How massage helped Chu recover from injury

33 year-old Chu was playing baseball for first time all season. As he slid into home, he collided with the catcher. His arm was pushed away from his body, and he felt pain immediately upon impact. Later, Chu had trouble taking off his sweatshirt. He felt pain when moving his arm and shoulder away from his body and couldn't reach as far as he normally could.

He made an appointment with his doctor, who diagnosed a strain of the rotator cuff muscles. The doctor offered to prescribe muscle relaxants and suggested that Chu rest the arm and take pain medication. The other option the doctor suggested was clinical massage therapy: specifically a 30-minute clinical massage twice a week for three weeks. Chu decided to try massage therapy.

On his first visit, the massage therapist asked about the injury, the level of pain, and what made the pain worse. She suggested the following massage treatments: cross-fiber friction, NeuroMuscular therapy, trigger point therapy, myofascial therapy, and compression of compensatory muscle groups (other back muscles that have to carry the work load due to the injury). She also suggested that Chu apply ice and do some passive stretching.

Chu completed his series of 30-minute sessions twice a week for 3 weeks with icing, stretching, and careful activity between appointments. At the end of the 3 weeks, he experienced significant lessening of pain and greater range of motion. He had no soreness in daily activities and less pain after baseball practice.

What Amanda needed to do for her back pain

Amanda has a 3-year old and 6-month old twins. While she has always been in good shape and exercises regularly, she had felt some back pain when lifting the twins and had gone for a relaxation massage. Then, when lifting one of the twins out of her car seat, she felt sharp pain that radiated down her right leg. She also had difficulty standing without pain.

She immediately called the massage therapist and described her symptoms and asked if she could come in that day to help relieve the pain.

The therapist instead strongly recommended that Amanda seek medical help right away to get a diagnosis. Amanda followed her advice and an MRI showed a disk related problem, requiring surgery. A few months later, after surgery to repair the disk, Amanda went back to the therapist for post-surgery recovery.

The therapist used trigger-point release and myofascial release to address the surgical area and tight muscles elsewhere and relaxation techniques to help Amanda regain a sense of vitality. Amanda felt an immediate sense of relief and much less pain at the surgical site.