Sunday, August 2, 2009

Sports and Physical Therapy: Augmenting Rehabilitation With A Massage Chair

By Troy Donnely

If you take on strenuous exercise or other types of similar activities, then you know that your risk being hurt. Muscles get pushed too far and sometimes can fail. This is true for other body parts. The stresses put on them can just be too great. Different injuries require particular physical therapy to recover. If you need to get physical therapy then they will focus on specific treatments to help your bones, muscles and ligament to gain strength and flexibility. These therapies will range from using exercise equipment to receiving massage therapy with a massage chair.

If you start a physical therapy program, then you will be assigned a physical therapist. The therapist is a trained professional to help restore your strength, motion and activity. The therapist understands the mechanics of your body and will help design a treatment program for you. You will learn specific stretches, exercises and other specialized techniques to help your body recover. You may also use specific equipment that can address particular issues. Massage therapy has become an important tool in the recovery arsenal and many clinics are making use of massage chair recliners.

If you are a professional athlete your goals are going to be different than if you play sport occasionally. Your physical therapist will consult with you on a direction and time line that fits your needs. An athlete needs quick recovery and to restore maximum flexibility and strength. Whereas the occasional player may take more time to fully recover. In either case, you will be put through stretching, massage, exercise and more. You will get to use various exercise equipment, massage chairs, free weights and more. These are important tools in the therapist's recovery arsenal.

Flexibility is critical to restore to the affected area. Our bodies respond to injuries by depending on the remaining systems to make the body function. This means the body isolates those affected areas from activity. The muscles become stiff when used minimally. The therapist will want to elongate the affected muscle groups. They may have to gently twist and turn certain joints and ligament to get the muscle to able to stretch further.

Your body will adapt after an injury or other trauma. The affected areas will be minimized from activity. As a result, those muscles not being used start to lose strength. It is important to start to regain strength in the affected areas as soon as is reasonable in your situation. Stretching builds initial flexibility and exercise builds back the strength. The exercises may focus on particular individual muscles in the beginning or certain groups. You may need to use a bicycle motion or a treadmill as part of your recovery routine.

Some of the problems encountered in the physical recovery process are scar tissue and the muscle tissue. Scar tissue forms harder than the original tissue. This needs recurring kneading and pressing massage. The muscle tissue breaks down into shorter lengths when physically stressed. The muscles tissues need the fibers to be elongated to restore further flexibility. Massage therapy targets these two important areas. Some physical therapy clinics use massage therapists and may also use massage chairs. In either case, the focus is on increasing the longer term flexibility. Massage therapy is effective in loosening the muscles and scar tissue while increasing the blood and nutrient flow accelerate the healing process.

Whether you are a professional tennis player or a beginner skier, injuries can happen to anyone. If you do find yourself in physical therapy, work on setting goals to recover. Find yourself an excellent physical therapy clinic. Make sure they have qualified people, proper exercise equipment and massage therapy. And if you need massage therapy, make sure a massage chair is part of your recovery plans.

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