Active Release massage involves massaging a muscle while it is actively being moved by the patient. It is a form of deep tissue massage that targets the whole muscle through its full range of movement to help stretch, lengthen and release muscles at a deeper level.
This type of massage is used to treat various ailments resulting from playing sports, cumulative trauma, acute injuries, and everyday wear and tear. These injuries are all a result of overused muscles.
Over-used muscles (and other soft tissues) change in three important ways:
- acute conditions (pulls, tears, collisions, etc)
- accumulation of small tears (micro-trauma)
- not getting enough oxygen (hypoxia)
Each of these factors can cause your body to produce tough, dense scar tissue in the affected area. This scar tissue binds up and ties down tissues that need to move freely. As scar tissue builds up, muscles become shorter and weaker, tension on tendons causes tendonosis, and nerves can become trapped. This can cause reduced range of motion, loss of strength, and pain. If a nerve is trapped you may also feel tingling, numbness, and weakness. Headaches, back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, shin splints, shoulder pain, sciatica, plantar fasciitis, knee problems, and tennis elbow are just a few of the many conditions that may be helped with active release massage.
For prices on these or other services available, see ourPrices page.