Is Massage Part of Your Fitness and Health Goals?

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Is massage part of your fitness and health goals?  Massage is well-known to relieve every day stress, yet have you considered implementing it in your other health and fitness goals?   With the new year gaining quickly, everyone re-evaluates their fitness goals and massage can work hand-in-hand with those goals from relieving the pain of overworked and sore muscles, joints and tendons to helping elevate your immunity to keep the usual cold weather sicknesses at bay.

Scientific studies have shown that massage:

• REDUCES INFLAMMATION:  a study published in the Science Translational Medicine found that massage eases sore muscles after a tough workout.  Just 10 minutes can reduce inflammation which helps your body recover.

• REDUCES PAIN: Eight out of 10 people will experience debilitating back pain according to Time.  According to a low back pain study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, after receive one massage a week for 10 weeks, 1 out of 3 patients improved and were pain free, compared to 1 in 25 given the "usual care".

• BOOSTS THE IMMUNE SYSTEM:  Multiple studies have linked the stress-busting massage to better functioning of the immune system.  In one 2010 study, researchers found massage increased a person's disease-fighting white blood cells.

Chiropractic Care: Hand in Hand with Massage

I've been asked many times by clients my opinion on whether they should see a Chiropractor and what the benefits.  My opinion is that Chiropractic care goes hand in hand with massage.  Chiropractic and massage therapy used in combination, form a powerful healing approach that addresses your pain on many different levels. Whether your pain is the result of traumatic injury, overuse or stress, these two therapies can speed your return to a pain-free and productive life.

Back pain, neck pain and headaches are just a few of the painful and most commonly seen conditions that send most people to a chiropractor.  Misalignment's in your body, called subluxations, can pull on your muscles and disrupt the nerve transmissions, especially in the spine which houses nerves affecting the entire body.  The resulting pain can be at the site of the subluxations as well as places elsewhere in your body, which can also include numbness and tingling in various areas.  Many clients who I see at the chiropractic office I work in will complain of one area of pain and when I massage another area of their body are surprised to feel tension and soreness in other areas.  What they don't realize is when the body is out of alignment this pulls on many of the surrounding muscles as well as causing havoc in the nervous system creating the pain in the body.  Over time these tight, inflamed muscles and fascia (band of fibrous connective tissue enveloping, separating, or binding together muscles, organs, and other soft structures of the body) suffer poor circulation which prevent muscles from lengthening completely.  Sometimes these tight muscles can compress the nerves and cause severe pain.  Plus your tight muscles and shortened fascia can pull your joints right back out of alignment again and this puts you right back to where your started.  In pain!

In general, massage increases circulation to the whole body as well as to the areas of pain. This reduces painful swelling and inflammation and promotes healing by removing waste products and bringing nutrients to your tissues. Like a sponge absorbing water, both fascia and muscles begin to soften and lengthen.  Which in turn helps hold your adjustments in place, decreasing your pain and putting your body back towards a state of health.

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