Tulsa Massage does a lot more than just relax your muscles. It affects your heart, blood vessels, skin, digestion and even your mental health.
For instance, getting a massage can reduce cortisol and increase serotonin, hormone neurotransmitters that help regulate your mood. It can also alleviate high levels of stress and anxiety.
Massage is an ancient healing art that involves pressing, stroking and manipulating the skin, muscles, tendons and ligaments. It’s now a popular part of integrative medicine and used to treat many different medical conditions and situations. It’s been shown to reduce stress hormones, lower blood pressure, and improve immune function. Regular massage can help to relieve tension and anxiety, and boost mental wellbeing. The best way to know whether it’s right for you is to get a personalised full body or muscle specific treatment.
The type of massage you choose will depend on the reasons you’re seeking it out, and your overall health and fitness goals. If you’re looking to relax, you can try a full body relaxation massage which will sooth and loosen the muscles, allowing your mind to drift off into a deep state of calm. It’s a great treatment for reducing stress and can be particularly helpful for those with insomnia or sleep disorders.
There are many different types of massage, and each has its own special benefits. Effleurage, for example, involves gentle stroking movements of the hands sliding over the client’s skin in one direction, increasing blood flow to that area and removing waste products. The practice is a form of skin rolling and has been known to decrease heart rate, blood pressure, as well as levels of stress hormones like cortisol.
Other forms of massage include lymphatic drainage, which is a light whole-body treatment that reduces the build-up of fluid around joints; aromatherapy, which uses essential oils to promote wellbeing and can aid the body’s natural defences; and reflexology, which works on the principle that certain parts of the body reflect the entire system, so that pressing on those points can stimulate the body’s natural healing processes.
While all relaxation techniques are generally safe for healthy individuals, it’s a good idea to talk to your doctor before trying any new practices. They may recommend that you avoid some techniques if they’re not appropriate for your health or fitness goals, such as those that use strong pressure to treat osteoporosis, or if you have an open wound or skin infection.
Pain Relief
Massage stimulates the autonomic nervous system and increases blood flow which both encourage an increase in feel good hormones such as endorphins, serotonin and dopamine. These hormones relieve stress and anxiety thus helping to lower pain levels. They also help to replace cortisol which is a natural stress hormone, thereby lowering the overall stress levels and increasing relaxation.
Inflammation is a major cause of pain in both acute and chronic conditions. Massage reduces the production of inflammatory cytokines, thus decreasing pain and swelling. In addition to this, it increases the hydration of the tissues and increases the flexibility of joints.
Tight muscles inhibit movement and restrict circulation, which contributes to pain. Massage can release these tight muscles, improving your posture and allowing you to move more freely again. It can also break the pain cycle by interrupting the vicious circle that happens when you experience muscle pain: when you feel pain, your muscles tighten to protect the affected area. This leads to restricted movement and poor biomechanics that further exacerbates the pain. Massage can help break this cycle.
When a muscle is tense it has a hard time circulating blood through it, just like a towel that resists soaking up water when wrung out. Massage breaks up the tense muscle tissue, allowing for better blood flow and eliminating the buildup of waste products.
In addition to this, massage stimulates the lymphatic system which helps remove waste from muscles. The lymphatic system consists of tiny vessels that transport lymph fluid around the body to glands and nodes, where it is removed from the body. When a muscle is inflamed it produces a waste product called lactic acid. This waste product builds up in the muscles and can eventually lead to fatigue, weakening of the muscle fibers and pain. Massage helps to remove this lactic acid by stimulating the lymphatic system. Massage can also help with removing toxins from the blood stream, which is another way that it can help alleviate pain. In fact, massage can be as effective as a pain killer without the side effects of NSAIDs and opioids.
Immune System Booster
Research has shown that massage therapy is beneficial to the immune system. In fact, a study published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine found that massage can help to prevent infection by increasing white blood cell counts and lowering cortisol levels (the stress hormone). Stress can also cause an imbalance in the body’s production of lymphocytes, which are the cells responsible for fighting invaders like viruses and bacteria. When this occurs, the body becomes susceptible to viral infections and may also decrease its effectiveness with vaccinations.
Massage can improve circulation, which helps to deliver essential nutrients and oxygen to the body’s cells. This enables the body’s cells to function properly and help fight off infections. Additionally, massage can reduce toxins and promote the proper functioning of the lymphatic system.
When you get a massage, your brain sends messages to the body to release feel-good chemicals, such as endorphins and serotonin. These chemicals can help to lower stress hormones and increase your levels of melatonin, a sleep-promoting chemical. This helps you to get better restful sleep, which is important for a strong immune system. Research has shown that poor sleep is linked to a reduced immune system.
A massage can increase the production of T-lymphocytes, which are the cells that attack foreign substances in the body. T-lymphocytes can also perform a number of other functions related to cell growth and repair. The study found that people who received a 45-minute Swedish massage had a significant increase in their lymphocyte numbers and percentages compared to those who didn’t receive the same treatment.
In addition to the immune-boosting benefits of massage, using a therapeutic grade oil like lavender can further aid in the body’s ability to combat disease and heal itself. The calming and anti-bacterial properties of lavender can calm the nervous system and reduce inflammation, thus improving the immune response. This allows the body to fight off bacteria and fungi more effectively, which can lead to stronger immunity against common winter ailments. When combined with a healthy diet and adequate amount of sleep, regular massage can help to strengthen the immune system and fight off colds and flu.
Sports Injuries
The world of competitive sports is thrilling but demanding on the body, often leading to injuries that impede performance and cause pain. Massage therapy and acupuncture are increasingly being recognized as valuable treatment modalities for enhancing recovery and helping athletes bounce back from common debilitating conditions such as tendinitis, sprains, strains and fractures.
Athletes who have suffered from sports-related injuries report that incorporating regular massage therapy into their recovery and rehabilitation programs accelerates the healing process, alleviates discomfort and improves overall fitness levels. This is largely due to the fact that these treatments stimulate blood flow, promoting the body’s natural healing processes and boosting joint flexibility, preventing stiffness and improving overall athleticism.
Whether suffering from back injuries, rotator cuff tears, or other sports-related conditions, integrating massage into the athlete’s rehabilitation plan allows them to return to their sport faster and at a higher level of intensity. Moreover, massage is a powerful tool for enhancing sports injury prevention. By identifying and correcting muscular imbalances, facilitating tissue repair, and educating athletes on proper body mechanics, massage can help reduce the risk of future injuries.
Acute and chronic sports injuries involving ligaments, tendons, muscles and myofascial tissue are most commonly treated with massage. Specifically, deep tissue techniques work to break down scar tissue and reduce tension in injured tissues, thus allowing muscles to heal more quickly. In addition, massage enhances circulation, thereby delivering oxygen and nutrients to damaged tissues and removing metabolic waste.
In the management of sprains and strains, massage helps prevent stiffness by loosening tight muscles and easing inflammation without heavy reliance on pharmaceuticals. Massage also provides key preventative strategies to ward off the recurrence of injuries, such as encouraging adequate stretching prior to exercise and avoiding overuse.
Athletes from a wide range of sporting disciplines have used massage to aid in their recovery and rehabilitation, including rehabilitating knee injuries, restoring shoulder function after rotator cuff tears, and recovering from ankle sprains. Each success story demonstrates how massage therapy can be an invaluable complement to standard injury rehabilitation procedures, improving the rate of recovery, reducing pain and accelerating the return to competition.
