Massage Therapy FAQ

by Kylie Marsh

Massage Therapy FAQ

 

Why would you see a Functional-Remedial Massage Therapist?

If you are experiencing muscular or joint pain, aches, stiffness, stability, mobility or flexibility issues or stress or injury, a Functional-Remedial Massage Therapist can help you improve your comfort, wellbeing and relieve your pain.

 

What does a Functional-Remedial Massage Therapist do and what can I expect?

Remedial means to remedy. The main objective is to help you live a more functional, stress free and pain free life by treating aches, pains, stiffness and injuries to help the body repair and recover. We look for imbalances in the body that may be causing the presenting dis-ease and dysfunction, focussing on treating tense, damaged or knotted body tissues (muscles, tendons, ligaments, fascia) and stiff joints, and we use a wide range of remedial techniques to create balance, stability, mobility and flexibility in your overall movements and function so you can perform more effectively in daily life, at work, in sport.

 

What is the difference between Massage and Remedial massage?

While Deep tissue, Swedish, Aromatherapy or Relaxation massages are generally whole-body or half body treatments and aim to relax and de-stress, Remedial massage focuses on postural, gait and physical assessment and treatment for rehabilitation, sport, injury resolution and prevention, pain relief, postural and gait correction, mobility, improve muscle function, condition and ailment maintenance + more. Treatment is based on that assessment on parts of the body that require rehabilitation. Massage can be used as a standalone treatment or in combination with other modalities, does not require a referral and compliments other medical, allied and natural therapy practices to provide the client with a holistic approach to benefit their health.

 

Should I attend my appointment if I am unwell?

No, please rest and reschedule your appointment. Massage can amplify the symptoms of the illness your body is fighting as it stimulates the lymphatic system. This is also important if you are experiencing fungal infections, viral infections, allergic reactions, bleeding or rashes. Firstly, it is important to take care of your health by seeking assistance from a medical practitioner (Pharmacist or GP) and allow your body rest to recuperate. Secondly, there is the hygienic component and risk of spreading bacteria to the therapist and other clients. If you are ever unsure, please call your practitioner to discuss your condition in advance of your appointment. 

 

Treatment frequency:

Frequent treatments will provide the most effective results. Frequency really depends on your injury, pain, personal circumstance and how long you’ve been experiencing your issue. Your practitioner will discuss recommendations and frequency with you in your appointments. A minimum of 3 and up to 7 treatments gives you and your practitioner a good chance to really clear the stress underlying a particular complaint or issue and see positive changes occurring. Short term issues may only take a few treatments whereas long term or complex issues may take a longer. Be patient and allow your body to time to heal. Once your complaint/issue is at ease or has been resolved, keeping up general maintenance treatments monthly or every few months will help you stay pain-free. 

 

Does Remedial Massage hurt?

  • Where you are already experiencing pain, ache or injury, you may experience some discomfort during the massage until it is relieved. The objective and intention is not to cause you pain. 
  • The treatment discomfort you experience in resolving your presenting complaint should be at a minimum and only when entirely necessary to resolve any dysfunction. 
  • The massage pressure should always be guided by you and within your threshold boundaries. 
  • It is normal to feel muscle sore or stiff after a deep tissue or remedial massage as during treatment your muscles receive a rigorous workout. 
  • Massage for your muscles and body is very similar to doing an intense exercise workout. 
  • The muscle soreness or stiffness you experience after remedial or deep tissue massage should be mild-moderate and fade away over the following 2 days. 
  • Some people may feel sore, others won’t. It really depends on your practitioner, their treatment style, your presenting complaint and how long you’ve been experiencing your issue.

 

The Do’s and Don’t’s of Massage:

  • Don’t sunburn, caffeinate, eat a large meal, apply moisturiser or oil, take pain medication or perform excessive exercise before your appointment. 
  • Know some acute injuries may not be able to be treated until 48-72 hours after the injury (depending on the type of injury). Your practitioner will tell you what they can and can’t treat in your assessment or give them a call. 
  • Do tell your practitioner about any specific conditions and chronic injuries you have, any medications and supplements you taking, any allergies or sensitivities you have specifically to nuts and essential oils and if you have high or low blood pressure issues.
  • Do eat a light snack an hour before your treatment. Massage can stimulate the digestive system, lower your blood sugar level and blood pressure so it’s best not to have an empty stomach.
  • Do Hydrate! Sip plenty of water regularly before and after your treatment. Being dehydrated can cause your muscles and fascia to stiffen, feel uncomfortable, painful, fatigued or experience delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) after your massage. These symptoms may also occur when exercising dehydrated together with lack of warm up and cool down. 
  • Be prepared to move around. Remedial means to remedy so your body will be worked to resolve the discomfort you’re experiencing. If you want to lay still, may wish to instead have a Relaxation or Aromatherapy massage.

