Myofascial Release
Ever felt muscle soreness (especially after a hard sports session or a bad sleeping posture) that lasts for days? You might have felt this nagging sensation of over-taut muscles that prevent you from walking or moving properly. In most cases, this pain is temporary and the body's muscles relax to their original state. In others, however, a myofascial trigger point has been created.
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| Types of Massages |
This can last for days, if not weeks unless treated properly. Sounds unpleasant, doesn't it? Let us take a deeper look before you panic!
The "fascia" is a specialized connective tissue layer that surrounds the muscles, bones, and joints. The peculiarity of this tissue is that it extends uninterrupted from the top of the head to the tip of the toes.
In its normal, healthy state, the fascia is relaxed and wavy in configuration. It can stretch and move without much restriction.
However, as a result of physical trauma, scarring or inflammation, the fascia loses this ability. It becomes taut and hard. The place where this occurs is called a myofascial trigger point.
Since the fascia is a continuous tissue covering the whole body, the tension in one part can lead to pain in other parts as well.
The whole point of myofascial release is to discover the location of these myofascial trigger points and to iron them out.
The myofascial release, therefore, refers to the massage of the fascia in order to locate the trigger points and alleviate them. This is a technique used since the 1990s in order to alleviate the pain of professional athletes who have to undergo considerable muscular strain on a regular basis.
Why not use it to ease your own muscular pain? God knows the sport is not the only source of muscular pain! Small things like lifting something heavy or a bad sleeping posture can disturb the fascia. These little pains accumulate until the fascia cannot take anymore, leading to a trigger point.
So what's involved in the myofascial release?
Most therapists begin the process with a gentle massage that will warm and loosen the muscle. The therapist uses this preliminary massage to identify the trigger points.
Trigger points can be identified by following:
1) Presence of tighter muscles and taut skin
2) Inflammation (redness)
3) Heat emanation from the muscles
Once you have identified the trigger points, some basic stretches and exercises will help relax the fascia further. A foam roll can be used when doing self-myofascial release techniques.
Some basic techniques you can use are described below:
1) For pain in the hips region, place the hips on a foam roll and hold yourself with the palms of your hands on the floor. Roll from the knee toward the posterior hip. If a trigger point is reached, stop and rest on it until the pain decreases significantly.
2) For pain in the upper back region, place hands behind the head. Raise hips until unsupported and roll the mid-back area on the foam roller.
Similar massage and exercise techniques can be applied to the rest of the body.
Remember to breathe slowly during the process to ensure proper relaxation.
Pregnancy Massage (prenatal massage)
Pregnancy massage is a massage therapy designed for expectant mothers. Another name given to this kind of massage is pre-natal massage. It is specially tailored to make sure that the baby is in a good position.
Comfort to the mother and the baby will only come when there is proper positioning and support worked on. It helps relieve stress and decrease the swelling in the legs, it also stops the aches and pains in the joints. Emotional support is important and pregnancy massage does that. The human touch is therefore important.
A pregnant woman should not seek a massage from any masseur, Massage therapists are the only ones recommended to do this. Therapists will know the safest way to perform this massage for the well-being of the mother and the baby.
Massage is not always designed for all pregnant women, the best thing is to consult your doctor.
Women these days are been taught the advantages of pregnancy massages. They are been educated on the importance of prenatal massage to you and the baby. Pregnancy brings a lot of changes in the mother's body and is therefore important to have massages.
Prenatal therapists know the techniques to recognize the signs of prenatal disorders which can put the mother and baby at risk. Scheduling an appointment is the first thing a pregnant mother needs to do. It could be a lifesaver.
The first month of pregnancy is much more like receiving a normal massage only that the therapist is careful and avoids the sensitive areas of the body.
The therapists also check for excessive swelling during the massage. In the later stages of pregnancy, the massage is given with the mother lying on her side with pillows for support to the legs and the belly's comfort. There are special tables designed for this type of massage.
Reflexology Massage
Reflexology can be termed as a form of an alternative method of applying medicine that involves the use of the massage technique and compressing on the various areas of your feet, hands, or ears.
The goal of the reflexology massage is to have a relieving effect on other areas of your body and also to make your health improve. The practicing reflexologists across the world are not in agreement on exactly how it works but they all agree that each part of your foot matches a certain area of your body therefore when it is manipulated, you can get an improvement in your health.
