Massage Techniques
Depending on what you’re feeling at the time, a combination of the following techniques will likely be part of your appointment alongside different massage movements.
Myofascial Release
Sometimes it’s not just our muscles that feel tension and impact how we feel and move. Myofascial release techniques are an effective way of relieving these tensions in the tissues that surround our muscles. Fascia is the thin casing that surrounds, wraps, and protects every tissue, tendon, bone, ligament and muscle in our body. These highly effective techniques help to create space and, ultimately, better movement within the musculoskeletal system, and the body as a whole.
Often performed with minimal or no oil, these techniques work by using slow and steady pressure to manipulate the soft tissues, and can have a very profound overall effect.
Trigger Point Release
When we find a particularly painful spot in our muscles, these are likely to be trigger points. These areas get hypersensitive and need some intervention to get them to behave as they should. Using Neuromuscular Techniques in a Sports or Remedial fashion, we work to try and switch these points off, allowing the muscle to relax and return to normal.
Muscle Energy Techniques
Muscle energy techniques, or METs for short, are techniques used to help lengthen, strengthen and improve your range of motion. Commonly used in manual therapy such as Osteopathy, Physiotherapy and Sports & Remedial Massage, these techniques use the muscle’s own energy in the form of isometric contractions to relax the muscles. It may not feel like it’s doing very much at the time, but afterwards the muscle group should feel more relaxed.
Soft Tissues Release
Soft Tissue Release (STR) helps the muscle restore its normal flexibility so this technique is used when a muscle has become very short and very tense. Once the muscle tissues have been warmed up, STR uses a precise pressure directly on the muscle with active or passive stretching. The therapist will apply pressure to the muscle to ‘lock’ it in place, then either they will move a joint or ask you to move in order to stretch the muscle. By ‘locking’ part of the muscle it helps focus the muscle stretch on areas where it’s needed most.
Dry Needling
The use of needles in manual therapies utilises the same needles you would find in a traditional Chinese acupuncture appointment. They are a great accompaniment to massage techniques and are often used before massage in muscles that are particularly tight or tender. Needles help with muscle relaxation by working with the pain and tension messages that go between our muscles and our brain and also help kick start the healing process.
Our Approach
Whether it’s working in conjunction with an osteopath or other therapies, or simply a regular check in with your body, our tailor-made massage sessions will use a variety of massage techniques, targeted pressure, assisted stretching and comprehensive advice to help you towards long-term wellness.
Our massage therapists at Meadowside Osteopathy are Hannah King and Laura Sparling – have a read about them and get to know who will be looking after you.
