Deep tissue massage may be recommended by our chiropractor in some cases. While chiropractic adjustments can provide a tremendous level of healing for patients who are injured, or for patients who are suffering from chronic pain, there are times that the chiropractic adjustments could use some extra help with healing. This type of massage is very much a complementary therapy for chiropractic care, and you will often receive both types of treatments to help you heal. For example, you might have the massage after your chiropractic adjustment. All the deep tissue massage, and all massage at Full Body Rejuvenation, is performed by a Licensed Massage Therapist.
How Deep Tissue Massage is Done
Deep tissue massage is one of the more aggressive forms of massage therapy and is designed to get to the center of the problem as quickly as possible. Your massage therapist will be focusing on the deeper layers of muscle, those which are bound by painful adhesions (built up scar tissue.)
The massage therapist will use very firm strokes and deep kneading to get to the areas of the muscles that need to be accessed. The massage will largely focus on breaking the scar tissue up so that it's no longer causing pain and restricted movement. The motions of the deep tissue massage go against the muscle grain, which is different than other types of massage. For example, Swedish massage moves with the grain of the muscle and has more fluid motions with lighter pressure.
Help For Chronic Pain or Chronic Tension
Deep tissue massage is often recommended by the chiropractor because it is very useful for patients with chronic pain and chronic tension. When the muscles are stressed long term because of pain or tension, they can actually prevent the proper flow of blood in the body. This results in issues with oxygen and nutrient distribution, which can make pain and tension even worse because it causes the problems to be spread to the whole body.
This type of massage therapy can restore the proper blood flow, which in turn reduces inflammation and pain. With lower pain comes lower stress. Deep tissue massage therapy is unique in the fact that it is widely considered to be a medical treatment, one that can truly help resolve serious pain and tension. People who are healing from injury may find this type of massage especially helpful since it eliminates the painful scar tissue that so often builds up after an injury or accident.
To get the best results from deep tissue massage, you will need to follow the recommendations of your massage therapist. This will usually include staying well hydrated, soaking in an Epsom salt tub after massages, and allowing a period of muscle rest (usually a day) after any deep tissue massage.
Some patients may need deep tissue massage several times to completely realize the benefits of this therapy. Talk to the chiropractor about a healing plan that would work best for you!
