What is Massage therapy?

 

Massage Therapy is the manipulation of skin, muscles, tendons and ligaments via hands-on technique. Massage Therapy is a complementary part of integrative medicine and physiotherapy. Extensive evidence revealed that massage therapy is an effective treatment for varies pain and musculoskeletal condition.
 

Four main types of massage therapy

• Swedish Massage

  • This is a gentle form of massage with the goal of improving circulation and promoting relaxation. Techniques including light stroke, kneading and tapping etc. will be utilized.

• Sport Massage

  • This type of massage is the sport version of Swedish Massage with the focus on preparing an athlete for sport and injury prevention

• Trigger Point Massage

  • Tight muscle fibres can form painful muscle knots called the trigger points. This type of massage aims to ‘release’ the muscle knots to reduce your pain.

• Deep Friction Massage

  • This type of massage promotes soft tissue healing by promoting stimulus and encouraging local blood flow to the impaired soft tissue to maximize tissue healing. Evidence showed that deep friction massage can improve ligament health and tendon strength.

 

Base your condition and the goal of the treatment, a combination of massage techniques would be selected specifically to maximize your recovery.

 

Indication: Who would benefit from Massage Therapy?

• Muscle tightness, muscle & nerve pain, arthritis, sports injury might benefit from massage Therapy

• Example:

  • Neck pain

    • Neck osteoarthritis

    • Neck tightness

    • Whiplash injury

    • Wry Neck

  • Shoulder pain

    • Stiff shoulder and shoulder impingement

    • Frozen shoulder (The 50-year-old shoulder)

    • Rotator cuff tear

  • Elbow and arm pain

    • Tennis elbow

    • Golfer’s elbow

    • Forearm tightness and nerve entrapment

  • Lower back pain

    • Disc or low back degeneration with associated muscle tightness

    • Lower back osteoarthritis arthritis

    • Ankylosing spondylitis

  • Hip pain

    • Hip arthritis

    • Groin stiffness and tightness

    • Hip ITB friction syndrome

  • Thigh pain

    • Hamstring injury

    • Knee cap pain

    • Knee arthritis

  • Calf and foot

    • Calf injury & tightness

    • Calf tendon pain

Contraindication: Who should avoid Massage Therapy?

Most individuals would be a suitable candidate for Massage Therapy, but individuals that suffer any type of skin infection, open wounds, thrombosis, bleeding disorder, tumour should avoid Massage Therapy & Soft Tissue Mobilization.

 

Don’t worry. Our physiotherapist will thoroughly assess you prior to treatment to make sure that Massage Therapy is indicated for you.

 

What to expect with Massage Therapy?

• Our physiotherapist will thoroughly assess your injury background, we will then proceed to Massage Therapy if it is indicated

• The level of soreness is directly related to the type of massage that you receive.

• Your physiotherapist will monitor your response during the process and adjust accordingly.

• Most if not all individuals report immediate pain relief during and immediately after the therapy.