Massage can play an important role in the process of injury rehabilitation. Massage encourages blood circulatory movement and relaxes muscles. Massage helps to deliver more oxygen and nutrients to soft tissues and organs. An increase of vital nutrients into the tissues accelerates the healing rate of injured areas. Massage can help a range of injuries including sprains, strains, broken bones and muscles tears. Using a variety of massage techniques, massage can stretch out tightness and loosen scar tissue. Using massage as part of injury rehabilitation can increase healing rate and shorten recovery time.
When can massage help post injury?
Massage can help treat soft tissues post injury. The circumstances when massage can help post injury are:
- Acute Pain.
- Tight Muscles
- Scarring
Many types of massage are used post injury to help relieve acute pain. Acute pain can be left in the muscles and soft tissues after injury. Pain can be caused due to muscle tightness and fascia restrictions after injury. When injury occurs, muscles act as a protective mechanism and tighten around an area of injury. Fascia is connective tissue located under the skin. Restrictions in the fascia tissue can become tight due to scar tissue and lack of range of movement. Massage helps to manage tightness and helps to restore blood circulation in the tissues.
Massage is used to treat tight muscles post injury. Muscles commonly tighten after injury which leads to restrictive movements. Injury can affect a muscle’s optimum length which results in an increase of tightness. Muscles are made up of overlapping fibres. If a muscle is tight, fibres overlap too much causing lack of flexibility. Massage can help increase the temperature of tissues to loosen and stretch them. Stretched fibres allow muscles to function better and injury recovery to be improved.
Massage is an effective treatment to reduce scarring after injury. Scarring is the natural healing process of damaged tissues. The body produces collagen fibres and sends them to repair around an injury site. Collagen fibres differ in texture to normal tissue fibres. Collagen is tough in texture and lays across the direction of muscle fibres. Scarring can be restrictive and aggravate to cause pain. Massage uses specialised techniques to loosen, break down and realign collagen fibres. Reduced scar tissue increases normal function of soft tissues, decreasing pain and tightness.
Source: https://www.physio.co.uk/treatments/massage/when-can-massage-help/post-injury.php#:~:text=Massage%20can%20play%20an%20important,healing%20rate%20of%20injured%20areas.
