Have you ever had a massage and felt amazing for a day or two afterward, only for the aches to come right back by day three?  Why didn’t the relief last?

A therapeutic massage is effective for pain relief, reducing muscle tension, and enhancing mobility.  In many (if not most) cases, there isn’t just one problem contributing to the pain.  More often, it manifests through an unfortunate combination of muscle tightness, weakness, joint restriction, and improper movement patterns.

At Moyer Total Wellness, this is the reason we don’t believe in tackling the symptoms alone and looking no further.  For more effective care, we follow a comprehensive 4-step protocol designed to narrow in on the underlying factors causing discomfort.  We’re not just thinking about how you feel on the day of your appointment — our goal is to balance out the musculoskeletal system and provide the tools to keep everything aligned and moving with ease for long term relief.

How Many Appointments Focus on Pain

Many massage therapy sessions, especially when you find yourself in a spa setting instead of a medical clinic, are centered around that one area troubling you the most.

An example: You come in with a neck ache.  The therapist suggests we spend most of the session working on your neck and shoulders — maybe even isolate those areas and palpate nothing else for the entire massage.  Say you report low back pain, and the therapist is only attentive to that area.  Of course, there’s value in this approach to treatment.  Releasing tight muscles decreases pain, improves blood and lymph flow, and can help you move with more comfort.

But similar to how spot training isn’t effective for a workout regimen, only addressing one muscle group isn’t likely to offer long term results.  If the muscles continue to tense up due to weakness, improper body mechanics, or limited joint range of motion, that same level of pain often returns.

That’s where our approach is different.

Our 4-Step Protocol

Rather than focusing solely on where you feel pain, our 4-step protocol looks at the bigger picture. Here’s how we address muscle tension, tissue length, strength, and joint mobility to support better movement.

Step 1: Remove Muscle Knots

Before we can move onto anything else, the first step is to address the areas of excessive muscle tension.  These knots are often accompanied by painful little nodules called trigger points, which can radiate discomfort — usually sharp pain, but sometimes a burning sensation or dull ache — to another part of the body when palpated.  These knotted muscle fibers can restrict movement and make activities of daily living uncomfortable.  By removing them with manual massage, we tend to see improvements in comfort and mobility either during the session or immediately after.

Step 2: Lengthen Short Muscular Tissue

Tight muscular tissue and fascia, as stated above, can hinder healthy movement patterns and add physical stress to associated joints.  Applying modalities such as deep tissue massage, myofascial release, and assisted stretching help restore ideal tissue length to allow your body to move more efficiently.

Step 3: Strengthen Weak Muscles

This is a step that doesn’t receive much thought — if any — in most massage therapy sessions.  We don’t stop at removing knots and lengthening the tissues that have been locked short.  For long term relief, we have to treat the muscles that have weakened in response to others being tight and hyper-contracted.

When one muscle group weakens over time, other muscles compensate by working more than they’re intended to.  Overworked muscles — stuck in a cruel cycle — become tight and irritated.  So we identify those that require strengthening and prescribe easy corrective exercises you can perform at home.  By strengthening the muscles that need it, our third step helps reduce the chances that the same muscles will become overloaded again.

Step 4: Mobilize Restricted Joints

A healthy joint is an adequate mover.  When joints lose their mobility, nearby muscles tighten to protect the area. It’s a natural maladaptation.  Improving joint range of motion revives natural movement and decreases strain on surrounding tissues.

Addressing joint restrictions alongside their supportive muscles makes for a more complete approach to improving musculoskeletal function.

The Bigger Picture

Let’s recap: Only in rare cases is pain the result of just one tight muscle.  A mix of muscle tension, weakness, restricted joints, repetitive motions, poor posture, injury, and daily habits are coming together and wreaking havoc.  Our 4-step protocol is designed to assess those pieces together and provide you with a customized treatment plan.  The pain shouldn’t be treated like it’s the result of an isolated incident.

What This Means for You

Each patient who comes through our doors is different.  Some need an emphasis on soft tissue, others receive the most benefit from strengthening or joint mobility exercises.  Our goal is always to create a health plan that helps you feel better after your appointment but doesn’t stop there — it also promotes healthier movement patterns in between visits.

Whether it’s chronic headaches, back pain, sports related injuries, or the all too common everyday muscle tension, the focus is on helping you move better so you can hurt less and be active.  Schedule your appointment with one of our specially trained therapists today and get started on the journey!

Resources

Coulter, I. D, Crawford, C., Hurwitz, E. L., Vernon, H., Khorsan, R., Suttorp Booth, M., & Herman, P. M. (2018). Manipulation and mobilization for treating chronic low back pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis. The Spine Journal : Official Journal of the North American Spine Society, 18(5), 866–879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spinee.2018.01.013

National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. (2018, December). Massage therapy for health : What the science says. Nccih. https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/providers/digest/massage-therapy-for-health-science

Noninvasive nonpharmacological treatment for chronic pain: A systematic review | effective health care program. (2016). Ahrq.Gov. https://effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov/products/nonpharma-treatment-pain/research-2018

Zhou, Y., Lu, J., Liu, L., & Wang, H.-W. (2023). Is exercise rehabilitation an effective adjuvant to clinical treatment for myofascial trigger points? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Pain Research, Volume 16, 245–256. https://doi.org/10.2147/jpr.s390386

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