Massage Therapy

What is it and How Does it work?

Massage therapy is a hands on therapy that deals with the soft tissues of the body such as muscles, tendons, ligaments, joints and connective tissue. Massage therapy treatments can assist in treating acute and chronic injuries/conditions through sport as well as being beneficial in injury prevention. Regular massage therapy can help to keep muscle health optimum while also aiding in proper joint movement and functionality.

There are numerous positive effects that massage therapy can have on the soft tissues of the body including, decreased pain, inflammation, and muscle tone. On a more scientific note, it all comes down to tiny cells. Hands on manipulation of muscles through massage triggers the body to send inflammation reducing information to the muscle cells, this information in turn tells the muscles’ to make new mitochondria cells resulting in a decrease in post muscle soreness allowing for faster tissue recovery and overall better muscle health.

How we integrate it in your care at reactivate muskoka

Massage therapy can be beneficial to our clients as either a stand alone modality, or a treatment that is used in conjunction with other modalities, such as physiotherapy or chiropractic therapy, to improve and restore our clients range of motion to a more functional and pain free state. For conditions such as tendinopathies (otherwise known as tendonitis), massage can be very beneficial in reducing the tension that exists in tendons by stretching, or increasing the length, of the muscle that is situated between the tendons, which attach muscles to bones.  

Another way that massage therapy works is by breaking down scar tissue which may have developed within a muscle, or between muscles, from an injury, chronic inflammation, or chronic overuse injuries that may leave some muscles stronger, and others weaker, which results in imbalance. This imbalance will cause joints to move abnormally, which will result in other injuries beyond the one that you are currently trying to resolve.

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