Above & Beyond Massage Therapy Clinic

Remedial Exercises & Home Care

One of the most important elements of an effective healing path has to do with what you do when you're on your own—your habits of posture and activity.

Many common injuries that massage therapists treat are directly related to overwork, such as tendonitis, muscle strain and spasm, carpal tunnel syndrome, and a whole host of other nerve impingements and functional muscular imbalances.

While massage therapy is very effective is treating and even resolving all these conditions, the best way to achieve total resolution is through the combination of therapy and retraining. It makes sense—if your old habits brought you to an injured state, changing those habits will help resolve and prevent that injury from ever occurring again. By taking personal responsibility for that aspect of your healing process, your results will be far greater than if you look to a health care professional alone.

Remedial exercise might sound like a daunting practice, but there are many thing you can do at home that are simple, easy, and extremely effective! Please feel free to use these downloads as guides for your at-home treatment.

Types of In-Home Therapy

Stretching

Stretching is one of the most important things you can do for your muscles. Most repetitive work injuries occur because muscles get tight and restricted over time until the strain of continuing work causes micro tearing in the muscle fibers or impingement of surrounding structures such as nerves and circulatory vessels.

In order to be effective, a stretch must be held for at least 15-20 seconds before releasing.

Make stretching part of your daily routine by associating it with another activity you do often throughout the day, such as eating or taking a bathroom break.

Strengthening

Strengthening is an extremely important part of injury prevention. Weak muscles that are subjected to more stress than they can handle will become tight (an automatic response as your muscle tries to prevent injury) and painful. The lack of support provided by weak muscles also subjects your joints and spine to the risk of injury.

Train Smart: Most people have muscular imbalances that stem from either improper training or work that only uses certain muscle groups. Try to even yourself out by thinking through each area and training opposing groups equally. For example, if you work out your pecs, don't neglect your back! Quadriceps and hamstrings, and biceps and triceps are some other examples of opposing muscles.

Hydrotherapy

The primary uses of hydrotherapy have to do with circulation, pain management, and reducing muscular tension. You can use hydrotherapy to flush out areas of inflammation and reduce the swelling, as well as relax tense muscles and calm pain receptors.

Cautions: If you have high blood pressure or suspect that you may, broad applications of heat in the torso should be used with caution. If you are using heat and begin to feel light headed, dizzy, disoriented overheated, or experience pain or tightness in your chest, remove the heat IMMEDIATELY and call your doctor.

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