 

Remedial Massage has many benefits and is effective in treating a wide range of physical conditions and ailments including but not limited to:

  • Muscle pain, tension and tightness in all area’s of the body (E.g. Scalp/ Head/ Neck/ Back/ Hips/ Legs/ Arms/ Hands/ Feet)
  • Injuries
  • Whiplash
  • Scoliosis
  • Jaw/TMJ pain and tightness
  • Frozen shoulder/ Adhesive capsulitis 
  • Arthritis 
  • Sciatica
  • Tennis elbow
  • Carpal Tunnel 
  • Plantar fasciitis
  • Muscle cramps and spasms
  • DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness)
  • Joint pain and tightness
  • Joint or muscle sprains and strains
  • Injuries
  • Repair Scar tissue / Relieve Scar tissue discomfort
  • Muscle recovery
  • Lymphatic drainage / Swelling
  • Pain / Discomfort / Fatigue related to pregnancy
  • Prevent muscular atrophy
  • Repair damaged body tissues: muscle, scar tissue, fascia
  • Improve Sporting performance
  • Fatigue
  • Improve muscular and joint stability, mobility and flexibility 
  • Improved blood circulation and blood supply: by encouraging healthy blood flow, helping to deliver oxygen-rich blood to the muscles and speeding up the body’s healing process.
  • Boost Immunity: pain and inflammation in the body can increase stress and therefore stress hormones in the body which also pushes your psyche and body into survival mode engaging your nervous system. This occurs by increasing circulation, flushing and improving the lymphatic drainage in the body, decreasing stress hormones by reliving pain and stress and encouraging healthy production of mood balancing and inflammation fighting hormones and nutrients. 
  • Stress, Anxiety and Mood: by relaxing the body, the mind relaxes creating a stress release and bringing clarity, peace and therefore focus in the mind. 

 

Some of the techniques used in Functional-Remedial Massage are: 

  • Deep tissue
  • Trigger point
  • Myofascial Dry needling
  • Myofascial release
  • Myofascial cupping
  • Muscle Energy Techniques (MET)
  • Mobilisation
  • Manual lymphatic drainage
  • Muscle testing
  • Sports massage
  • Taping
  • Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF)
  • Therapeutic Ultrasound
  • Sound therapy 
  • Stretching
  • Cryotherapy 

 

Massage Technique definitions: 

Sports Massage: designed to help athletes in training, before, during and after competition. Useful for anyone who exercises. This form of massage is not relaxing, can be strenuous and is used to: increase flexibility, mobility, prevent injuries, stretch tight muscles, stimulate inactive muscles, reduce/improve muscle tension, increase endurance, improve performance, reduce injury recovery time.

Remedial Massage: used to remedy the body, relieve pain, specific rehabilitation, treat structural dysfunction, injury, damaged/knotted/tense/immobile muscles/tendons/ligaments/joints through holistically assessing the entire body including posture, movement and gait to find out what structures or actions are causing pain and dysfunction.

Deep Tissue Massage: uses therapeutic flowing strokes similar to Swedish massage however the pressure is a lot deeper.

Relaxation or Swedish Massage: encourages blood flow, calms the mind, settles the nervous system, improves mental and emotional health, stimulates the lymphatic system with flowing strokes. 

Trigger Point Therapy: Is the treatment of myofascial trigger points (MTrP) or trigger points (TrP). These are sore, knotted soft tissue fibres found in muscles and fascia. They feel like tense nodules in your muscles when you push on them. There are 3 types of trigger points: active, latent and satellite. Active trigger points cause pain when no pressure is placed on them. Latent trigger points cause pain and often refers pain to another area when you push on them. A Satellite trigger point is the area where the pain is referred to.

Therapeutic Ultrasound: (thermal and mechanical) used to treat various musculoskeletal issues including pain, reduce swelling and inflammation, increase blood flow, break down scar tissue, relieve soft tissue injury and muscle spasms, relax connective and soft tissues, encourages repair, improve injury recovery.

