How Massage Fits Into Long Term Rehab

Keeping our bodies balanced and in good working order helps us maintain a good quality of life.  Anyone who has suffered an injury can testify as to how inconvenient injury and pain can be. In a lot of cases, poorly managed injury and pain can lead to long-term dysfunctions, preventing the individual ever returning back to normal.

Rehabilitation is your best chance for your body returning to normal. Doing nothing will typically mean long-term pain, dysfunction, and possible disability. When something is injured or painful people commonly stop moving that area because of fear of further pain and injury which in turn deconditions and weakens that area over time.

The body then starts to compensate for the injured area and creates imbalanced movement creating muscle imbalance patterns in the body which may lead to further pain.

The benefits of massage therapy support successful rehabilitation. Pain reduces movement naturally because moving hurts when you injure yourself. Injury creates damage to muscles, tendons, ligaments, bones, and other soft tissues, which the body is trying to repair.  

By applying targeted massage therapy, we unlock restricted motion and improve the blood flow to areas that are often restricted, which in turn speeds up the healing process. This creates a window of opportunity to achieve more efficient, pain free movement during rehab exercises using proper form. If we are constantly stressed and in pain, our body creates tension in muscles, which restricts blood flow. Reducing pain reduces stress (cortisol), creating a more relaxed body with the parasympathetic nervous system in charge of ‘rest and digest’, and recovery.

When massage is applied in conjunction with specific rehabilitation protocols, we can enhance the effectiveness of those programs