New Yorkers & our “no pain, no gain”
mentalities…which often get us into trouble
A deep tissue massage for your injury will most likely do
wonders. However, before getting a deep tissue massage, we need to analyze what
kind of injury you’re dealing with. And what stage of injury would allow for
it. Better safe than sorry!
Deep Tissue Massage for Injury 101
First let’s make it clear what deep tissue work is. In a
nutshell, its a type of massage for injury that is specific and intentional.
The strokes are slower and applied with more pressure. This is to target deeper
layers of muscles and connective tissue. It’s a massage modality used more
often to ease muscle tension and/or improve range of motion… And generally used
to alleviate injuries in a chronic stage vs the acute stage.
What is a chronic injury vs. an acute injury? Glad you
asked!
What’s chronic pain?
Chronic injuries develop gradually and have existed for
months or even years. The pain can go through periods of remission. And come
back in unpleasant episodes. Chronic pains exist for long periods of time if
the root cause is not properly addressed or treated.
For example, chronic neck pain and shoulder pain is super
common. And usually occurs when your job has you sitting in front of your
computer 5x a week for 8 hours at a time. There are times where you’re so used
to being in low level pain, you don’t even acknowledge it. Sound familiar?
We don’t expect you to be able to quit your job to
address your chronic pain. However, allowing this type of discomfort to
stagnate will only get worse with time. And even have a ripple effect on the
body’s soft tissues. This can cause postural deviations and/or referral pain
elsewhere in your body. For chronic pain, we recommend a series of deep tissue
massages to discover and deal with the root causes. Such as an older injury
that never healed properly.
Once your chronic pain goes away we recommend regularly
scheduled deep tissue massage sessions about every 6-8 weeks to keep pain from
coming back.
What’s Acute Pain?
Acute conditions are anything but cute! The pain usually
is the direct result of an explicit and memorable incident. For example, pain
from “rolling” your ankle trying to catch the subway. Or sharp lower back pain
after that one extra deadlift rep. The acute stage of an injury is generally
the first 48-72 hours after the injury. Even the slightest movement after the
injury can be very painful. Also, acute injuries associated with joints,
muscles, tendons or ligaments can have swelling, redness and very limited range
of motion.
Probably not ideal to get a deep tissue massage in the
acute injury phase but, rule out massage altogether? Not so fast…
Deep tissue techniques on the injured area may actually
cause further injury! However, a massage that facilitates muscle or joint
healing is great for getting you on the right track towards recovery. A
knowledgeable massage therapist will mix in lighter swedish style strokes to
the injury area. These promote muscle relaxation, and promote faster healing by
increasing blood flow to the injury. And in turn removing excess fluid and
waste from the injury site.
It
won’t magically make the injury go away, but should increase the ability to
move through it, put more weight on it, and heal faster. When you can move
easier, you’ll increase you own body’s ability to heal itself.
