How Therapeutic Massage Can Be a Great Addition to Your Treatment
Therapeutic massage is best known as a way to help you relax and relieve stress. A gentle, soothing massage can reduce stress, relieve muscle aches, improve your sleep and improve your mood.
But massage goes way beyond mere relaxation. A medical, or therapeutic, massage might help you with more serious medical issues.
Massage therapy in a clinical or hospital setting is given by licensed professionals who are trained to find and focus on problem areas. This therapeutic type of massage involves more focused work on your body's soft tissue - the muscles, tendons and ligaments that move and support your body.
Your physician, chiropractor, or physical therapist might recommend that you receive a therapeutic massage to complement other therapies you are receiving to treat a particular area of your body. Or, you may not be getting the results you want from other traditional treatments. Receiving body massage therapy on a regular basis may help in these instances.
Easing your discomfort and pain
A massage therapist can work on a number of medical issues that are either chronic - meaning it lasts a long time - or acute - which means something that has happened recently.
These issues can include:
- Repetitive stress injuries from sitting or standing postures that are held for several hours a day
- Migraines, cluster headaches, tension headaches, sinus headaches
- Whiplash
- Temporomandibular joint and muscle disorder
- Strains and sprains (after inflammation has gone down)
- Low back pain
- Tendonitis
- Radiating pain
- Post-surgical scar tissue (with doctor's approval)
- Frozen shoulder
What to expect at a visit
There are no typical therapeutic massages routines. Your massage therapist will tailor the massage to your needs, depending on the areas of issue.
When you first call to make your appointment, it's important to explain to the massage therapist what you would like worked on. So talk to the therapist about what has been going on. For example, why did your doctor recommend you have a therapeutic massage? If the massage therapist is unfamiliar with your issues you may be referred to a colleague who can better serve you.
Your therapist may have soft lighting and music playing, just like with a relaxation massage. Instead of a whole-body treatment, however, a therapeutic massage session usually will focus on your area of concern for an extended time.
If you schedule a 60-minute body massage, the massage therapist will dedicate more time to your areas of concern. Other muscle groups may be worked on that are not your primary issue, too.
Should you receive massage therapy as part of your therapeutic treatment at your chiropractor's office or physical therapy clinic, you may receive something we call spot work. This is when the massage therapist works on your area of concern for a shorter period of time — about 15 minutes. Spot work will work to complement the treatment given by the other practitioners.
Your massage therapist may incorporate stretches into the treatment plan. Should this be the case, you may be asked to wear loose-fitting clothing or active wear to the appointment.
Different from a relaxation massage
The massage work may feel deeper than a relaxation massage. You also may experience more tenderness as the therapist works through the tissue. It is important to let your therapist know if the pressure feels too deep or uncomfortable. Don't be afraid to communicate.
The therapist may use various techniques during your treatment session. Depending on their training they may incorporate deep-tissue massage, myofascial release, trigger point work, various movement therapies, and passive and resistive stretching techniques.
A therapeutic massage can greatly benefit your overall well-being. The more focused work can help decrease your pain and increase your range of motion, making it easier to function in your world.
Benefits Of Massage Therapy
What can be better than resting in a silent room with a peaceful mood, getting a relaxing massage, and concealing all your worries? The messages indeed help you to relieve stress and enhance your emotional health.
We all have this soothing image of a massage parlor or therapy center where you see many fancy things. The dim lights with the lit scented candles in the background, and lavender aroma penetrating through the warm air fills the room with positive vibes.
This sure brings a relaxing atmosphere to most of us. However, massages are not only meant for relief. They hold many therapeutic benefits.
Our ancient customs and methods stem from the culture of using touch as a healing tool. According to the Western and Eastern Civilization, massages can also stimulate the secretion of the body's built-up toxins, triggering various health issues.
Top 12 Medicinal Benefits Of Massage
1. Reduce The Acute Pain
People with critical pain issues often resort to massage therapy to simply enhance their quality of life. Body massage boosts the serotonin level of an individual, which usually allows the body to relieve pain.
Studies prove that massages ease sore muscles and stiff joints significantly. About 35% of all individuals receiving massage therapy have less discomfort connected with stiffness, sprains, soreness, injuries, and chronic health problems.
Therapeutic massages alleviate the effects of Fibromyalgia, too. Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition identified by localized pain, the joints' rigidity, severe weakness, changes in sleep, headache, and muscle seizures.
The University Of Miami School Of Medicine researched that therapeutic massage is the remedy to Fibromyalgia. The patient feels more comfortable and healed with the tender point pain and lowered their drug P (a substance that sends signals of pain across the body) levels.
2. Back Pain
Massage is undoubtedly the most beneficial therapy for persistent lower back pain. The Canadian Medical Association Journal also couldn’t agree more with this fact.
3. Diabetes
Since the last 100 years, massage therapy has been advised for diabetes. It helps to balance proper insulin use and reduce swelling.
4. Overcomes Depression, Anxiety And Fatigue
It has been determined that massage therapy benefits by lowering stress, reducing depression, and enhancing stamina. Studies also discovered that acute and chronic pain is frequently aggravated by depression. Moreover, stress contributes to muscle strain and pain that can be extremely difficult to deal with every day.
5. Arthritis Pain
Massage therapy that involves applying slight pressure to your joints and the small pressure receptors under your skin could alleviate acute arthritis pain. Body massage can improve blood flow to the joints and increase circulation in the body, significantly improving movement and function.
6. Improvise Posture
Working on a computer all day or standing on your legs for manual labor hours can cause pain in your neck and back. It leads to a bad stance. Massages can stimulate healthy and normal movements of the body.
Your muscles will relax and calm down with a massage and encourage your body to take a relaxed, pain-free posture.
7. Soothes Headaches
Massaging helps to relax and de-stress the body. This alternative approach greatly decreases the chance of migraine attacks and stress headaches by relieving muscle spasms and trigger points.
It may also reduce the pressure during a migraine or anxiety-related headaches. Massage can reduce the pain and discomfort caused by migraine or stress headaches by concentrating on the neck, head, and shoulders.
8. Can Control High Blood Pressure And Enhance Blood Circulation
Streaking movements on the body while massaging improves the blood flow, maintains blood pressure, and regulates the body functions. A regular massage therapy session connects the blood circulation with active functioning.
9. Develop Flexibility
Massages trigger the development of natural lubricants in the body and retain the body’s flexibility. Massages can develop your flexibility and expand active movement by focusing on muscles, connective tissues like tendons, ligaments, and joints. When the joints are more fluid, they are less vulnerable to injury.
10. Magnifies Athletic Performance
Nowadays, a 20-minute sports massage as part of the warm-up session is more common to the athletes. These massages stabilize blood flow and improvise an athletic performance. The gaming arenas and training sections provide specific sports massages to the players.
11. Improves ADHD
Massages are slow; relaxing takes lots of time to induce its effects. That is why massages are quite useful in curing Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Studies reveal that adolescents suffering from this disorder who took ten massage remedies for two weeks were more contented than those who joined the recreation therapy.
Studies show that patients with ADHD who received massage treatments were less wiggly, and the teachers found them more attentive than those going for recreation session therapy.
12. Freedom From Insomnia
Serotonin secretion in the body increases after a massage that usually helps people to get rid of insomnia and enjoy a sound sleep.
To sum up
As individuals recognize the valuable therapeutic value that massages have to offer, massage therapies are becoming more and more common. Unlike drugs, there are no long term or short-term side effects to massages. It not only feels amazing, but it can also boost your health and induce mental peace.
Courtesy by: thecompleteherbalguide.com
