MASSAGE & MYO-FASCIAL THERAPY LONDON
An integrated approach to the diagnosis and treatment of your condition is the most effective way to have you back in full health as soon as possible. At Mike Squirrell Physiotherapy and Sports Injury Clinic, Harley Street, we make use of massage, sports massage and myo-fascial release to speed your recovery.
What is Massage?
Massage is the practice of soft tissue manipulation with physical, functional, and in some cases psychological purposes and goals. Massage involves acting on and manipulating the body with pressure – structured, unstructured, stationary, or moving – tension, motion, or vibration, done manually or with mechanical aids. Target tissues may include muscles, tendons, ligaments, skin, joints, or other connective tissue, as well as lymphatic vessels, or organs of the gastrointestinal system. Massage can be applied with the hands, fingers, elbows, forearm, and feet. There are over eighty different recognised massage modalities.
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Benefits of Massage
Medical research has shown that the benefits of massage include pain relief, reduced anxiety and depression, and temporarily reduced blood pressure, heart rate, and state anxiety.
- Pain Relief: Relief from pain due to musculoskeletal injuries and other causes is cited as a major benefit of massage. Massage can also relieve tension headaches. Acupressure or pressure point massage is very effective in relieving back pain. When combined with education and exercises, massage helps chronic, non-specific low back pain. Furthermore, massage has been shown to reduce pain experienced in the days or weeks after treatment.
- Blood pressure and heart rate: Massage has been shown to reduce blood pressure and heart rate as temporary effects.
- Anxiety: Massage has been shown to reduce trait anxiety and a person's general susceptibility to anxiety.
- Depression: Massage has been shown to reduce subclinical depression.
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What is Myo-Fascial Therapy
Myofascial therapy is a form of soft tissue therapy intended for pain relief, increasing range of motion and balancing the body. Techniques include manual massage for stretching the fascia and releasing bonds between fascia, integument, muscles and bones are applied. The fascia is manipulated, directly or indirectly, supposedly to allow the connective tissue fibers to reorganize themselves in a more flexible, functional fashion.
The fascia is a seamless web of connective tissue that covers and connects the muscles, organs, and skeletal structures, located between the skin and the underlying structure of muscle and bone. Muscle and fascia form the myofascial system.
The fascial system is totally one structure that is present from your head to foot without any interruption.
Injuries, stress, inflammation, trauma, and poor posture can cause restriction to fascia. Since fascia is an interconnected web, the restriction or tightness to fascia at a place, with time can spread to other places in the body like a pull in a sweater. The goal of myofascial release is to release fascia restriction and restore its tissue health.
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At Mike Squirrell Physiotherapy and Sports Injury Clinic we will apply every technique at our disposal in order to deliver you back to health as soon as possible.