Whether you want to relax, treat your neck pain, or address your sports injury, you might want to consider how massage Sunshine can help. Knowing the difference between injury treatment and relaxation massages will let you choose the right form of therapy according to your condition.

Also called remedial massage or sports massage, an injury treatment massage has been designed to facilitate recovery. Meanwhile, therapeutic or relaxation massages are meant to unwind, calm, and rejuvenate the mind and body alike.

Therapeutic or Relaxation Massage

Relaxation massage makes use of flowing and rhythmic movements for calming your mind and body, which will let you unwind and de-stress. Done by a professional massage therapist, therapeutic massages can improve blood circulation, calm the activity of the nervous system, increase the release of happy hormones such as dopamine and serotonin, and reduce the levels of stress hormones.

If your lifestyle is often filled with lots of stress, relaxation massage is an important tool to reduce anxiety, boost calmness, and improve productivity to help you enjoy a better sleep every night.

A common type of relaxation massage is Swedish massage. With this type of massage, a massage therapist makes use of massage oils when applying gliding and smooth strokes on your body. Your therapist can also use other techniques such as friction, tapping, kneading, and stretching. Its firm yet gentle pressure heightens relaxation, eases muscle tension, and calms the nervous system.

Injury Treatment Massage

 Unlike therapeutic massage, injury treatment massage has been designed to address certain points of pain in your body. If you have suffered from any form of injury, a good injury treatment massage will be able to treat all the affected tendons, muscles, connective tissues, and ligaments in your body. Also called remedial massage, the injury treatment massage usually supports injury management, pain management, and rehabilitation. This could also be used to correct any abnormalities in a person’s posture and improve range of motion.

When it comes to remedial massages, it is a must that your therapist gets to check your medical history first and what caused your injury in the first place. Your therapist will then assess your postural alignment, a range of motion, and perform some tests to identify the specific massage therapy type that is most appropriate for your condition.

The treatment plan you will get can involve various techniques such as myofascial tensioning, trigger point techniques, cupping, and deep tissue massage.

• Myofascial Tensioning
  
  It helps release the fascia, or the connective tissue holding the muscular system of the body in place. The fascia gets tight when you are injured which can prevent the muscles from moving properly. It can then lead to toxin build-up and make the pain worse while restricting a range of motion.
• Trigger Points
  
  Trigger points are used for the treatment of injury. Trigger points refer to the areas where tiny balls of muscle fibre get stuck together as the result of injury or some other factors such as poor postural alignment and poor diet. With movements of direct pressure and release, therapists can enhance the area’s blood flow and heal the trigger point.
• Cupping
  
  Massage therapists can also use cupping for injury treatment. Glass, silicon, or plastic cups are being applied to the skin to improve the area’s flow of blood and release the toxins in the muscles.
• Deep Tissue Massage
  
  A deep tissue relaxation massage in Footscray focuses on alignment of deep connective and muscle tissue layers. This is done by the breakdown of bands of painful adhesions or tissue in the ligaments, tendons, and muscles. It is a form of massage which reduces tension, supports mobility recovery, and improves healing results after an injury. A deep tissue massage is also used to address certain pain, spasms, and tensions in the muscle. The strokes used here are slower compared to classic massage therapy, with focus on problem areas and with the use of a deeper pressure level.

Which Massage Suits You Best?

You are probably wondering when you should be getting a therapeutic massage and when an injury treatment massage is more suitable. These two forms of massage therapy can both improve your health and overall well-being.

If you are hoping to boost the current state of your health and free your system from stress, relaxation massage is the ideal choice for you. On the other hand, if you are experiencing restrictions in your movement, tension, pain, or any other symptoms of injury, you might want to go for injury treatment massage. It is a form of massage that is specifically useful for active individuals and athletes who are searching for ways to help recover from their injury, enhance their recovery time, and improve their performance in their specific sports. It is also possible to create a program for injury treatment massage which goes hand in hand with physiotherapy and other medical treatments.