Injuries that affect your mobility can impact your ability to work and your ability to enjoy leisure activities. If you are seeking treatment for muscles that you have hurt through a job accident or by playing sports, you may benefit from remedial massage therapy. This is a holistic therapy that targets your entire body. To help you understand how it can help you, here are the answers to some commonly asked questions about the procedure.
What Is a Remedial Massage? -- A remedial massage is a massage that utilises deep tissue and relaxation techniques to heal injuries that have limited your range of movement. It is a massage that is specifically designed to ease muscle tension and constant pain in different areas of your body. The goal is for patients to increase their range of movement and to restore flexibility to the muscles. The deep tissue technique also helps to break up scar tissue and promote increased blood flow to the affected areas of the body.
What Are Some Common Remedial Massage Techniques? -- There are several techniques used in remedial massage, including deep tissue, soft tissue and neuromuscular. Deep tissue massage is a technique in which a therapist kneads deeply into the tissues, sometimes to the point of discomfort. It's intended to penetrate into the joints and muscles and tissue to stimulate healing to relieve muscle tension, muscle ache and the buildup of scar tissue. Massage therapists often use their palms, elbows and forearms to generate sufficient pressure to reach the tissue under the muscles and joints. The soft tissue technique is a more relaxing, surface-level massage that's intended to relieve muscle soreness. Neuromuscular therapy involves the use of a therapist's finger and knuckles directly on affected muscle groups.
What Type of Ailments Can Remedial Massage Treat? -- Remedial massage is often used to treat back pain, tension headaches, arthritis, sciatica, muscle spasms, stiff neck, chronic muscle cramps, jaw aches, Tennis elbow and shoulder pain. Remedial massage helps to increase the flow of blood to tissue that is damaged, which helps increase oxygen to injured areas of your body to speed up recovery. Studies have also shown that deep tissue technique helps reduce the creation of cortisol, which is a chemical your body produces when you are stressed or in pain. Because the body often perceives massage as pleasurable, it helps the brain release serotonin, a chemical that regulates mood. The more serotonin in your body, the better you tend to feel.