Chiropractic and massage, together, enhance your treatment outcome. Chiropractic treatments fix spinal misalignments while massage relaxes the body throughout the adjustment. Not everyone may need both treatments for complete recovery. Your healthcare provider decides to combine the treatments if they detect muscle tension can interfere with the spinal manipulation process. Patients experiencing chronic pain that affects their daily lives benefit from the combination.
What Does Chiropractic and Massage Exactly Do?
Both chiropractic care and massage adopt a non-invasive approach toward holistic healing and wellness. Both enhance the natural healing abilities of your body and provide you with relief. But, they are also different from one another in terms of techniques, purpose and outcomes. Let’s take a look at the benefits of each.
Also Read: Physiotherapist or Chiropractor? Which One Should You Choose?
How does chiropractic care help?
Chiropractic treatments specialize in treating movement problems that occur due to spinal misalignments. A doctor of chiropractic locates and fixes the problematic spinal structures to manage disorders of the bones, nerves and muscles.
Most common benefits
- Reduced pain
- Improved mobility
- Less fatigue
- Better spine flexibility
- Better mood
Chiropractic has more than 10 types of adjusting systems with a unique procedure in each. A professional examines your injuries to determine the adjusting system that will restore your spine to normal function.
How does massage therapy help?
Massage therapy is the direct, hands-on manipulation of your body’s soft tissues. Licensed massage therapists use specific techniques to manipulate stiff, achy muscles to restore its normal healthy functioning state. The professional examines the symptoms and prescribes appropriate massage therapy techniques.
Most common benefits
- Reduced muscle tension/tightness
- Better mobility
- Mental relaxation
- Reduced muscle aches
- Improved sleep quality
Massage therapy mainly relaxes muscles while also reducing inflammation and improving blood circulation. It is mostly recommended for people with stress or stiffness in the back, shoulders and neck.
How do Chiropractic Treatment and Massage Therapy Help Together?
Both treatments enhance each other’s impact, thereby enhancing the healing process. The combination is mostly recommended for patients experiencing chronic pain along with muscular tension and inflammation. Your chiro or the primary healthcare provider may include both in the treatment plan if they detect spinal misalignment is associated with muscle tension. Let’s take a look at how both work together and offer health benefits.
Chronic pain relief
Structural imbalance and muscular tension are the most common underlying causes of chronic pain. Chiropractors realign the affected joints to fix the structural system. Massage therapists, on the other hand, help reduce muscle tightness which interferes with optimal spinal health.
Injury recovery
Injuries can lead to misalignment along with muscle tension and inflammation. This causes pain and restricts normal mobility. Chiropractic care corrects the underlying structural issues caused by the injury while massage relieves muscle soreness and speeds up healing.
Sports performance
Both treatments help high-performance athletes achieve peak performance. Spinal adjustments keep the joints aligned which prevents injuries. Massage keeps the muscle loose and responsive which prevents tightness during physical activities.
Post-surgical rehabilitation
After surgery, patients often feel stiffness in the joints and muscles. Chiropractic adjustments help regain joint strength and alignment. Massage relaxes the muscles and helps restore flexibility. The combination of both boosts the post-surgical recovery process.
Stress-related conditions
Massage relaxes the mind and lowers stress levels significantly. Reduced stress leads to better sleep which is essential for optimum physical wellbeing. Mental stress can cause physiological problems like tight shoulders or headaches. Simultaneously, chiropractic adjustments can relieve these symptoms and reduce your stress.
Posture problems
A poor posture can cause a wide range of physiological problems like back pain, neck pain and shoulder aches. People with a sedentary lifestyle (office workers, mostly) experience restricted movement and chronic pain due to incorrect posture. Chiropractic helps correct posture while massage therapy relieves muscle tightness which is often associated with an unhealthy posture. Together, they make posture training an easy and effective process.
Overall wellness
The combination can benefit people and improve their overall wellness and health as well. With time, our muscle and joint health tend to decline. Joints, for instance, may lose their flexibility and surrounding muscles lose elasticity, strength and mass. Regular chiropractic sessions keep your joints in good shape and perfectly aligned while massages keep your muscles balanced and toned. Consistent chiropractic adjustments improve your joint movements and maintain their optimum flexibility. Therapeutic massages relieve muscle tension and improve its strength.
Also Read: What is Chiropractic Care?
Chiro vs Massage Therapy Which is Right For You?
The severity and duration of your symptoms along with your current health condition determine the right treatment for your relief. A healthcare provider, be it a chiro or a massage therapist, can prescribe the treatments specific to your unique recovery needs. Get your symptoms assessed at the nearest multidisciplinary rehabilitation clinic as soon as possible.
Chiropractic care is primarily about your joint health. Chiropractors fix the spinal misalignments that affect joint flexibility. They improve your movement and help you get back to a normal, functioning life through spinal adjustments. You should go to a chiro near you to address joint pain or movement problems.
Massage therapy relaxes muscles, keeps them supple and improves your blood circulation. The act of manually manipulating the muscles with direct hands helps release endorphins, which are also the body’s natural painkillers. You should go to a registered massage therapist to address muscle pain and muscle tightness.
There are multidisciplinary clinics in Brampton like Physiotherapy First which provides both chiropractic treatments and massage therapy under one roof. The experts customize a treatment plan with one or multiple techniques based on what you need for complete recovery and rehabilitation.
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