Massage Treatments

When the muscles gets stressed or injured they form "trigger points," which are like contracted knots that lead to tightness and pain.  Some of the causes include:

• Sustained loading or carrying items for a long period of time.
• Repetitive overuse injuries from activities, typing, using smart phones.
• Poor posture due to de-conditioning, and a sedentary lifestyle.
• Mental and emotional stress causing muscle clenching and tensing.
• Sustained inactivity such as prolonged bed rest and sitting.
• Direct injury such as a strain, break, a tear or twist. 

Trigger point therapy involves the applied pressure to these painful, sensitive areas in order to alleviate the pain on site and in other areas of the body.  Active trigger points can cause muscle pain that transfer or "refers" pain and tenderness in other parts of the body when the trigger point is pressed.  A "latent" trigger point is a trigger point that does not produce pain until they are pressed.  These latent trigger points are believed to bring about joint stiffness and a loss of range of motion as we age.  Applying pressure to these painful trigger points may cause significant discomfort, though it can produce the effect of feeling good at the same time.  

Deep tissue massages use firm pressure and slow strokes to massage deep layers of muscle and fascia, which is the connective tissue that surrounds your muscles.

Deep tissue massages are used to break up scar tissue and break down muscle adhesions (the “knots” that we feel in our muscles are muscle adhesions, which are bands of rigid and painful muscle tissue). These knots can inhibit our circulation and cause pain and inflammation.  The massage therapist usually starts with lighter pressure to warm up your muscles and then works into deeper pressure.  The common techniques used in deep tissue massage therapy include stripping, which is deep pressure that glides along the length of your muscle fibers and friction, which applies pressure across the grain of your muscle to break up adhesions and align tissue fibers.

Sports Massage caters to athletic clients of all types, professional, collegiate, and high-school level – and  people who exercise regularly and have an active lifestyle.  It's a more focused deep tissue massage and may focus on a certain area of the body. It uses a combination of deep and light modalities to loosen muscle knots, improve blood flow, and prevent lactic acid buildup.  We evaluate your posture, the physical demands of your particular sport, and past injuries.  We concentrate on the areas of your body that are overworked or stressed from aggressive and repetitive movements.  Sports massage techniques use deep tissue and stretching movements on the muscle-tendon junctions to provide certain advantages to enhance athletic performance:

• Pre-event warm-ups and post-event recovery
• Heals and prevent injuries
• Improves flexibility
• Quicker recovery time

Unlike deep tissue massage, sports massage techniques mainly focuses on the areas most vulnerable to injury or stress as well as older and larger areas of built-up tension.

Fascia is a densely woven, tough connective tissue found throughout the body from head to toe.  It can be compared to a spider web holding everything together.  It binds the muscles, ligaments, blood vessels, and nerves together.  Yet, injuries, poor posture, illness, and stress can cause fascia to scar down, resulting in increased pressure on nerves, muscles, and blood vessels.  Many people suffering with pain and or restricted mobility may go undiagnosed, because most standard tests (x-ray, blood tests, etc.) don’t reveal myofascial problems.

During a session, a massage therapist will massage, knead and gently stretch the muscles and fascia to work out knots. This bodywork technique also involves applying pressure to tight or sore areas to get them to relax. The pressure is applied with the therapist’s hands, elbows or a massage tool like a foam roller or a ball. You might feel sore afterward, but when the soreness subsides, you’ll feel a lot looser than you did before.

Swedish massage is the most well-known and widely practiced type of therapeutic massage.  It is designed to relax the entire body by using light to medium pressure to rub the muscles in long, gliding strokes in the direction of blood returning to the heart.  It is best suited for people interested in relaxation and alleviating superficial muscular tension (rather than the connective tissues targeted in deep-tissue massage).  The five Swedish massage techniques are: Effleurage, Petrissage, Friction, Vibration, and Tapotement

Benefits of a Swedish Massage: Relieves stress, boosts mood, improves sleep, lowers blood pressure, increases circulation and the level of oxygen in the blood, relieves pain and tension, calms the nervous system.

