Massage 101
Most people have had to deal with this in some form or another. Most people have also heard that if you give it time, the pain will go away. Generally this is the case, but where has the pain gone? If you are not providing your body with the help it needs to heal properly, the complaint may not be recovering as it should be. Your body will eventually tune out to the ache in your back, as it grows tired of being told that it’s aching. The tissue may still be injured, but useable, and so the body “forgets” that it is there. We resume regular use of our muscles, until we decide to unload the dishes after we have cut the grass, and a new incident brings attention back to the site again. This is frequently
how chronic pain begins.Often this cycle can be carried on for years, without the sufferer being consciously aware of injury. Each incident creates more scar tissue, anymore damage to recover from. With this injury comes another cycle of Tylenol, careful movements, and attempting to tune out your body’s warnings (saying althea while that it’s part of getting older).
Life, however, doesn’t have to be lived in this cycle of pain. Receiving proper treatment for your injuries and ensuring that muscle tissue is healing effectively through massage is the first step on your road to a steady recovery.
Massage has been shown to speed the healing process, provide pain relief, bring proper circulation to injured areas, soothe hypersensitive tissues, and among many other things massage helps you to slow down and reduce your stress thereby allowing the tissue to recover. That is not to say that massage, is the only method of treatment for pain merely that it is one proven, effective technique of pain treatment.
Once you have found your road to recovery, massage can help minimize future injury by keeping your muscles healthy and establishing self-awareness and limitations. Getting back to a healthy you with massage, provides a great start to the road of preventative care and a balanced life.
Written by Stacey Burrell