Tag Archive | Massage Therapist

Massage for Repetitive Stress Injury (RSI)

Aug20

A common type of injury is the repetitive stress injury (RSI). The most well-known RSI is probably carpal tunnel syndrome, but it’s just the tip of an iceberg. Other repetitive stress injury include thoracic outlet syndrome, De Quervain’s syndrome (inflammation of the thumb muscles), tendonitis, and ligament injuries.

Repetitive stress can cause problems in your hands, wrists, forearms, shoulders, neck, or back. Runners, heavy lifters, or other people who stress their legs and hip joints can have repetitive stress problems in their hips, knees, ankles, or feet.

Symptoms of Repetitive Stress Injury

Any repetitive activity, be it work, hobby, or sport, can potentially cause injury. I sometimes hear people say, “I’ve been doing this [insert activity] for years and it never hurt before.” That is the nature of repetitive stress injuries; they develop slowly over time. Some people are more susceptible to injury than others.

Common symptoms of repetitive stress injury include:
Chronic tightness, discomfort, stiffness, or pain in any part of your body, especially your hands, wrists, fingers, forearms, elbows, neck, shoulders, or back.

  • Tingling, coldness, or numbness in any area.
  • Clumsiness or loss of strength and coordination in your hands.
  • Pain that wakes you up at night.

How Can Massage Help Repetitive Stress Injury?

Carpal tunnel and thoracic outlet syndromes involve nerve compression. What is compressing the nerves? In most cases, tight muscles. Massage releases muscle tension, which relieves the compression and pain. Regular stretching is also essential.

In other repetitive stress injury (such as tendonitis or ligament injuries), muscle, tendon, or ligament fibers are torn. Specific work on the injured fibers speeds healing by breaking up adhesions (stuck together tissue) and excess scar tissue and by increasing circulation, which brings in nutrients and removes waste products.
Regular massage can help any problem caused by tight or injured muscles or injured tendons or ligaments.

Consider massage before resulting to more drastic treatments. Do realize it’s not a miracle cure and requires a regular treatment schedule. You must also take responsibility for stretching and making any needed changes in your activities.

Do you need a massage? Click here to book an appointment

Massage for Soft Tissue Injuries

Aug20

Soft-tissue injuries (such as muscle pulls and strains, tendonitis, ligament sprains, and whiplash) heal faster with specifically targeted massage. Massage benefits you by reducing spasm, pain, swelling, and formation of excess scar tissue. Massage also breaks up excess scar tissue and adhesions (stuck together tissue) that weaken muscles and contribute to further injury.

“Skillful, knowledgeable massage can make the difference between a one-time muscle strain that takes a few weeks to resolve and a painful, limiting, chronically recurring condition… By applying skills to the proper formation of scar tissue, the reduction of edema, the limiting of adhesions, and the improvement of circulation and mobility, massage can turn an irritating muscle tear into a trivial event.” A Massage Therapist’s Guide to Pathology by Ruth Werner

When you have a soft-tissue injury, the tissue fibers are torn. Scar tissue begins to form immediately at the injured site, but the scar tissue does not necessarily run parallel to the fibers of the injured tissue. This process can lead to excess scar tissue that is weak and prone to further injury. Also, because scar tissue is not elastic, it can restrict movement of surrounding fibers, again setting you up for further injury.

Massage benefits you by creating tension and stretch that breaks up excess scar tissue and determine the direction of new tissue fibers. This makes the injured site stronger and less prone to new injury. Massage also increases circulation to the injured area, bringing needed nutrients and removing waste products produced in the healing process.

Massage for injury requires a regular schedule, no less than once a week. In some cases, you will see much faster results with a twice-a-week schedule. For how long? It depends on the nature and extent of the injury, how old it is, and your ability to heal. It also depends on your willingness, when appropriate, to ice the injury, do some exercises or stretches, or identify and eliminate the cause of ongoing injury.

Do you need a massage? Click here to make an appointment

 


Pregnancy Massage

Aug20

By Phyllis Edgerly Ring

As you share your body with your developing child, you can also share the many benefits the comfort of prenatal massage brings to body, mind and spirit.

A woman’s body goes through tremendous changes during pregnancy, when rapid weight gain causes a change in her center of gravity and her posture. As the woman’s abdomen grows, the curve of her lower back increases and her knees rotate outwards. These changes put extra strain on the muscles of the hips and lower back.Because of these changes, pain tends to develop in the muscles of the neck and back and in load-bearing joints in the hips.

Big benefits from receiving prenatal massage from an experienced therapist include reduced edema (swelling) and pain associated with pregnancy. But many of massage’s most powerful effects come with the relief it brings from anxiety, stress and depression caused by pregnancy’s hormonal changes.

Benefits for Two

Reducing anxiety and stress also helps prevent complications associated with pregnancy. “Studies have shown that women with high levels of anxiety and stress have more complications, such as nausea and vomiting, longer labors, spontaneous abortions, postpartum complications, maternal illness and toxemia,” says Melody Cook, a certified prenatal massage therapist and certified infant massage instructor in Dallas, Texas.

Elaine Stillerman, author of Mother Massage (Delta, 1999), has cited a recent study on the effects of maternal stress on the developing fetus. The findings indicate stressed pregnant women produce fetal heart rates that stay higher longer. This response has also been linked to retarded fetal development and higher risks of heart disease and diabetes later in life.

