About Massage and the Repair Process
When your body is injured it starts the repair process by laying down scar tissue consisting of tightly matted fibers of collagen. While helpful for healing injuries, this natural process can "glue" muscles and their connective tissue into a shortened state causing restricted and painful range of motion. These fibers tear easily, making healing difficult.
Proper massage techniques can break up these adhesions, limiting scar tissue formation in new injuries, and reducing scar tissue around old injuries. This allows your muscles and joints to move more freely and with less pain. Massage therapy helps restore normal movement by releasing trigger points, removing waste products, and softening connective tissue so it can be lengthened by stretching and kneading. Massage increases circulation bringing nutrients to the impacted area to help speed recovery time. Research also suggests that therapeutic massage stimulates the release of natural pain-relievers such as endorphins.
In addition, your lymphatic system, the network that connects the glands of the body and across which lymphatic fluid transports fats, hormones and other substances, does not have a pump. The heart is the pump for the circulatory system, but the lymphatic system has none. The only way that these substances get moved through this system is by the body’s own mechanical motion, i.e., physical activity or manipulations such as massage and acupressure. No pill, powder, or potion can accomplish what these activities do to keep fats and cholesterol moving through the lymphatic system, getting them to where they need to go, and ensuring that they get cleared out of the body.
Brian uses a variety of massage techniques to achieve good results including:
DEEP TISSUE MASSAGE uses slow strokes and deep finger pressure on contracted areas, either following or crossing the grain of muscles, tendons and fascia. It can break up adhesions and release chronic tension patterns in connective tissue to help repair muscle damage from an injury. It stretches tightly contracted muscles which may be pressing on nerves causing tingling, numbness and pain.
TRIGGER POINT MASSAGE involves pressure into "trigger points" – highly irritable spots that refer pain and tingling elsewhere in the body. Left untreated, such trigger points often lead to restricted and painful movement of entire body regions. As muscles tense around referred pain, the pain cycle spreads. Massage breaks this cycle of muscle spasms and referred pain patterns.
SWEDISH MASSAGE uses a system of long strokes, with kneading and friction techniques on the more superficial layers of the muscles. It increases circulation, relaxes muscles, and calms the nervous system to relieve stress and induce a sense of well-being.
SPORTS MASSAGE focuses on injury prevention by keeping the body flexible, and targets the athlete's specific muscle group most prone to injury. It improves performance and speeds muscle recovery. The therapist must be familiar with how the muscle groups are affected by the specific movements and stresses of each sport.
ACTIVE STRETCHING stretches the muscles gently and slowly, improving flexibility and allowing freer and easier movements. It also reduces the incidence of muscle soreness.
Licensed Massage Practitioner
1648 S. 310th St., Ste. 5A / Federal Way, WA 98003 / w. 253.941.1212 / c. 253.740.7822