Should I Have Massage & Chiropractic Together?
Why do massage and chiropractic work so well together?
A common conversation in the clinic between the team and our clients is around dual therapy care. Massage goes hand in hand with chiropractic due to the nature and the effect that they both have on the human body.
What Do Chiropractors Do?
So let’s start by talking about each individual therapy. Chiropractic principally focuses on the spine because it houses the nervous system. The why behind Chiropractic is that we’re trying to get the spine in the best position so the nerves can carry the messages to every single, cell, organ, gland, tissue, joint, to allow the body to function as optimally as possible.
When you have any issues with the spine, for example falls or bumps, trips, postural issues over a period of time or perhaps all familiar for you-working from home for the last 12 months. Then often this can put pressure on the spine and this stress the nervous system.
The most common type of nerve stress we see and you will be familiar with is Sciatica. The nerve is trapped in the base of the spine from pressure and it causes pain down the leg. So the idea behind chiropractic is to get the bones of the spine as aligned as possible so the nerves can work optimally.
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What Do Massage Therapists Do?
Now massage therapy, the theory is to improve the blood flow through the body. You’re trying to improve the circulation of vitamins and oxygen and get the soft tissues in the best position longer term.
With massage therapy, they will use soft tissue techniques with their hands to stimulate oxygen, vitamin to get around the body and to heal the muscles that way. It often takes longer as you need to get deeper in to the tissues to move the blood.
So who should you see first, a chiropractor or one of the massage therapists? Well, there is no right or wrong. We prefer having the adjustment first and then massage after because that’s what a lot of our clients have told us they prefer.
A lot of the time, some chiropractors would prefer to have the massage done on their client and then they can adjust afterwards. It’s all personal preference for you. We can work with whatever you would like.
So why are they so important and integrally linked?
Well, imagine if you did have a lower back issue and there was a disc pressing on the sciatic nerve and the muscles around the area are tight causing more and more problems. Well, then this is going to cause the muscles to tighten up.
If you just had a massage to loosen the muscle, what’s going to happen to the pressure on the disc? You need to have some sort of manual therapy to move the bones to allow the disc pressure to come off. But if you just do the adjustment, then the muscle is still going to be tight. So it’s really important that you have dual care to allow the quickest healing time but also the best resolution so the problem doesn’t keep coming back in the future.
We work with two sports massage therapists, Oli and Mike, who are part of the West Chiropractic Team and a large percentage of our clients are having the dual care has decreased the healing time, improved the benefits that they’ve seen and the outcomes overall, going back to their goals much quicker.
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