5 Benefits of Massage & Manual Therapy
General
By
Marco de Leon
January 18, 2021
First of all, let's establish the meaning of both massage and manual therapy. Massage is a form of soft-tissue manipulation using the hands and sometimes other extremities such as the forearms, elbows, and feet. Different massage modalities range from a light touch to deep pressure to joint mobilization techniques. Some modalities of massage include:
Manual therapy is the general term used when describing any method involving the hands and extremities to provide passive and active treatment to joints and soft-tissue. The treatment intends to decrease restrictions, pain, inflammation, hypertonicity and increase mobilization, circulation, and proprioception. Still, confused? You must be thinking; massage does those things too. Yes, but as mentioned, massage itself is so broad that it offers both relaxation and therapeutic services. Manual therapy focuses on the therapeutic side of things. In turn, sessions generally can be a little more on the intense side and may re-create the discomfort that you came in for. You probably won't be falling asleep on any treatment tables. Massage is a form of manual therapy. Other forms include:
Here at Movement Matters, the focus is on therapeutic treatments. We believe there is a place for relaxation services that massage provides, but a lot of the time, it's not what will give lasting results from what the client is coming in for, and in order to find out what we need to do the client is put through a comprehensive assessment process prior to their first treatment rather than just a full-body work over like many relaxation massages offer. However, if you deal with anxiety, are high-strung, overly stressed, resulting in sleeping problems, then a relaxation massage could possibly work better for you over manual therapy. With that said, this blog's focus looks at the benefits of the manual therapy side of massage.
The number one reason someone would come in for a massage is that they're dealing with some sort of pain or discomfort. Finding out why it's happening and causing it is why assessment is critical to creating the roadmap to recovery. There could be a past trauma-related injury that the client hasn't recovered from, or the injury has made a compensation that was not fully addressed during rehab. To truly solve the issue at hand, we would need to determine if the discomfort they are experiencing is the cause (is the issue really at the area where they feel discomfort?) or affect (is the pain a result of a problem happening somewhere else in the body?). This search is where treatment becomes complicated and where our expertise as therapists comes into play. Will working on the area of pain solve the issue, or do we need to look elsewhere? Also, what is happening in your active-daily life that could be contributing to it? How much of it becomes a factor?
With the increase in technology reliance in today's society, it is resulting in moving a lot less than we should. This sedentary habit creates overactive and underactive muscles resulting in mobility limitations and motor-control dysfunctions, then the client is more susceptible to injury. The phrase "Move it or lose it" is the motto at Movement Matters because that's where it all starts. Often, if we start moving more, it can often kick start the recovery from specific issues. Mobility is the second thing addressed within the Movement Matters Roadmap to Resilience hierarchy. You don't need perfect mobility to progress onto other things like resistance training. Still, if not dealt with, you are building upon dysfunctions. The chances of injury increase; at the very least, the client will develop more and new aches and pains.
Ever have those phantom scenarios where out of nowhere, a joint in your body like your low back or hip gets tight, and you suddenly aren't moving normally? You don't feel any pain, but getting to the end range of the motion, you feel the tightness restricting you from going as far as you used to. Guess what? That is your body adjusting to the environment that it has been placed in — always looking for homeostasis. Some of you might see the word homeostasis, and things like "Zen" or "At Peace" come to mind. You're not wrong, but looking at it from a biomechanical point of view, homeostasis is the laziness of our bodies at work. Think of the phrase, "Work smart, not hard." That's precisely what our bodies do. They are incredibly smart at adjusting itself not to work any harder than needed. Meaning, if we are always in a seated position, specific muscles don't need to be at a certain length at rest, so they shorten. When our shoulders are always internally rotated from being hunched over, specific muscles in the back relax and lengthen to keep the shoulders rotated easier. When we don't move as often as we should, our hearts don't function as strong as they did once before. Our bodies are smart in that sense but not smart enough to realize that doing so ends up causing issues. Massage and manual therapy that use not only passive, but active movements will keep the body functioning where we want it to and deter it from creating any dysfunctional movement patterns.
Oh, the uncertainties of life. Life could be going great one day, then it all goes to shit the next. We could start the year with huge goals for self-improvement and suddenly have to stay home, keeping us from achieving the goals we'd planned. In these unprecedented times, there's no better time for some self-care to manage our stress levels. Massage and manual therapy can decrease stress levels by calming down the nervous system and getting proper circulation. It is proven to reduce the amount of cortisol flowing throughout the body. Also, massage and manual therapy can lower blood pressure reducing the chances of developing heart disease. Chronic diseases account for 70% of deaths each year, and around 75 cents of every dollar spent on healthcare goes towards chronic diseases in the United States.
Getting treatment won't literally make you stronger, but ultimately, when we move better without any pain and hesitancy, the domino effect it creates is the confidence to perform better during tasks. When you workout and don't have to worry about pain or injury, you can focus on the task at hand. Getting a massage can also help you recover from your intense workouts minimizing the amount of D.OM.S (delayed onset muscle soreness) and the time it takes to recover from it.
When our bodies are functioning correctly (a lifestyle balanced with therapy, training, good nutrition, and sufficient rest), we develop a sense of well being. We are then more inclined to do that extra rep or set, do what we have always pushed aside to do, be there for the ones we love, and have the positive mindset to look past the constant barrage of negativity we are currently faced in today's society.
If you've combed through the whole site and you're still left with questions, feel free to send me a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.
