Massage therapy uses a variety of techniques to manipulate your joints and soft tissue to improve your body’s overall health. Massage increases the body’s supply of oxygen and nutrients to your muscles, which helps release waste from the muscle tissue. Massage also accelerates your body’s own natural ability to heal itself.
Injuries
When a patient has suffered an injury, massage therapy is one form of physical therapy that can have a significant positive impact on the healing process of the injury.
There are two different types of injuries that a physical therapist can address:
- Acute injuries – These types of injuries can occur suddenly and are usually accompanied by pain, redness, bruising, muscle spasms, swelling, increased temperature, inflammation, and loss of function. While some acute injuries respond well to the RICE method – rest, ice, compression, and elevation – there are also many other cases of acute injuries where physical therapy or other rehabilitation is needed in order to address chronic pain, scarring, and other serious issues.
- Chronic injuries – These types of injuries are the remnants of acute injuries that were not treated properly or at all. A patient with a chronic injury often suffers from persistent pain that never eases up, instead, they have times where that persistent pain and other symptoms increase even more.
Failure to treat an acute or chronic injury can have a negative effect on a patient’s quality of life, as well as increase the risk that they can re-injure the area again.
Reasons Why Injuries Occur
There are many reasons why people suffer soft tissue injuries. Some are more preventable than others:
- Failure to or improper warming up before engaging in physical activity
- Lack of flexibility
- Using the wrong equipment during a workout
- Improper posture during workout
- Overexercising or overtraining
- Improper nutritional habits
Types of Massage Therapy
There are several different methods of massage therapy your physical therapist may use to treat your injury:
- Lymphatic drainage massage – This gentle technique involves light massages in the direction of the lymph flow towards lymph nodes. The goal is to drain old lymph, which helps increase tissue recovery.
- Russian injury technique – This technique increases the blood flow, directing it to the injured area. This helps to greatly bring down inflammation.
- Myofascial technique – Scar tissue from an injury can have a devastating effect on how a patient is able to move when the injury has finally healed. This massage therapy technique prevents scar tissue from forming in the first place.
Contact Our Clinic Today
If you are having issues with joint or tissue pain, have suffered an injury, or dealing with a condition that a physical therapist can help with, contact LeMoine Physical Therapy to schedule a consultation with one of our dedicated physical therapists and find out if massage therapy would be a good treatment option for you. Call our office today.
Overall Wellness and Relaxation
Massage Therapy is the assessment and treatment of soft tissue and joint dysfunction and pain. Massage can help restore flexibility and range of motion as well as increase overall wellness and relaxation.
All types of Massage Therapies
Treatment can include myofascial release, Thai massage, acupuncture/ electro-acupuncture, therapeutic ultrasound and taping, IFC, joint mobilization, home exercise, and cupping therapy.