IASTM is a manual therapy approach to musculoskeletal injuries using tools.  IASTM tools can be used to address fascial restrictions as well as areas of the body that exhibit soft tissue fibrosis, chronic inflammation or degeneration. As a rehab tool, IASTM reduces pain and increases range of motion

The massage therapist applies firm pressure to the tool as the tool glides across the tissue in a scraping fashion. A lubricant of some sort, typically oil or lotion, is used to allow the tools to glide across the skin more freely.  The instruments work to comb through soft tissue restrictions and scar tissue, producing micro-trauma to the affected tissue.  This stimulates a local inflammatory process, initiating reabsorption of unhealthy tissue and promoting tissue remodeling, and healthy tissue production.  Soft tissue restrictions can occur following surgery.  These restrictions can also develop from overuse, such as running, throwing, repeated motions at work, or prolonged sitting postures.  Likewise, they can develop with lack of use.

The ancient practice of Cupping Therapy also known as just "cupping" has been around for approximately 5,000 years.  The main principle is to create a surge of blood flow beneath the cup to bring fresh, oxygen-rich blood cells along with white blood cells and pain relief receptors so localized healing can take place.  Various "cups" are placed on key points on the body, using a match (fire cupping) or vacuum pump, suction is applied to the skin drawing blood through the tissues to the surface.  Dynamic cupping therapy is when the cup is applied to one particular spot of the body while the patient moves that body part.  Myofacial Dragging is another method where the therapist will drag or slide the cup over a targeted area or group of muscles.

Cupping has a wide variety of uses like treating swelling, chronic pain, inflammation, migraines, and tissue stiffness.  Reported Benefits:

• Increases circulation and facilitates healing on a cellular level
• Promotes the flow of lymph
• Loosens tight muscles and improve mobility
• Reduces inflammation in the body
• Helps athletes to rapidly recover of muscle tissue
• Improves red and white blood cell count to boost immunity
• Promotes hormone production and balance

CBD stands for Cannabidiol which is the cannabinoid in cannabis.  Cannabis is a genus of the family of plants that evolved over 32 million years ago.  It was introduced into Western medicine in 1839 by a surgeon who learned of its healing abilities in India.  CBD is one of over 85 compounds produced in cannabis plants known collectively as phytocannabinoids.  It doesn't contain THC that cannabis has which means you won’t experience the ‘high’ effect.  One of the primary benefits is to reduce tension and treat chronic pain.  The Endocannabinoid System (ECS) of the body regulates appetite, pain sensation, stress response, mood, and memory.  It also serves as a bridge between body and mind through actions in our immune system, nervous system, and all the body’s organs.  Stressful lifestyles and unhealthy diet are factors that can negatively impact ECS functioning and lower its endocannabinoid production, resulting in a cannabinoid deficiency.  Scientists believe this may be a factor in many conditions such as fibromyalgia, anorexia, depression, IBS, MS, migraines, PTSD, Parkinson’s and autism.  Cannabinoids enter the endocannabinoid system via the skin which is why CBD massage is so beneficial.  Reported benefits:

• Soothes tension and anxiety
• Reduces inflammation, providing relief from painful joints and muscles
• Reduces chronic pain
• Treats stress-induced headaches and insomnia
• Creates a sense of calm and wellbeing
• Elevates mood and may lessen depression.

The original hot stone massage, based on the healing practices of Zen philosophies and Native American rituals.  Using hot basalt lava stones and cold marble to create vascular gymnastics and encourage the body to heal itself.  The therapeutic potential of this treatment goes beyond measure.  Benefits include: The promotion of a natural healing response within the body. Thermotherapy brings about healing, balance and rejuvenation through a combination of stone placement and massage. The treatment helps to restore balance on a physical level. Alternating between hot and cold flushes the body of toxins, and cleanses the lymphatic system.

A combination of temperature through massage helps tone muscles. The application of cold temperatures helps to relieve muscular tension. The application of cold helps to reduce inflammation, scar tissue, and promotes mobility. Alternating temperatures helps to release emotions.  La Stone principles can work on a spiritual energy level and goes beyond the physical experience of typical massage, and enters deeper dimensions of relaxation and well being, creating a positive approach to ’Body-Mind-Spirit’ philosophy.