system, joints, connective tissues and internal organs. Problems in any body system can create high-intensity nerve impulses that stimulate muscles to contract, leading to pain.
Massage of Trapezius
Principles of NeuroMuscular Therapy

* Adhesions · Body structures can become glued together.
* Facilitation · What the nervous system has done many times before tends to happen more easily.
* Hypertonicity · Excess tension in muscles.
* Ischemia · Restriction of blood flow.
* Joint Fixation · Tight joints create tension in muscles.
* Nerve Compression · Bones or cartilage can press on nerves.
* Nerve Entrapment · Tight muscles can entrap nerves.
* Pain Threshold · Muscle tension causes pain when it crosses the pan threshold.
* Postural Distortion · Misalignment in gravity leads to muscle tension.
* Referred Pain · Pain can occur at a distance from where the problem is.
* Trigger Points · Points of high electrical activity send pain to other areas.]

http://www.bodytechnician.com/adhesions.html
[Adhesions: Glued-Together Tissues

Body structures have layers of connective tissue on their outer surfaces. These layers allow the different parts to glide over each other. When connective tissue layers become glued together, that's called an adhesion.
What causes Adhesions?

Immobility, inflammation or injury can result in layers of tissue becoming glued together. Surgery can create scar tissue, which is even more stuck.
Adhesions from Lack of Motion

An orthopedic surgeon wrote that normally when...one opens a thigh to remove fascia for surgical procedure, one will be struck by the smooth surfaces of contact between the fascia and the underlying muscle and that these surfaces fairly glisten and are not adherent....On the other hand, when one opens a thigh that has been at rest, either in a cast or in a splint, or as a result of rest in bed, one finds that the fascial surfaces, as well as the surface of the underlying muscle, is dull and does not glide; often times many small adhesions have formed between the muscle and fascia.
Ralph K. Gormley, 'The Abuse of Rest in Bed in Orthopedic Surgery', J.A.M.A., August 19, 1944
Quoted in 'The Encyclopedia of Health and Nutrition' by Max Warmbrand, N.D., D.O. Pyramid Books, 1962

People who have been hospitalized, lying in bed for a long time, sometimes tell me they can no longer enjoy going for a walk. Their legs have become stiff. When I work on their legs, the layers feel glued together.
NeuroMuscular Therapy releases the adhesions, so walking is easy and enjoyable for them again.
Adhesions from Casts

When working on people's legs, I've sometimes felt a horizontal line going around the leg. Tissue above the line felt more normal. Tissue below it felt hardened and glued together. When I asked, the client told me their leg had been broken, and had been in a cast which ended exactly at the place where I felt the line. The lower part of the leg, that had been in the cast, had formed adhesions. NeuroMuscular Therapy releases the adhesions.
Calf Massage
Abdominal Adhesions

It's common for people to have adhesions between the viscera and the spine, pelvis, and diaphragm. Organs often are adhered to each other. People with visceral adhesions have difficulty breathing deeply. The organs below your diaphragm are supposed to glide up and down each time you breathe. Breathing should massage your organs. But if they're all glued together, your breathing is stuck.

People with abdominal adhesions may have constipation, abdominal pain, back pain, PMS, leg pain, shoulder pain, or a variety of other symptoms. The adhesions may form trigger points that refer pain and/or tension to other parts.
Visceral Massage gets these people out of pain.]