How Massage Heals Sore Muscles

We all know massage feels good. But here is some wonderful clinical research showing why massage might  be helpful in people with inflammatory conditions.

When visiting a physical therapist with an orthopedic injury you may be asked to do specific exercise that sometimes seems to push you past your limit. Similar to homeopathic medicine, by exposing the body to a noxious stimulus we hope to teach the body to come up with an appropriate response. In this case, inflammation in a particular area brings a flood of chemicals which leads to repair and adaptation as the physical therapist teaches new movement patterns. This in turn will prevent future injury. Massage can help suppress some of this inflammation associated with muscle loading and help speed recovery.

Basically massage can help the body adapt to the increased demands of exercise whether you are training for a marathon or recovering from an ankle sprain.

Yet another reason to visit your manual physical therapist!

You can read the article here.