2 Your Health: What Causes Injuries to your Muscles?

Heidi Overman, Licensed Massage Therapist, #MT-24997

It’s common in my practice to see and help clients with muscular injuries. Often, clients come in in pain, but they don’t know what happened or how they could’ve hurt themselves. I often hear, “I was just taking the laundry out of the dryer,” or “I just reached and all of a sudden….” These injuries become more common as we age. There are other muscular issues that cause injury.

The most common issues that cause the injuries we see are repetitive motion; slips and falls; trauma; accidents; and sports injuries.

These issues cause some of the most common injuries: whiplash; muscle strain and tears; chronic pain; sprains; piriformis syndrome; plantar fasciitis; carpal tunnel syndrome; inflammation; trigger point development; structural misalignment; frozen shoulder; and tennis elbow.

First, massage is a process. If you have any of these issues, understand that one massage will not “fix” any of these issues. When you injure a muscle, it takes time to reteach the muscles how to release and relax, realign the muscle fibers, and let the muscles heal properly.

How therapeutic massage can help all these issues:

* Restores blood flow to the injured area

* Brings much-needed nutrients to an area that needs oxygen and other necessities to heal

* Manipulates the tissues, keeping them flexible and strong when exercise isn’t possible

* Releases trigger points

* Can strengthen the entire area, providing additional strength and support

* Can help decrease pain

* Increases range of motion and flexibility

* Promotes muscle relaxation. A deep massage directly targets the source of pain, ultimately eliminating tension and inducing relaxation.

* Massage can be excellent strategy to deal with pain, proprioception, muscle tone, movement patterns, and dysfunctional scar tissue

Therapeutic massage can be a great benefit to you, when you’re not sure where to start, when you injure yourself. Injuries are mostly muscular, and we are trained in anatomy, pathology, and kinesiology in order to help you get through your injury and on your way to healing!

If you are interested in a therapeutic massage, call me for an appointment at 520-771-1514. My website is: www.mymendingplace.com and I’m located at MEND Therapeutic Massage and Restorative Skincare at 15920 N. Oracle Road, Suite 170, Tucson, AZ 85739 (next to the Golden Goose Thrift Shop).