Massage Therapy involves the manipulation of soft-tissue, such as muscles, fascia, ligaments & tendons, to relieve tightness, pain, and stress.
About Massage Therapy
Massage Therapy has tremendous therapeutic benefits. Massage reduces the heart rate and blood pressure as well as muscle tension. The therapy also increases blood circulation and lymph flow and improves flexibility. Above all, it relieves pain. It is an accepted part of many physical rehabilitation programs, and has proven to be beneficial for many acute and chronic pain and health conditions.
Benefits From Massage Therapy
Importantly, Massage Therapy helps relieve the stress and tension of everyday living that creates blockages both physically and emotionally, which can lead to disease and illness. In addition, what many clients come to greatly appreciate is the time for them, to just rest for an hour as a scheduled down time.
Using a mix of specific manual techniques – holding, manipulation of soft tissue, pressure to the body – Massage Therapy improves functioning of the circulatory, lymphatic, muscular, skeletal, and nervous systems. It is also effective in improving the rate at which the body recovers from injury and illness.
What to expect
While Massage provides many benefits and a qualified therapist is able to assist patients realize these, it is important to be careful in choosing a qualified therapist. Remember that a therapist not well versed in anatomy, physiology and application of techniques can do more harm than good.
All Balance Massage Therapists are certified professionals. We offer various types of massage therapies and other bodywork treatments to help relieve your pain and stresses.
Types of Massage
Relaxation Massage – A smooth, flowing style that promotes relaxation, improves circulation and relieves muscle tension for overall well-being.
Sports Massage – Each type of sport has different demands on the players and uses muscle groups in different ways. Sports massage is designed to address those specific concerns. Sports massage helps alleviate the stress and tension that builds up in the body’s soft tissues during regular physical activity. Where minor injuries and lesions occur, due to overexertion and/or overuse, massage can break them down quickly and effectively. It will help to drain away fatigue, to relieve swelling, to reduce muscle tension, to promote flexibility and to prevent injuries, whether a person is an athlete or a once a week jogger. Like with all treatments, it is important to be careful in choosing a qualified sports therapist, for a therapist not well versed in sports injuries can do more harm than good. For example, massage to a contusion, which are impact injuries that cause bleeding within the muscle, may cause further damage and may lead to Myositis Ossificans (bone growth within the muscle).
Pre and Post Natal (Pregnancy) Massage – Pregnancy massage is massage therapy specifically tailored for the expectant mother’s needs. During pregnancy massage the mother’s body is properly positioned on her side and supported using pillows and padding, to ensure comfort and safety for both mother and baby. A special belly pillows is also available, allowing the mother to lie safely on her belly (a welcome change by some), without causing excess pressure and while still supporting the associated muscles and ligaments. Pregnancy massage is extremely beneficial for lower back ache/pain, mid back tightness, neck tightness. It also helps reduce stress, swollen feet & legs and leg cramps. The massage has also been found to reduce anxiety and depression. This is particularly observed with post-natal massage.
Post-natal massage often focuses on the neck, shoulders and upper back. It is because the muscles involved are being repeatedly worked from feeding, carrying, and lifting the baby causing headaches and upper back aches. Often, clients will get considerable relief in one treatment. Others may take two or three. Later on in pregnancy, especially during the third trimester, there are those who find that the discomfort comes back after four or five days and therefore weekly massage provides a most welcome . Some clients also simply use this time for themselves as they need scheduled down-time.
Pregnancy Massage is a popular complementary therapy when choices for pain relief, such as medication, are often limited. It is important to look for a massage therapist who is certified in pregnancy massage, who you can trust and who you know will listen to your specific requests (e.g pressure and/or temperature). Someone who has had specialized training, including supervised hands-on-training in pregnancy massage, and knows what is safe for the mother and baby.
Remedial Massage – Deep tissue massage shows promise in treating muscle pain, soreness and injuries by using both light and deep massage strokes on areas of muscle tension and spasm to speed up recovery and encourage complete healing. On the other hand, myofascial release is used to release the lining around muscles that can restrict movement. Lastly, trigger point therapy targets sensitive points within muscle which might be referring pain to other parts of the body and mimicking other conditions. For example, low back and sciatic pain are far more likely to originate in muscles than in vertebral disc problems.
Clients who seek this type of massage are in pain from a specific injury such as whiplash or falls, repetitive strain injury (RSI) or other work related issues. Often it originates from postural alignment problems. It is also effective in removing scar tissue and speeds up recovery post-surgery.
It is always advisable to consult a doctor before receiving a massage for specific conditions which may not be related to soft tissue.
Balance Health and wellness center offers different holistic bodywork and alternative treatments. Our holistic health practitioners can help address your chronic pain, stress, anxiety and other physical and emotional symptoms through effective techniques such as Chi Nei Tsang massage, deep tissue massage, integrative manual therapy, lymphatic massage Hong Kong, holistic physiotherapy Hong Kong, sports massage, tuina Chinese massage and pediatric tuina massage therapy. You can also reach out to our experts about common health conditions like flu and cold through our virtual consultations.
