An Evaluation and Consultation is recommended before your first session for sports, post injury, post surgery, or chronic pain management.
Session may include short intake with muscle testing, range of motion testing, and/or posture and gate analysis. Will end with suggestions for treatment. May or may not contain hands on palpation and treatment of soft tissues.
Each evaluation and consultation is customized to the clients needs and concerns.
Clinical Massage is a style of bodywork focused on creating healthier soft tissues. This includes reducing hypertonicity or tightness in the muscles, reducing congestion between the layers of tissue, and breaking up scar tissue from past injuries. Clinical Massage also includes Trigger Point Therapy which focuses on stimulating and releasing "trigger points" in your body.
Trigger points are tender areas of tension similar to acupressure points, except they occur anywhere in any soft tissue structure rather than along the energy pathways of the body. These "knots" are built up throughout a person's life due to physical, mental, and/or emotional stress and can often refer pain to other areas of the body.
During a Clinical massage session, focused pressure is applied through a variety of techniques in order to make necessary change in the tissues. The work should not be painful and communication between the therapist and client is necessary to insure that the work fits the clients "optimal tolerance".
Sports Massage is a type of massage designed for highly active people who engage any sport. Engaging in sports is harsh on the body and can often lead to injuries in both the short and long term. Sports Massage enhances performance and prolongs a sports career by helping to prevent injury, reduce pains and swelling in the body, relax the mind, increase flexibility, and dramatically improve recovery rates. Sports Massage is also highly effective in aiding the rapid recovery of an athlete from an injury by encouraging greater kinesthetic awareness and in turn promoting the body's natural immune function.
There are four different types of sports massage.
Pre-event: Massage therapy performed directly before a competition or heavy training session. Aims to warm up the tissue, increase circulation, improve flexibility, and prepare the soft tissues for optimum performance.
Post-event: Massage therapy performed directly after a competition of heavy training session. Aims to increase circulation, relax tense muscles, and kickstart the recovery process.
Maintinance: Massage therapy performed between competitions and training sessions aimed at maintaining healty soft tissues.
Rehabilitative: Massage therapy performed after an injury aimed at relieving pain, and regaining normal function.
Some of the techniques I use to achieve these goals include swedish massage, deep tissue massage, triggerpoint therapy, myofascial release, stretching, and instrument assisted soft tissue mobilization.
Active Functional Massage is designed with the intention of attaining and maintaining pain free functionality of the body. It is perfect for anyone who experiences pain from repetitive motions or has difficulty completing a workout due to limited range of motion or motion specific pain.
If you have knee pain while squatting or shoulder pain while benching, Active Functional Massage may be able to help.
One big difference between an Active Functional Massage session and a typical clinical or sports massage session is that there is no need for a massage table. In this session you will not be laying passively on a table, instead, you will be actively moving and recreating the problem motions. This is why it is best to do these sessions at the gym during a workout.
Feel free to call or text with questions