For local athletes, Bradenton massage therapy promotes faster healing and a healthier overall recovery from injuries.
For some people, massage is part of a regular self-care routine. For others, it’s a special occasion treat.
But in addition to the regular benefits—both physical and mental—that can be gained from a standard massage, my Bradenton massage therapy practice can also offer relief from acute pain caused by injuries sustained during physical activity, while also promoting healing and preserving long-term function.
If you’re an athlete and you find yourself limited from certain activities, restricted in certain movements, or just taking way more ibuprofen than you’re comfortable with, consider a trained massage therapist who can offer a more holistic, hands-on approach to pain relief and recovery.
What Happens Immediately After an Injury
Whether you’re a professional athlete or a weekend warrior, sports offer satisfying motivation to push our body to its limits. Unfortunately, finding those limits can often involve injury.
Aside from actual broken bones, the vast majority of sports injuries involve tears, strains, or inflammation of the soft tissue. When this happens, additional inflammation (swelling) occurs around the injury. It’s the body’s way of bringing added healing factors to the injured part while also limiting movement so further injury doesn’t happen.
Why Swelling Can Be Detrimental
In some cases swelling winds up causing more harm than good. While swelling is a way to bring white blood cells and other helpful parts of the blood to help repair the injured tissue, that inflammation can also lead to pooling that ultimately restricts blood flow. If the blood isn’t moving, the injury won’t receive enough healing factors. And in the meantime, injured cells won’t be flushed from the area. This can cause a chain reaction that actually slows down recovery.
Long-Term Risks of Injuries
Additionally, when your movement is limited throughout the extent of an injury (often from excessive swelling), the coinciding muscles will atrophy. Not only do these weaker muscles create a temporary athletic setback, but they can also unbalance your whole musculoskeletal system, leading to long-term movement issues. When some muscles are weaker, other muscles will overcompensate. More injuries can follow.
Some injuries also lead to scar tissue. While scar tissue is another part of the body’s natural healing response, the fibrous tissue can form in such a way that can cause further pain and limit future movement. Massage can decrease scar tissue and help you regain range of motion and improve & speed up recovery.
How Massage Helps Injuries Heal
So, when we aim to heal an injury, we’re looking to promote circulation for increased healing factors and decreased inflammation. We’re also working to promote natural joint movement and flexibility (barring temporary limitations due to the injury itself) in order to preserve the long-term function of the musculo-skeletal system.
Fortunately, these are some of the primary functions of professional massage therapy.
When practiced by an expert, massage therapy goes much deeper than simply putting pressure on soft tissue. The right movements, in the right places, with the right amount of pressure, can be a key factor in relieving acute and chronic pain issues.
It’s also important to have a professional therapist who can ensure that the therapy is maximizing your healing factors without further injuring the tissue. This involves a thorough understanding of how to practice specific massage techniques, while also knowing the body’s anatomy and how various aspects of the circulatory, musculoskeletal, and lymphatic systems are connected.
Of course, massage therapy can’t be practiced remotely; it needs to be performed hands-on. So for athletes of any age and ability in southwest Florida, look for a Bradenton massage therapy practice to help you recover from injuries.