The practice of reflexology is believed to have begun in Egypt where an illustration on one of the tombs was found. Among the continents that have practiced reflexology over the years are Africa, Asia, North America, and Europe.
There has not been any connection with the kind of reflexology that goes on presently and the kind that the Egyptians had because there are different ways in which the feet are manipulated.
In the United States, the practice began in 1913 thanks to a doctor by the name of William H. Fitzgerald who was an ear, nose, and throat expert. He was assisted by another doctor named Edwin Bowers. According to Doctor Fitzgerald, the pressure that was applied to the feet took could take away sensation from various parts of the body.
There was further advancement in this field when a physiotherapist by the name of Eunice D. Ingham made a claim that the feet and hands were highly sensitive and connected to other parts of your body. This is when the practice gained the name reflexology from its previous name zone therapy.
There are some people who have some apprehension about using reflexology to treat people who have life-threatening diseases. This is because there are no studies done on just how effective the method is and the belief that this may make some patients delay seeking the proper medical care as they try this method out.
There is a lack of medical evidence on the benefits of reflexology and this has kept many people away from the practice. Those who practice reflexology do not undergo any sort of training and this is a concern for most individuals.
The reflexologists aim to maneuver the energy they refer to as Qi. This is where many medical practitioners defer to reflexologists because they claim that there is no scientific research done to show that this energy exists in the human body.
According to reflexologists the body's energy field can be blocked and this may prevent you from achieving the kind of health that you desire. They also believe that that the stress and pressure that you experience in any other part of your body can be relieved by applying pressure to your feet.
Those who want to get into the practice can get a diploma in the field for about six months and this can be done from home.
Shiatsu Massage
Shiatsu massage is a traditional form of therapeutic massage where pressure is applied to certain body parts to bring relief. It gets its medical background from traditional Japanese medicine. The name is a combination of the Japanese word 'shi' meaning hand and 'atsu' meaning pressure, which offers direction on how the massage is done.
Shiatsu is today a licensed medical procedure recognized by governing bodies created by Shiatsu practitioners. Though it has come a long way, Shiatsu is still evolving and has today grown to accommodate modern medical anatomy and physiology.
Shiatsu massage can also be put in the same class as the Chinese therapies of acupuncture and Tui Na. In the early days, Shiatsu used to be performed by women and the blind and was considered an almost spiritual practice.
From that time Shiatsu has been integrated with western anatomy and physiology through the work of Namikoshi Tokujiro considered as the father of this type of Shiatsu. It is said he discovered the art when he was seven years old by coincidence as he was helping his ailing mother who suffered from rheumatoid arthritis.
Tokujiro founded a school in the 1940s to teach Shiatsu and a teacher who worked at that school-Shizuto Masanuga later went out and opened his own school and gave rise to a different form of Shiatsu massage based on Chinese medical practices and called it the Zen style. Masanuga later published a book on Zen Shiatsu which was largely responsible for taking the expertise past Japanese borders.
The proponents of Namikoshi's type of Shiatsu refuse to accept the Zen shiatsu and other types developed and practiced later on and describe them as derivative Shiatsu. They, therefore, continue to devote their efforts to bring together the ancient practices of Shiatsu with western medicine in line with the Japanese resolve to adopt western practices in their culture.
Masanuga followers however keep with the Chinese medicine and went back to Taoist literature on acupuncture to further strengthen their theory and practice. Shiatsu massaging arts have grown to involve therapy by mind concentration as in the yoga practices of Buddhists.
Shiatsu basically operates on applying pressure to places in the body that are directly linked to the central nervous system. This therapy merges the medical acts of diagnosis and therapy at the same instance. It relies on the expertise of the practitioner through the sensory nerves in their hands and fingers to feel anomalies in the body as they massage it and then carry out practical routines to rectify the anomalies.
As can be imagined this requires a lot of experience and thus shiatsu is an art that requires a lot of diligence and commitment to master.
It should also be noted that Shiatsu can also be applied as preventive therapy. By taking care of the body in its entirety rather than focusing on just one area,
Shiatsu improves the entire immune system such that it can provide more protection from diseases.