“A Powerful Tool to Take Charge of Your Health!” is a quote from the Mayo clinic regarding massage therapy. Massage therapy is a growing recommendation for individuals with injury recovery, stress, tension, pain, headaches, and even anxiety. It’s no longer being viewed as a “luxury spa” service but rather another form of health care!
We all deal with stress and anxiety (some more than others!) but did you know they are also leading causes to a variety of health problems? Stress and anxiety can be difficult to handle on your own which is why a weekly or even a monthly massage has been shown to help induce relaxation and decrease your pain. In fact, doctors are starting to recommend a regular schedule of massage therapy to their patients. My staff and I are also regularly recommending our patients get massage therapy to accelerate results to improve mobility, decrease pain, and returning to feeling better faster.
I’d like to share a story that highlights how massage therapy helped a patient from the past recover faster. We’ll refer to her as Heather. Heather had started physical therapy after a surgical procedure to fix a broken ankle. She was initially in a walking boot when she began with us which caused some side effects! Because the boot caused a slight height difference on one side of her body, she began to feel hip and low back pain on the side without the walking boot. This is usually a preventable side effect simply by using an “even-up” shoe attachment and Heather felt immediate improvement after our recommendation to give it a try. However, we also referred her to massage therapy to assist with the pain on her non-surgical leg and low back. The pain was persistent but after just three massage sessions, her hip and low back pain drastically improved, and she was able to walk and sleep without pain. This then carried over to her physical therapy as she was able to progress faster without having to deal with pain! Heather is no anomaly when I compare massage therapy to faster results in physical therapy as I could share countless stories where massage therapy made all the difference with decreasing scar tissue, improving mobility, decreasing tension, and relieving tightness and pain.
As previously mentioned, we all know stress can have major side effects, but where do we feel stress the most? Often we feel it as tightness/tension in our neck and shoulder muscles – and all of the added tension brings on headaches! Picture this, you’re running late for work and unprepared for the day, you can’t find your keys, and the dog has just tracked mud all through the living room… Stress adds up quick! And not to mention all those daily stressors, you’ll likely find that at the end of the week you’ve got a lot of tension around your shoulders. Which is why it’s important to deal with these things daily, without responding to them in a stressful way, so we can start to reduce the frequency of headaches or even prevent them! So, what are some things you can do right now to help? Do things that are calming like stretching, listening to music, gentle yoga, deep breathing, and massage therapy.
We have a full-time licensed massage therapist in our clinic and ready to help you! We offer cash packages, and we are able to bill Regence insurance as well. Mention this article and you will get 25% off your first massage with us if you are cash pay!We also have massage packages available – the perfect gift to give someone that has everything this season!
To learn more about Penrose & Associates Physical Therapy go to www.penrosept.com for FREE tip reports that you can download on items like neck pain, back pain, knee pain and more. You can also listen to my podcast “Stay Healthy South Sound” on any streaming service or just go to the “Podcasts” section of our website!
If you have any questions call us at (360) 456-1444 or by email at info@penrosept.com. We are located across from Big 5 Sporting Goods and Walmart at 1445 Galaxy Dr. NE Lacey WA 98516.