Myofascial Cupping: is an ancient form of alternative medicine where special suction cups are placed on the body creating a decompressed vacuum effect to the skin lifting underlying  restricted tissues. Used to reduce restrictive or painful adhesions from injury, scar tissue, repetitive work, sport or stress, eliminate trigger points, decrease inflammation and pain, improve range of motion, encourage blood flow, promotes repair and healing. 

Myofascial Dry Needling: used to release trigger points with the application of acupuncture needles to relieve and reduce pain, inflammation, movement restriction and restoring muscle function. 

Cryotherapy: means cold therapy. The body or affected body part is exposed to cold temperatures for several minutes. It reduces blood flow to the affected area aiming to reduce pain, inflammation, swelling and temporary nerve activity in treating tissue lesions, joint inflammation, injuries and athletic injuries.

Mobilisation: is the action of making something movable or capable of movement. The practitioner uses specific manual movement techniques to muscles, tendons, ligaments and joints to encourage movement and mobility, relieve pain, restore function, break down scar tissue, and increase flexibility.

Myofascial Release: a massage technique that focuses on relieving torsion, tension, stretch and pain in fascia. Fascia is a network of thin multi layer casing of connective tissue that surrounds and holds every organ, blood vessel, bone, nerve fibre, muscle group, muscle bundle and muscle fibre in place throughout the entire body. It provides internal structure and has nerves that make it almost as sensitive as skin. In between the fascia layers is a liquid call hyaluronan that provides tissue hydration, stretch and encourages free range of movement. When fascia is stressed this liquid becomes thick, sticky or dries up and this can impact encased and surrounding tissues and body parts resulting in the fascia tightening up, becoming dehydrated, stiff, ‌‌stretched, painful and restrictive of movement. Stiffness and pain can originate from different tissues and area’s in your body. Fascial pain is different from other types of pain as it occurs in places where fascial tissue connects or crosses and can radiate to other connected areas. While this technique has amazing and immediate benefits and results, it is not relaxing and can be intense. *Hyaluronan (hyaluronic acid) is a high-molecular-mass polysaccharide found in the extracellular matrix, especially of soft connective tissues.

Manual Lymphatic Drainage (MLD), Lymphatic Massage: a gentle massage technique used to relieve swelling, oedema and pain in the body. Lymphedema often affects people recovering from illness, surgeries, injury and some ailments. Lymphedema occurs when the bodies tissues retain fluid left behind after the cardiovascular system sends blood to these tissues and organs. The fluid is called lymph. Normally, the lymphatic system collects the lymph fluid and returns it to the heart via a network of lymph vessels and lymph nodes. However, when this process is disrupted by illness, surgeries, injury and some ailments, the result can be excess swelling.

Muscle Energy Technique (MET): originates from osteopathic medicine and described as “a class of soft tissue osteopathic manipulation methods that incorporate precisely directed and controlled, patient initiated, isometric and/or isotonic contractions, designed to improve musculoskeletal function and reduce pain.” Chaitow 2006. The practitioner uses the clients own strength to enhance the stretch of the muscle by reducing the neural protection response to overstretching. This is performed very controlled moving an affected muscle into a mild resisted stretch contraction. This techniques allows the nervous system to reset the normal length of the affected muscle resulting in greater stretch each time it is performed.

Muscle testing: an orthopedic, chiropractic and kinesiology technique used to test specific muscle-related weaknesses, length, strength, stability, mobility and stress affecting any muscle or muscle group. In Kinesiology muscle testing is used determine if the muscle weakness is related to presenting stress or internal disharmony.

Taping: commonly used in rehabilitation, training, for athletes, as a first-aid tool, as a protective mechanism for an existing healing injury, preventative and protection for re-injury, to improve proprioception, restrict movement of injured joints, soft tissue compression to reduce swelling and to provide support and stability to anatomical structures where needed. 

Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF): a stretching technique used to improve muscle elasticity and active and passive range of motion

Sound therapy: using sound, music and specialist instruments played in therapeutic ways, combined with deep self-reflection techniques to improve health and wellbeing.

Stretching: a form of physical exercise where specific muscles and their attachments, muscle groups and fascia are deliberately flexed or extended to improve the flexibility, elasticity, range of motion, muscle control, muscle tone reduce stiffness and pain.

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