Massage therapy uses a variety of techniques to manipulate your joints and soft tissue to improve your body’s overall health. Massage increases the body’s supply of oxygen and nutrients to your muscles, which help release waste from the muscle tissue. Massage also accelerates your body's own natural ability to heal itself.
Trigger Point Therapy
In these examples, the black crosses represent the site of the trigger point and the red areas represent the area where you can experience pain as a result of these trigger points. As the practitioners know these referred pain patterns they can associate pain in one location with trigger points elsewhere. (I.e., if you have pain in your wrist, your practitioner knows that the extensor carpi radialis muscle could be responsible for that pain)
Trigger point treatment aims to find the cause of the pain and then release the relevant muscle knots. This can be done in many different ways.
Hands on massage techniques are the least invasive method available and are very effective.
In some cases other modalities are used
A successful treatment protocol relies on identifying trigger points, resolving them and, if all trigger points have been deactivated, elongating the structures affected along their natural range of motion and length.
Fascia surrounding muscles is also treated with myofascial release techniques, to elongate and resolve strain patterns, otherwise, muscles will simply be returned to positions where trigger points are likely to re-develop.
The result of trigger point treatment
• Decrease of aches and pains
• Return to normal muscle length (this results in less stiffness in the muscle and corresponding joint areas)
• Return to normal strength (you create strength by contracting your muscle fibres, when there are trigger points, lots of your fibres are already contracted, so these fibres can not deliver strength)
The results of trigger point treatment are related to the skill level of the therapist. At Wanaka Sports Massage all therapists have been specifically trained in locating and treating trigger points.
What is very important is that we have to find out what causes the trigger point and treat that as well, to avoid the trigger point returning.
Is it your posture, the way you use your muscles at work, repetitive overload, stress, overstretching, cooling, injury or immobilisation due to surgery or injury?
All types of Remedial Massage Therapies
Treatment includes myofascial release, cross-fiber friction, trigger point release, joint mobilization, home exercise and integrative cupping therapy.
Because we use additional modalities, such as cupping and scraping, integratively, we don't charge extra for them. They are part of the total treatment and tools to help us reach the desired results for you.
We will usually combine any and or all modalities to achieve the desired result, which is for you to feel better and get on top of or prevent injury.
We will also help with recovery so you can get back to what you love doing faster.
Myofascial release is a type of therapy that is used to treat pain and tension in the muscles and fascia (the connective tissue that surrounds and supports the muscles). It involves applying pressure to the affected areas to release tension and improve range of motion.
During a myofascial release session, the therapist will use their hands to apply pressure to the affected areas, stretching and releasing the fascia and muscles. This can help to break up adhesions and scar tissue, improve blood flow, and reduce pain and tension in the affected areas.
Myofascial release is often used in conjunction with other therapies.