Can massage help with your chiropractic treatment? Yes!

What is massage? Massage is the manipulation of the soft tissues of the body, such as the muscles, ligaments and fascia. Massage can be used to achieve many outcomes, from pleasure and relaxation, to improving the quality of the soft tissues being massaged in order to promote healthier movement patterns and decrease pain. The focus of massage treatments at My Sports Chiropractor fall into the latter category, using massage as a tool to promote healthy tissue quality and movement patterns.

What is chiropractic? Chiropractic care is about getting the body to move well, with reduced pain and stress on the musculoskeletal and nervous system. Chiropractors have many therapeutic tools at their disposal to achieve this goal, the most famous of which is the “adjustment”. Adjustments involve a short, sharp push in a precise direction to a joint which is not moving properly, reducing any pressure on the joint and nerves. This promotes better joint movement and relieves any muscle tightness and pain associated with the targeted joint.

How Can Massage Benefit Your Chiropractic Treatment at a Chiropractor Clinic?

Massage can benefit a chiropractic treatment in many ways, here are a couple of the more obvious ones:

If your muscles are tight from chronic stress and anxiety, data shows weekly massages for a period of 12 weeks reduces anxiety to the same effect as most prescription drugs, and that this effect lasts for months after the treatment period ends. This means that massage provides a safe, natural alternative to stress relief drugs. As your nervous system returns to a calmer state and the tension in your muscles reduces, your chiropractor can better assess and treat muscles aches and tension which are caused by specific dysfunction in the joints.

If you have multiple issues that need extra time to be worked on, massage therapy has a special synergy with chiropractic care. Your chiropractor can coordinate your treatment plan with your massage therapist, allowing your soft tissue work to be done by our massage therapists so your chiropractor can focus on more specific and sophisticated therapeutic tools during their time with you.

If you are experiencing chronic conditions, such as pain from tension in a specific muscle which has lasted more than 3-6 months, you will benefit from having longer treatment times. For example, the American Physical Therapist Association recommends up to 45 minutes minimum treatment time for chronic tightness in a specific region. As standard massage sessions run longer than chiropractor sessions, your muscles can get this extra time under treatment they need to respond. This can also help to loosen you up before you get an adjustment done, increasing the effectiveness of your adjustments. It really is a win-win!

If you think you may benefit from the special synergy between massage and chiropractic care, speak to your chiropractor at your next session for more information!