If you suffer from frequent back pain, therapeutic massage might be able to help. This type of massage releases spasms and tension in your muscles, which often leads to pain relief. Here are a few things to know about this type of treatment.

How Muscle Tension Causes Pain

When your muscles are under chronic stress, the tension causes small spasms or knots in the tissue. These spasms prevent the normal flow of blood and nutrients to the muscles. This causes pain in the area of the spasm, and it can also cause referred pain, numbness, or tingling elsewhere in your body. Therapeutic massage targets these knotted areas in your muscles. Once the muscles are relaxed, blood flow improves and pain diminishes.

How Therapeutic Massage Is Done

This type of massage is a little different than a relaxing massage that uses long sweeping strokes. Instead, the therapist uses deep pressure to locate sore spots in your muscles. He or she may use a fist, elbow, or massage tool and press it deep into your tissues. Once a sore spot is located, pressure is maintained for several seconds at a time until the knot responds to the treatment. Since your muscle is sore anyway when it is in a spasm, a therapeutic massage may be painful. You'll need to constantly communicate with your therapist and let him or her know when the pain intensifies and when it diminishes. A single session could be enough to release the spasms that cause your chronic pain, but depending on your condition, you may need multiple massage sessions to get the best results.

What To Expect After A Treatment

The treatment leaves your muscles relaxed, so blood flow improves and the tissues become nourished and healthy again. You may be somewhat sore from the process, but the discomfort is temporary, and the pain relief is usually long lasting. However, if you return to the activity that caused muscle stress initially, then your spasms and pain may return much quicker. Therefore, you want to pinpoint the problem that triggers your muscle tension, so you can alter your behavior or lifestyle. Some things you can look at are posture, emotional stress, and poor body mechanics when you exercise.

Therapeutic massage alone may not be enough to totally eliminate your back pain when the pain is caused by nerve or disc problems. But when the pain is due to muscle tension, having a deep tissue massage could be just what you need to get relief. Contact a company like Mana Massage for more info.