About massage and remedial therapy

Although it seems pretty obvious what a massage consists of, it is not necessarily so to everyone, as there is a wide variety of massage techniques.

A remedial massage can begin with a basic technique called "relaxation massage". Why relaxation would you say? It is because stress can be the root of many problems affecting any part of the body, and can be caused by:

• A combination of family devotion, work obligation, and social commitment
  
  
• Living with a chronic medical condition such as high blood pressure or diabetes which demands lifestyle adjustments
  

The first step is to be able to function without this background noise and let go of the tension in order to prepare the tissues for deeper work, and stretch the hypertonic muscles - meaning muscles more toned than normal such as:

• Muscles involved in repeated movements for instance moving a mouse or looking at a computer screen or painting the home
  
  
• Muscles working overtime to compensate for structural imbalance
  
  
• Muscles compromised by a poor posture
  

A remedial massage is the umbrella for many different techniques such as deep tissue massage, ischemic compression, myofascial release, muscle energy technique, sports and exercise therapy, lymphatic drainage massage just to mention a few. The aim of these different techniques varies:

• Deep tissue strokes and cross fibre techniques may increase the blood circulation to the area and separate the muscle fibres
  
  
• Ischemic compression is used to remove trigger points
  
  
• Myofascial release to decrease tension in the fascia covering the muscle and stretch it
  
  
• Lymphatic drainage massage to assist in removing excess fluid in the tissue
  
  
• Muscle energy technique aims to increase joints range of movement
  

My massage always involves relaxation to overcome tissue resistance and to adhere to the principle of working from superficial to deep before carrying out specific remedial work on the area of complaint. To tell you which technique is more important than the other is quite difficult as their aims are specific - so they are incorporated in the massage as required.