How can massage help you?

Massage can help with...

Stress

Massage is one of the best known antidotes for stress.  Reducing stress gives you more energy, improves your outlook on life, and in the process reduces your likelihood of injury and illness.  Massage can also relieve symptoms of conditions that are aggravated by anxiety, such as asthma or insomnia.  because it relieves stress, massage is an excellent supportive therapy for people in psychological counseling or treatment for addiction.

Painful or tight muscles

Massage can relieve many types of muscle tightness, from a short-term muscle cramp to a habitually clenched jaw or tight shoulders.  Some massage techniques release tension directly by stretching and kneading your muscles and their connective tissue coverings (called fascia).  Other techniques work less directly, but quite powerfully, by stimulating your nervous system to allow your muscles to relax.

Delayed muscle soreness

After vigorous exercise, a buildup of waste products in your muscles can leave you feeling tired and sore.  Massage increases circulation, which removes waste products and brings in healing nutrients. 

Pain or tingling in your arms or legs

Muscles can become so contracted that they press on nerves to the arms, hands and legs, causing pain or tingling.  If this happen, a massage to release muscle spasms in the shoulder or hip can bring relief.

Injuries

Massage can help heal injuries such as tendonitis that develop over time, as well as ligament sprains or muscle strains caused by an accident.  Massage reduces inflammation by increasing circulation, which removes waste products and brings nutrition to injured cells.  Certain massage techniques can limit scar formation in new injuries and can reduce, or make more pliable, scar tissue around old injuries.

Secondary pain

Massage can relieve secondary pain that can outlast its original cause.  Some examples are headaches from eyestrain, a low back ache during pregnancy, or the protective tension of healthy muscles around an injury.

Prevention of new injuries

By relieving chronic tension, massage can help prevent injuries that might be caused by stressing unbalanced muscle groups, or by favoring or forcing a painful, restricted area.

Pain or restriction in joints

Besides releasing tight muscles that restrict joint movement, massage works directly on your joints to improve circulation, stimulate production of natural lubrication, and relieve pain from conditions such as osteoarthritis.

Posture

Massage releases restrictions in muscles, joints, and surrounding fascia, freeing your body to return to a more natural posture.  Massage can also relieve the contracted muscles and pain caused by abnormal spinal curvatures such as scoliosis.

The effects of forced inactivity

There are many reasons you may be forced to limit physical activity including injury, surgery, paralysis or even normal aging.  When this happens, massage can relieve your aches and pains and improve circulation to your skin and muscles.  Even when an immobilized area cannot be massaged directly, the relaxation and increased circulation from a general massage can give you relief.

Fluid retention

Massage increases your circulation which in turn drains tissue of excess fluid caused by recent surgery, or pregnancy.