Injury recovery and massage

How massage can aid your healing process

 

Having trouble with a long-term injury or recovering from a recent sprain? Fortunately, injury recovery and massage go hand-in-hand, and scheduling your first massage serves as an important step in recovering from a variety of both old and new injuries.

An analysis by sports performance professionals found that massage facilitates injury recovery in a variety of ways, including:

  • Improving range of motion for both muscles and joints through mechanical pressure
  • Increasing blood flow throughout both muscles and veins
  • Increasing blood saturation of the arteries, promoting oxygenation of muscles and providing nutrients to depleted tissue
  • Restoring neural functioning by increasing or decreasing neural excitability (depending on technique and injury)
  • A reduction in cortisol (stress hormone) levels, which enables the body’s relaxation response and increases rate of healing
  • Decreasing inflammation through reducing the body’s immune response to the site of injury
  • Lowering and stabilizing heart rate as well as lowering blood pressure
  • Reducing muscle stiffness to prevent further injury

As with any recovery program, these results depend on the type of massage, whether that be Swedish massage, deep tissue massage, or trigger point massage. Furthermore, even if you’re currently injury-free, many of the benefits of massage can ensure you remain relaxed and healthy. To determine which style of massage can help you most effectively, it’s best to consult with both your doctor and a licensed massage therapist.

If you’d like to learn more about how massage can help you recover from injury or prevent it, contact us with your questions today.