You feel pain, you want relief.  You want to move comfortably, get some sleep, and enjoy the activities you do when you aren’t hurting so much.  You’d just like to feel like yourself again, and you might be kind of a curmudgeon for the time being.

Massage therapy can help!  But is getting rid of the pain is only part of the puzzle?  Yes.  To keep your body feeling its best and functioning optimally, it needs to be strong.  A therapeutic massage helps your body get to a more ideal setpoint, and building strength helps you maintain it.

Our Four-Step Approach to Pain Relief

At Moyer Total Wellness, we put created a four-step approach to address muscular and joint limitations that contribute to pain and restrict movement:

1. Remove Muscle Knots

Areas of increased tension within a muscle are known as knots.  These tight tissues make movement uncomfortable and also contribute to other muscles working harder than they are intended.  Specialized massage techniques, such as deep tissue or myofascial release, can reduce tension and decrease pain.  The release also leads to improved movement.

2. Lengthen Shortened Muscle Fibers

What happens when a muscle has been hyper-contracted for a prolonged period?  The tight fibers shorten, and they might not be able to reach the full available range of motion.

After areas of excess tension have been loosened, massage can help restore length and flexibility to locked-short muscles.  This will allow the body to move more efficiently.

3. Strengthen Weak Muscles

This is where massage on its own isn’t enough — yet it’s a step many places that offer massage simply gloss over.

If one muscle group is weak, other muscles and associated joints have to compensate. With time, the overworked muscles become tense and less pliable.

This is why strengthening the muscles is a key part of the process.  The effects of massage create the conditions for improved movement — but if your muscles are weak, your body may not retain those benefits for long.

4. Mobilize Joints

Ideal movement patterns aren’t just about your muscular health.  The joints need to move properly too.

Restricted joints cause the body to compensate by recruiting other joints and muscles to move more than they’re designed to.  Enhancing joint mobility helps restore efficient movement and decrease unnecessary compensation.

Why Strength Training Matters

At our office, massage therapy addresses tense muscles, shortened fibers, weakness, and movement restrictions.  But if the muscles aren’t cared for through strengthening outside of the session, they can fall back into the same dysfunctional routine.  This can land them right where they were at the start – in pain.

Strength training gives your body the capacity to maintain better movement.  Strong muscles are better joint supporters and more tolerant of everyday demands.  That’s not to say you need to be a bodybuilder and adopt a new labor intensive lifestyle.  It is possible for adequate strength training to be simple and individualized to your needs, goals, and level of fitness.

Massage and Strength Training Work Better Together

Understand that massage therapy and strength training serve different, but complementary, purposes.  The effects of massage therapy help you move better, and the right strength training regimen offers you the capability of continuing to move better.

Combine the two, and you can address both:

Massage Therapy:

• Reduces muscle tension
• Lengthens shortened muscle fibers
• Improves mobility
• Prepares the body for enhanced movement

Strength Training:

• Builds muscle tone
• Improves joint support and stability
• Boosts the body’s capacity for activity
• Helps you maintain functional movement

Your goal should be bigger than just getting out of pain.  At our clinic, we want you to be equipped with the tools and physical capacity to keep being strong, active, and resilient.

Treat the Pain and Build a Stronger Body

Physical pain may be your body’s natural way of letting you know that something isn’t quite right.  Maybe something isn’t working as well as it should be.  Turning down the volume on the pain provides temporary relief, but factors leading to less than ideal movement need to be addressed.  It will set a better stage for long-term healing.

Our four-step approach is key to addressing all the pieces affecting how your body moves.  Therapeutic massage gets you going in the right direction.  Strength training helps maintain the results.

Stay strong, healthy, and book with one of our talented massage therapists today!

Resources

Crawford, C., Boyd, C., Paat, C. F., Price, A., Xenakis, L., Yang, E., & Zhang, W. (2016). The impact of massage therapy on function in pain populations—A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials: Part I, patients experiencing pain in the general population. Pain Medicine, 17(7), 1353–1375. https://doi.org/10.1093/pm/pnw099

Lim, J., Choi, A., & Kim, B. (2024). The effects of resistance training on pain, strength, and function in osteoarthritis: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Personalized Medicine, 14(12), 1130–1130. https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm14121130

Mak, S., Allen, J., Begashaw, M., Miake-Lye, I., Beroes-Severin, J., De Vries, G., Lawson, E., & Shekelle, P. G. (2024). Use of Massage Therapy for Pain, 2018-2023. JAMA Network Open, 7(7), e2422259. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.22259

National Library of Medicine. (2025). PubMed. National Library of Medicine. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

Photo Credit

Canva by NAimage

Read More From Our Blog