deep tissue massage

Focuses on realigning deeper layers of muscles. It is used for chronic aches and pain and contracted areas such as a stiff neck and upper back, low back pain, leg muscle tightness, and sore shoulders.

Some of the strokes are similar as those used in classic massage, but the movement is slower and the pressure is deeper, concentrated on areas of tension and pain in order to reach the sub-layer of muscles and the fascia (the connective tissue surrounding muscles). typically penetrating into and in between your muscle fibres.

A full body deep tissue physical therapy session would take in excess of 120 minutes to several days to truly accomplish. The client is often asked to participate resisting against the work being administered releasing a large volume of toxins throughout the lengthy aggressive process.

Primary Deep Tissue Techniques used to penetrate between the muscle fibres are :

Active Motion: Where the client is working with the therapist in order to flex and stretch the muscle being worked as the therapist applies firm pressure to the muscle.

When the client flexes a muscle, the fibres spread and we can wiggle in between the muscle fibres; when the client stretches or relaxes the muscle, it softens to allow us to work in a little deeper. The continuation of this alternating flex and relax/stretch allows for the most effective and painless penetration of the muscle tissue possible. Each muscle pair (the same muscle on both sides of the body) may take as long as 15-20 minutes to work efficiently, but can be adequately worked in as little as 5-10 minutes if worked lightly.

Passive Motion: Similar to the Active Motion technique above, except that the therapist is working the muscle with one hand and moving the body part being worked with the other hand. This technique is much more relaxing for the recipient, but is much more taxing for the therapist. A full-body treatment using this technique by a single therapist is nearly impossible, unless your therapist is big and strong. Ie. Myofascial release.

Static Pressure: Using thumbs, fingertips and elbows to apply firm pressure to individual points on a muscle. In order to encourage the muscle to relax and allow penetration and is a very slow technique. With close to 20 minutes sufficiently cover a particular muscle which can cause discomfort and .bruising. ie Trigger point manipulation.

Muscle Stripping: Rapid and Slow Muscle Stripping :

Rapid Muscle Stripping is the most aggressive and painful of the deep tissue techniques discussed here, but may also be the most effective in extreme cases such as chronic pain conditions caused by incorrectly-healed or untreated past injury. Here we will use usie knuckles or elbows to firmly but rapidly “strip” the muscle while the client is breathing deeply and performing a rapid stretching movement with the body part being treated.

Slow Muscle Stripping, Using elbows and thumbs we use very slow, firm, deep movements to reinjure the muscle tissue in order to allow for proper healing to occur.

Negative Pressure: Using  suction cups applied to the body, causing the muscle fibers to expand and separate, as opposed to traditional pressure-strokes used in mainstream physical therapy which compress the fibers together. By expanding the muscle tissue, it allows for additional space within the muscle for lactic acid and other toxins to flow and be released from the tissue more completely and more rapidly than with traditional methods.

The suction that occurs also forces body fluid to flow through the tissue, encouraging toxins to be “flushed” from the area. It also allows the therapist to more effectively re-align tight muscle tissue fibers, which relieves the “knot” that is created by tension and excess lactic acid buildup leaving large hicky like bruises on the applied areas.

If we were to glide the suction cups with less pressure, the negative pressure may also be used to relax.

sports massage

Sports massage is a form of soft tissue bodywork geared towards participants in all active exercise from the walking master with a hip problem to the elite athlete to help prevent reducing injuries, preparing for the respective sporting activity and assist in maintenance of optimal conditioning while under duress throughout competition, training recovery and injuries.

Whether it the Greeks and Romans of the Early Olympiads, the Asian cultures through their martial arts or the Soviet Union and Communist blocks of the 1960s, or the Europeans and the US in the 1970s, massage has been combined with exercise, dance and performance training and competition throughout history.

Sports massage has three basic forms: pre-event massage, post-event massage, and maintenance massage.providing their own benefits, techniques and uses in invigorating different muscle fibres types and their respective performance.

Pre-event sports massage is generally used to help prevent serious athletic injury by warming up the muscles, stretching them and making them flexible for optimal athletic performance. It stimulates the flow of blood and nutrients to the muscles, freeing them up , reducing tension and installing a placebo psychological boost of confidence.

Pre-event massage is given shortly before an athlete competes. It consists mainly of brisk effleurage to stimulate and warm the muscles and petrissage to help muscles move fluidly and to reduce muscle tension. Effleurage is generally a relaxing stroke , but when done briskly it is stimulating. As the massage progresses, the pressure increases as the massage therapist uses percussive strokes and cupping to stimulate the muscles to contract and flex. The part of the body being massaged varies from sport to sport, although leg and back muscles are common targets for this type of massage.

When athletes train heavily, their muscles suffer micro traumas where small amounts of swelling occur in the muscle fibres because of tiny tears.Post-event sports massage helps reduce the swelling caused by microtraumas; loosens tired, stiff muscles; helps maintain flexibility; promotes blood flow to the muscle to remove lactic acid and waste build-up; and reduces cramping. In addition, post-event massage helps speed the athlete’s recovery time and alleviates pulls, strains, and soreness.

Post-event massage is usually given 1–2 hours after the competition is over in order to give dilated blood vessels a chance to return to their normal condition. Post-event massage is light and gentle in order not to damage already stressed muscles. The goal is to speed up removal of toxic waste products and reduce swelling. Very light effleurage will decrease swelling while light petrissage will help clear away toxins and relieve tense, stiff muscles. Post-event massage can be self-administered on some parts of the body, such as the legs.

Maintenance sports massage is done at least once a week as a regular part of athletic training programs increasing the flow of blood and nutrients to the muscles allowing the tissues to loosen so that the different layers of muscle reach their optimal resting length and slide easily over each other forming one strong unit.

Maintenance massage also helps reduce the development of scar tissue through muscle breakdown under duress,increases flexibility and range of motion.

Maintenance massage although techniques are similar is sport and joint specific with the common goal to maximise flexibilty, recovery athletic performance.

injury prevention

An injury in the physical sense is typically defined as harm or damage that is done or sustained, through a wound, bruise, cut,gash, tear, slash, gouge, scratch, graze laceration, abrasion, confusion, lesion, sore or technical trauma

In the case of injury prevention here at postural performance, we are dealing directly with the soft tissue injury and the prevention of the in balance of the muscular skeletal system both before and after injury.

Sports science is evolving rapidly in recent years as performance training, rehabilitation and sports medicine are “bridging a gap” to increase performance, prevent injuries and more effectively treat injuries when they do inevitably happen.

Manual and physical hands on therapy or soft tissue work is essential for the prevention of injury and treatment for acute or chronic painful conditions as much as it is used for optimal performance and injury prevention.

training and much more

health is everything ! without it, we can not truly experience a quality of life we all deserve. true health where everything is just synergy with mind body and spirit  is an incredible out of this world place, but reaching this level takes self management, discipline, commitment and sacrifices.

postural performance does not have all the answers, but our clients are continually performing pain free in personal, professional and athletic arenas and are very well informed about postural strengthening and body maintenance practices.

If you are prepared to step outside of your comfort zone, again and again to transform the you you are, to the you you want to be, simply book online or email us on info@createthebalance.com

Remember ! – All The best things in life are those yet to come.

Have a great day

Nick Holmes