Chiropractic and Massage Therapy for Pain Relief:

Chiropractic and skilled massage therapy is a great combination for pain relief. Recently, I've read a few chiropractic magazines which featured articles dealing with soft tissue injuries. These soft tissues would include your muscles and connective tissues. I believe in chiropractic, but I believe that you also need to treat these soft tissues, in most cases.

As a massage therapist and personal trainer, I have spent almost 4 years working in two chiropractic clinics. Skilled massage therapy can be a great adjunct to the chiropractic adjustment. It makes sense that by removing excess tension from the muscles, the adjustment will be easier and likely have longer lasting effects.

There are various forms of massage therapy. Most people may only think of massage as relaxing, something you go to a spa for, or as a way of pampering yourself. Yes, it can definitely be used this way to help relieve stress and increase your circulation. But there are also specific techniques that deal with pain and injuries.

One of these is myofascial release. Myofascial release is a form of therapeutic stretching developed by a physical therapist named John Barnes in the '60's. I have used it many times while working in chiropractic settings with good results. Sometimes MFR and the chiropractic adjustment were all that was done. Other times, it was combined with deep tissue massage for more permanent results.

The two doctors of chiropractic I worked for were both highly skilled - one conducts seminars nationally and the other works with a professional sports team. When I worked with their patients, those patients saw even further benefits than they would have received from just the adjustments. Many times the bones can be misaligned because of the surrounding muscles and connective tissues.

Sometimes these tissues are too tight and pull too much on the bones, and other times they may not be pulling enough - they are too weak. Often these muscles need some strengthening exercises to help support the joints. Many chiropractors use soft tissue therapy to make changes in these tissues, whether its some form of massage or therapeutic stretching.

They may do this themselves or have a massage therapist do this. General relaxation massage is not what is most effective in these cases, but more specific techniques are needed. I have seen many times where someone I was working with or a colleague, got better results than physical therapy did. You should know that obviously I believe in exercise, particularly to help support the joints.

In these cases, often a greater amount of soft tissue therapy was done to get these results. In an article I recently found, a chiropractor talked about having some upper back pain that got relief from the adjustments, but came back here and there. He received a myofascial release treatment to the muscles of his chest, which were too tight, pulling him out of alignment.

The pain left and had not returned. Two things to take from this - one, that skilled soft tissue therapy is often needed along with the chiropractic adjustment, and two, our bodies need to be balanced front to back, side to side, etc. Myofascial release seeks to treat the connective tissue that surrounds the muscles, called fascia.

This fascia can become tight from trauma, inflammation, and chronic poor posture. There's that P -word again. Chiropractic and skilled massage therapy can do a lot to improve your posture, but ultimately you have to retrain yourself to stand and move while properly aligned with gravity. You will also need some proper core training to stabilize your spine.

For more information on myofascial release, click here.