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Science of Massage
For many people, getting a massage is all about pampering and relaxation. But it turns out there’s more going on than just unwinding. There are scientific reasons why massage is good for us, from promoting healing to preventing pain and injury.
Whether you are hurting from a car accident, slip-and-fall injury, or too much desk time, massage is a great way to start feeling better. Massage therapists are skilled in relieving pain through healing touch techniques and preventing it, too. Massage keeps soft tissues rested, relaxed, and better able to withstand the wrongs we do to our bodies.
Cathy Cohen, a licensed massage therapist and continuing education provider at Northwestern Health Science University, sees it all the time with clients. They come to her with low back and neck pain, headaches, sore texting thumbs, and more. “We spend a lot of time dealing with muscular aches and pains,” she says. “At the core of a lot of those problems is muscular tension and dysfunction.”
Dysfunction often stems from muscle knots, when individual muscle fibers cluster together. This creates shortness in the muscle that leads to diminished, or loss of, function. “It’s like there’s a knot in a rope. When you tie a knot, it shortens the rope,” Cohen explains. “Through compression on that spot, we’re educating the muscle to uncoil.”
People start feeling better post-massage because it increases blood flow to restricted muscles and improves circulation of the lymph system—the network that transmits infection-fighting white blood cells throughout the body. Massages also relax the muscles, which in turn reduces nerve compression. And that overall relaxation we feel after a massage? Turns out it lowers the heart rate and blood pressure, too.
Cohen and many other massage therapists focus on trigger point therapy. The technique eases pain from hyper-sensitive muscle knots that shoot the soreness elsewhere on the body. For example, if someone has a temporal headache, rubbing their temples is futile. The pain might stem from a trigger point in the shoulder’s upper trapezius muscle instead.
Addressing the root cause relieves the pain. Applying pressure—whatever the client can tolerate—for eight to 10 seconds slowly releases and elongates the muscle, Cohen says. The muscle also gets reeducated to stay long and loose instead of bunched up.
As a preventive therapy, massage promotes a relaxed state in muscles that helps people maintain good posture, with their joints in better alignment. Good posture goes a long way toward warding off musculoskeletal aches and pains, she says.
“Gravity is working against us. We want to keep everything loose and spacious and juicy—that’s what a massage therapist does,” Cohen adds. “When our joints are aligned, we have a better chance of standing tall and keeping our head up and keeping our spine in a good, healthy position. When we balance the muscles, the joints work more smoothly.”
Thanks to loose and happy muscles, we feel better, more buoyant, and ready to face the world.
Located in Bloomington, Northwestern Health Sciences University is a pioneer in integrative natural healthcare education, offering degree programs in chiropractic, acupuncture, Chinese medicine, massage therapy, nutrition, post-bac, pre-health/pre-med and B.S. completion. Its clinic is open to the public and provides chiropractic treatment, massage therapy, acupuncture, Chinese medicine, naturopathic medicine, and physical therapy.
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