Massage Therapy At Home

Before we understand what the benefits of getting massage therapy at home, let’s look at the benefits of massage therapy in general.

Definition

Massage therapy is the manipulation of soft tissue (mainly muscles and ligaments) by applying fixed or movable pressure. Manual techniques, or hands-on techniques, are mostly used but the use of instruments in not uncommon.

Different types of treatment have different goals. Although they may look similar, the can have a vast different effect on your body. While some types affect the nervous system, either by sedating it or stimulating it, some others improve lymphatic drainage or muscle mobility.

Here are some reasons you should seek from a massage session:

Muscle tension and stiffness
Muscle spasm
Restricted muscle range of motion
Cold feet and hands
Tension headaches
Soft tissue injuries (like muscle strains and ligament sprains)
Injuries that produce pain and swelling.
Poor posture
Anxiety

Although these are some of the most common causes that people seek a massage therapist, the benefits massage therapy can offer are a lot more.

Is It Part of Healthcare

In fact, massage therapy is one of the oldest healthcare practices known. Chinese medical texts meantioned it more than 4,000 years ago. Hippocrates in ancient Greece, and father of medicine, was also a supporter of it himself.

Today, it still has a place in healthcare. It could be utilized as preventative medicine or supplemental to promote faster and better recovery after an injury, surgery, or accident.

Almost all athletes get sports massages on a regular basis. It helps them improve their performance by making sure the muscles are loose and have full range of motion. On top of that, it provides them with increased blood circulation that will allow faster recovery and relaxation.

There is increasing utilization of massage therapy in cancer patients as well. The type of therapies cancer patients go through, like surgeries, radiation, and chemotherapy, are very taxing on the body. Because of the benefits it has to offer, its utilization has increased over the past few years. Patients experience less pain, stress, anxiety, depression and helps with inflammation or lymphedema. As a result, cancer patients can sleep better and feel less fatigued.

Massage therapy for lymphatic drainage in Dallas has become very popular. This is due to the amount of cosmetic surgeries being performed and the benefits lymphatic drainage is able to offer. Healing faster, with smaller scars and less pain is definitely a huge benefit to people that go through these surgeries.

The list of conditions massage therapy can help is endless, but here are some of the most popular:

Cancer
Osteoarthritis
Rheumatoid Arthritis
Autoimmunities
Patients with Strokes
Parkinsons
Lymphatic Drainage

How Does It Work

As explained above, depending on the style and technique the massage therapist will use, the mechanism of action varies.

The stroking patterns in legs and arms induce movements in the muscles and ligaments, this movement causes a rush of blood to come through the area. As warm, oxygenated blood arrives to the area, the cooler, deoxygenated blood is pushed out. This brings heat to the area and the necessary nutrients for the cells to thrive.

Motion in the muscles and ligaments also stimulates the nervous system. Because our nervous system the signal of motion travels faster than the signal of pain, massage therapy can provide pain relief. By keeping the brain busy with the motion signals, it becomes insensitive to the pain signals and thus dampens them. When one perceives less pain, stress and anxiety levels decrease as a result.

When it comes to lymphatic drainage, massage therapy is able to move the edema around and stimulate circulation of it. Once there is improved circulation, the pooling of edema will not happen as often and in the same quantities as before.

These are only a few ways how massage therapy works. Massage Therapy is an art and just like with any other art, the way its executed will determine the outcome. Learn more about us.

Explore the 5 main types of massage therapy and their benefits.

Why is it Important

Massage Therapy is important in a persons’ life for many reasons. When receiving a massage therapy session on a regular basis, you are making sure that your body is functioning properly. The muscle tension is balanced, your circulation is moving and you have a baseline so that your massage therapist is able to gage progression in case of an injury. That is why athletes use sport massages regularly.

Although scheduling a session on a regular basis is the best practice, not everyone adheres to it. Some people decide to utilize massage therapy only when they need help overcoming a certain injury. And that could be tremendously beneficial! Faster and better recovery is one of the benefits you will experience by utilizing massage therapy for recovery.

Massage Therapy and Chiropractic

Massage therapy and Chiropractic Care go hand in hand! Both professions believe in the bodies ability to heal from the inside out. And both provide the body with the best environment possible for it to do so. A chiropractor can check and correct for any joint restrictions that are present primarily in your body, while a massage therapist will find and correct muscular restrictions you may have in your body.

The two complement the other and have a synergistic effect on the patient’s health. That is, the benefit of utilizing both treatments simultaneously, will multiply the results one gets from either therapy individually. At PEAKiropractic, our general recommendation is 1 chiropractic visit and 1 massage therapy session per month. That is what we’ve seen work the best for the majority of our patients. However, the frequency of massages appropriate for each person is recommended by the massage therapist.