Stretching and Massage

By Potomac Massage Training Institute

. https://www.pmti.org/

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Stretching and Massage

It makes sense that coupling stretching with your massage sessions is an effective tool to use in your practice. It just seems to fit naturally into massage, as an effort to lengthen and open areas in need. There are many reasons why tissue gets short and tight and sometimes even painful to move about in daily activities.

The effectiveness of stretching is usually reported as an increase in joint range of motion (ROM); for example, knee or hip ROM is used to determine changes in hamstring length.

But, what if the increase in ROM (which can be caused by a lengthening of the tissues involved around a particular joint), is instead due to an increase in the tolerance to the stretch?

Neurologically, desensitization does occur in our system as repeated actions are taken, as with stretching activity. Generally, pressure on one area of the body will begin to feel less noticeable over time and with repeated occurrence. So, while we assume the tissues are lengthening, it may just be a less restrictive recoil of the nervous system (that alpha/gamma loop of input and response by the nervous system) due to the repetition. Something to consider in what we hold to be the reasoning behind greater ROM. Either way, an increase in the range is welcomed and sought after in most instances. After all, less pain on movement is generally what a client is most interested in as an outcome.