Studies also have credited prenatal massage with relief from fatigue, headaches, leg pain and cramps, constipation and indigestion. It also helps keep skin supple to help prevent stretch marks, strengthens muscles in preparation for labor and delivery, helps control blood pressure, relieves pain associated with pressure on the sciatic nerve in the buttocks and back of leg, allows for deeper breathing, enhances self-image, maintains posture and body balance and strengthens the immune system, says Berumen.

Prenatal massage benefits mother and baby by increasing blood and lymphatic circulation. By the 9th month, pregnancy can increase a woman’s blood volume by as much as 50 percent. Tense muscles constrict the blood vessels that pass through or between them, decreasing blood flow from an area of the body. Massage relaxes tense muscles so the blood can flow more freely. The lymphatic system works to remove excess fluid from the body, and increasing lymphatic circulation is what helps diminish swelling in the legs.

But Is It Really Safe?

It’s important to check with your doctor for a list of contraindications that may apply to you and get a letter stating it is OK to receive massage. Common contraindications involve conditions of higher-risk pregnancies such as elevated blood pressure, heart disease, kidney and bladder disease, previous miscarriage, cancer, lupus, diabetes, mothers younger than 18 or older than 35, those with convulsive disorders or who are at risk for fetal genetic disorders, she says.

Prenatal massage should also be avoided if the woman has a fever or is experiencing vaginal bleeding, if there is excessive swelling in the arms or legs, if it causes pain or where there are bruises or varicose veins.

Click here if you are pregnant and would like to book a massage

Massage FAQs

Aug20

How does a massage feel?

Massage on healthy tissue usually feels good. Massage around injured, painful, or tense areas can cause discomfort. Tell your massage therapist how much discomfort you are willing to tolerate. NEVER let a massage therapist work deeper than you are comfortable with. Deep tissue or injury treatment massage may leave you feeling sore for a day or two. Always let your massage therapist know how you felt, so he or she can adjust the massage as needed.

During a massage, you may notice that your muscles are sore, even though you had not noticed soreness before the massage. Here’s why: Each cell in your body, including muscle cells, is a tiny factory that takes in nutrition, produces energy, and outputs waste products. For example, contracting muscle cells require an energy source called ATP, which produces lactic acid. Muscles also burn oxygen, which produces carbonic acid, and protein, which produces uric acid.

If your body and circulatory system are working at peak efficiency, these waste products are flushed out of your body. However, often things aren’t working as well as they could because of stress, tension, too little exercise, too much exercise, medical conditions, and other factors. Then waste products build up in your muscles, creating congestion that causes pain on touch. Massage helps clear out that congestion.

Why does a massage therapist ask about my medical history and medications?

A responsible massage therapist asks about your medical history (most massage therapists have you fill out an intake form). Although massage has many wonderful benefits, it is not appropriate for people with some medical conditions and sometimes must be used cautiously.

For example, massage is not recommended if you have a condition involving infection (including cold or flu) because massage might help the infection spread through your body. Massage is also generally not recommended for people with advanced heart, kidney, or liver problems. Other conditions that affect circulation, such as high blood pressure or diabetes, require caution, depending on your overall physical condition.

Obviously, you should not receive massage if you have a contagious condition. If you have a skin rash, know what it is before your massage, because some skin conditions are contagious.

Medications, particularly pain-killers and muscle relaxants (including aspirin), dull your perception of pain and pressure-your massage therapist needs to know your perception may not be accurate to avoid inadvertently using too much pressure.

Information about injuries, traumas, surgeries, and physical activities provide information about where or how you hold tension in your body. Also, specific massage techniques can help the body heal soft-tissue injuries. If you have back pain or certain digestive problems, abdominal massage can be helpful, but it is not appropriate for some medical conditions. Your massage therapist needs to know your complete and up-to-date medical picture to provide informed and safe massage. Be assured that all medical information is confidential.

What is a trigger point?

A trigger point is a tiny area of irritation in a stressed muscle. Trigger points refer pain, weakness, or numbness to either surrounding or distant areas of muscle tissue. The key clue pointing to a trigger point is that applying pressure to a specific point causes you to feel pain or another sensation someplace else. Trigger points result from trauma, exposure to cold or infection, overuse, misalignment, or chronically contracted muscles.

What are the effects of chronic muscle tension?

Chronic muscle tension inhibits circulation, which means your muscles (and other tissues) aren’t receiving the nutrition they need and waste products aren’t being taken away. The lack of nutrition and toxic buildup of waste irritate nerve endings, resulting in weakness and pain. This toxicity also taxes your immune system.

Chronic muscle tension also inhibits movement. Movement is accomplished by paired groups of muscles alternately contracting and lengthening to move the bones to which the muscles attach. Chronically tense muscles disrupt the symmetry of balanced forces acting on the skeleton, holding bones out of position and causing misalignments. For every chronically tight muscle, its opposite (the antagonist) is chronically stretched and weak. These unbalanced forces also cause ligaments to become strained as they try to brace misaligned joints. All this makes injury more likely. Chronic muscle tension also uses up energy, so you fatigue more easily.

How long do the effects of massage last? How often should I receive massage?

The duration of the effects of a massage vary greatly from person to person depending on your physical and mental condition, activities, ability to relax, and ability to heal. If you are receiving massage to help heal injury or to get rid of chronic pain, you usually need to receive weekly massage until you reach that goal.

If you are receiving massage for prevention, health maintenance, or just to feel better, you have more leeway in how often you receive massage. The effects of regular massage are cumulative. A massage every week or two can make a big difference in your overall health and tension levels. Even a monthly massage is beneficial. Make regular massage part of your health maintenance program (along with good nutrition and exercise), and you’ll feel better.

Do you need a massage? Click here to make an appointment