Here at Dr. Philips Chiropractic, Nutrition and Wellness, we bring multiple healing techniques to treat your injury, disease or chronic pain. Massage plays an integral role in our treatment because it supports and facilitates the corrections we make in chiropractic adjustment. A specific form called deep tissue massage has proven especially helpful for sports massage, injury rehabilitation massage and chronic pain management.

Deep tissue massage differentiates itself from Swedish massage in the level of intensity with which it’s applied. We employ it when your surface runs more than skin-deep, lurking inside large muscle groups of connective tissues. If you seek a neck or back pain massage, for instance, you might benefit from a Swedish massage, which uses light, gentle strokes, to relax certain muscles close to the skin. But if your problem involves nerves, muscles and other deep tissues, you may need the longer, firmer strokes of this more intense form of therapy.

This stronger, deeper form of therapy is necessary to address problems that lie within muscles and the fascia connected to them. Fascia is connective tissue which holds your muscles together, and isolates nerves, arteries and veins from surrounding muscles offering a low-friction surface for muscle groups.

Unfortunately, injuries often lead to a buildup of scar tissue that “glues” the fascia to the muscles, tendons or ligaments. These areas of scar tissue are known as adhesions, and they can make even simple physical movements painful or impossible while inhibiting proper healing. Deep tissue massage works your adhesions free by breaking up the scar tissue, while the rush of nutrients and oxygen to your tissues encourages timely, complete healing. This makes it valuable tool for sports massage and injury rehab.

Deep tissue work can also bring significant relief for chronic pain conditions involving the muscles and connective tissues, though periodic sessions through an ongoing massage therapy program are usually required to keep these conditions under control. Fibromyalgia, for example, causes hard, painful muscular knots to form, and the knots then refer pain to multiple tender points on the body. Massage therapy can literally knead those knots out of your muscles and boost circulation in these trouble spots, which we call trigger points. We can also work on trigger points that develop in various other myofascial pain conditions such as TMJ (temporomandibular joint disorder).

Our chiropractor, Dr. Donald Phillips, can prescribe the correct form and schedule of massage therapy to help you feel better and heal more quickly. Deep tissue work sometimes leaves a degree of normal, mild discomfort of its own following a session, but this “good pain” simply means that we have succeeded in freeing trapped tissues from greater pain and stiffness. Whether you seek sports massage, injury rehabilitation massage or simple back pain massage, we will dig deep to restore your muscles to health. Give us a call today (210) 545-1144!