Posts Tagged ‘muscle pain’

Massage Therapy Shown To Be the Best Choice of Treatment for Lower Back Pain

Wednesday, August 10th, 2011

Massage therapists often gush about the therapeutic properties of massage therapy, saying it can lower levels of anxiety and stress, improve wellness, and even reduce pain. And for the most part, they’re right.

Indeed, many academic studies have demonstrated the therapeutic properties of massage therapy, but these studies are usually small in their number of participants, and often massage therapy is indicated as a complementary treatment, for example, as a non-invasive pain reliever for cancer patients. A study in the July 5 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine is therefore a breakthrough for massage therapists as it concludes that massage therapy isn’t just a good complementary therapy, rather, it is the best choice for treating lower back pain. (more…)

Exploring Massage Therapy: Myofascial Release (Part II)

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

In our previous entry we described myofascial release, how it compares to structural integration, and the need to be highly trained in the modality in order to know how to manipulate fascia in the correct way so it creates an optimal pattern, allowing for natural, effortless movement. This week we’ll look at some of the unique properties of myofascial release. (more…)

Exploring Massage Therapy: Myofascial Release (Part I)

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

On the more therapeutic side of massage therapy, many modalities exist that focus on specific health benefits. We have written before, for example, about acupressure, structural integration, and the effectiveness of massage therapy as a Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) treatment. The modality we’re looking at this week, myofascial release, is another massage therapy technique designed for a specific health benefit. In this way it is much more a therapeutic modality than one designed for relaxation. (more…)

Massage Therapy for Pain Relief from Scars

Monday, April 25th, 2011

Last week we wrote generally about how sports massage therapy can help football players, stating that regular massage can help keep players fresh during long periods of training, as well as help players avoid or manage their injuries. Yet another way massage therapy can help all athletes – and especially football players – is in its ability to treat pain associated with scars. (more…)

Massage Therapy as the Aspirin of CAM Therapies

Tuesday, January 18th, 2011

CAM therapies are Complementary and Alternative Medicine treatments that help alleviate symptoms without relying on pharmaceuticals or more invasive medical treatments like surgery. While there are many CAM therapies out there, I wonder if any have as many potential diagnoses as does massage therapy.

Consider that:

o Massage therapy has been demonstrated to help treat symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis, lowering levels of pain, anxiety and depression while improving physical sensation and muscle movements. (more…)

Office Massage Therapy Can Reduce Stress, Pain and Costs

Thursday, January 13th, 2011

Last week we wrote about how office massage therapy can help reverse postural problems and the pain associated with them. While there is research that has been done showing that massage therapy can help in many different areas (relieving stress, reducing pain, etc.) it’s always nice to read up on studies that show effective massage therapy in action.

MassageMag has published two such articles demonstrating the effectiveness of office massage in improving employee health. (more…)

Office Massage Therapy Can Help Employee Posture and Well-Being

Wednesday, January 5th, 2011

One thing that we promote strongly is office massage, as it can be extremely beneficial to employees. We have discussed how workplace massage can be unobtrusive to the general set-up of an office, and how it can help diffuse stressful work environments (see our post here). But office massage is even more important today than before, given the nature of modern office work and its effect on a critical physical feature: posture. (more…)

Sports Massage Therapy for Runners

Monday, December 27th, 2010

We’ve written generally about massage therapy and its benefits for athletes (see our entry on Sports Massage), but often times a description of the general benefits can gloss over the specific positives sports massage provides athletes of a specific sport. Today’s Blog will focus on running and how sports massage can help runners. (more…)

Exploring Massage Therapy: Acupressure (Part II)

Wednesday, December 8th, 2010

Last week I wrote about acupressure, defining the modality and describing its benefits generally. This week I want to examine the specific benefits acupressure provides, as detailed in recent scientific research.

The first study comes from a 2010 issue of the journal Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, which demonstrated acupressure’s ability to decrease pain levels in patients suffering from chronic neck pain. (more…)

Exploring Massage Therapy: Acupressure (Part I)

Thursday, December 2nd, 2010

Acupressure is an intriguing modality of massage therapy as its methods and potential benefits are extremely expansive. It’s also hard to get a precise definition of what acupressure actually is, which is what we will try to do in today’s blog post.

Simply put, acupressure is the placement of pressure on pressure points of the body. (more…)