Massage is awesome! Let me just get that out of the way. It’s relaxing and it is healing too. Specifically what it can help heal is muscle dysfunction. Pretty much once we’re out of the womb our muscles are prone to dysfunction. As babies we learn to stand up right which creates tension on our back muscles. When we’re walking, we produce tension in our leg muscles. That’s like 60% of your muscles right there! And then as we get ‘text neck’, ‘back pack back’ and the pain of a slouching posture, our muscles become super tight.
This is why exercise and stretching are so important too. Exercise gets your blood flowing, increasing circulation and keeping your muscle nourished. Stretching teaches your muscles to relax when at rest. But the best game plan is (1) massage (2) exercise (3) lots of water (4) and stretching. You do these 4 things and your body will thank you with less pain (or even being pain free, it’s happened), more flexibility and continued mobility as you age.
Deep tissue is one of the main massage modalities that helps this process. You know where 90% of people hold their stress, you guessed it! Their neck, shoulders, and upper back. Now there are exercises to strengthen these muscles like rowing and lat pulls and arm raises, but those same exercises also make them tense. And there are very few areas you can do a good self massage on, so massage from a therapist is here to come to the rescue! Getting a deep tissue massage on the neck and shoulders (from the base of your skull to your upper back) is great for releasing the tension and treating muscle dysfunction.
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There are a few types of muscle dysfunction that massage really helps. One is the trigger point, where a muscle is so knotted, it becomes tender and simply won’t release with a shallow stroke. Deep tissue, and specifically a trigger point protocol, will do wonders for releasing that tension and decreasing pain.
Another dysfunction is an adhesion, where the muscle fiber sticks together. By the way this is usually caused by dehydration and a muscle being over worked. Adhesions can be treated over several sessions and by the time you’re done with the sessions to treat this particular issue, most of the adhesions will be gone and you’ll have greater range of motion.
The other muscle dysfunction is simple prolonged contraction. Basically your nervous system keeps sending a signal to contract the muscle, even when at rest. Deep tissue can seriously help this condition because the increased pressure sends a signal to your muscle spindles to relax. This is relayed to your nervous system and over the course of several sessions you re-program these muscles to relax consistently.
This is what deep tissue massage can do for you! You want less pain, more flexibility and range of motion or that never ending head ache to vanish? Look into a package of deep tissue massages. Your muscles will thank you!
Santee Blakey is a Life Coach and Licensed Massage Therapist at Soul Growth Wellness. When she's not biking, reading, or biking, or reading (she needs new hobbies, suggest her some:-), she'll be writing and enjoying a caramel frappacino in her favorite Starbucks (this is obviously pre-Covid) *sigh*. Follow her on Youtube for her series --> Self Acceptance: What It's Really Like (A Journey).
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