Will a massage help with sore muscles? Absolutely!

To understand why massage will help with sore muscles, first we want to know why muscles get sore.

What causes sore muscles?

There can be multiple causes for painful muscles. One is trigger points. A trigger point is a small knot that develops in our muscle fibres. This stops the muscle fibre from stretching and firing properly. When the brain notices this problem it decides it needs to be fixed, and it gets your attention by making it painful. Maybe it’s a back muscle or your hamstrings, but because all muscles have fibres, all muscles can develop trigger points. But trigger points aren’t the only cause of muscle soreness.

Why does your stiff neck get sore? It’s because muscle tightness is another cause of muscle pain! How does it work? When a muscle gets tight, it restricts blood flow and swells up. This is called ischemia. Ischemic muscle presses down on the free nerve endings inside and around the muscle. These free nerve endings are called nociceptors. When these nociceptors detect pressure, they tell the brain that the muscle is being damaged, and the brain decides to tell you to fix the problem by making it painful for you. Whether you got them from working out, or from not working out enough, stiff muscles get sore.

So how can massage help with your painful muscles?

Remedial Massage is very good at treating both trigger points and ischemia in muscles. By applying pressure to trigger points, we break up the little knots, and then we get your muscles stretching and firing properly again. This tells the brain that the problem is fixed, and it moves onto worrying about other problems. If the muscle is stiff and sore, we use deep strokes to move fresh blood through the muscle. When fresh blood and fluid moves through the muscle it delivers nutrients in and flushes waste out of the muscles. This promotes healing and helps the muscle return to a relaxed state. Once the your muscles relax, they stop pushing on the nociceptors, and your brain stops worrying about it. It’s like a natural anti-inflammatory pill!

If you are getting muscle aches and pains, in your lower back or neck or anywhere else, call us about a massage at My Sports Chiropractor and let us help you get you back to your best!