Increasing Flexibility By Using Stretching with Massage as a Combined Technique

INTRODUCTION

Massage is a powerful modality for preventing dysfunction, aiding the healing process and promoting patient or client relaxation.  Adding proper stretching techniques while doing the massage can enhance the elongation of muscles.  Combining these two modalities in one technique make a very powerful and beneficial treatment.  The goals of increasing abnormal range of motion by increasing the elasticity to muscles are as follows:

1.         To increase muscle elongation thereby reducing injury potential to the muscles and tendons.

2.         To enhance muscle recovery potential from injury by optimizing soft tissue healing.

3.         To reduce muscle spasm and soreness.

4.         To identify sub-clinical muscle conditions.

5.         To enhance performance potential at work and at play.

6.         To promote relaxation.

7.         To relieve joint stiffness and muscle tightness resulting from the aging process.

Stretching tight muscles can be uncomfortable especially if stretching is done improperly by untrained persons.  Professionals know that stretching should be done slowly without bouncing and with a good warm up process before the stretch.

Therapists have found that many of their patients or clients that have a variety of dysfunction have been helped by either massage or stretching.  I have found in my many years as an experienced physical therapy practitioner that combining massage and stretching is much more comfortable and relaxing to the patient than doing stretching alone. Also, I have found that obtaining normal range of motion is easier to achieve with the combined technique. This technique warms the muscle groups and elongates the muscles with massage pressure and the manual stretching when done simultaneously.

My patients have stated they have had much less discomfort, in fact they have made statements such as, “That felly felt good,” or “I have never had such a powerful stretch without pain.”

In order to practice the techniques in this manual the therapists must review their knowledge or normal range of motion.  The therapist must review their kinesiology so that stroking and stretching is done in the proper direction. They should be familiar with dysfunction and pathological problems of hypomobility and hypermobility.  The therapists should always compare the contralateral range of motion.  This instruction manual is written to provide manual techniques.  It is not intended to go into detailed pathological and dysfunctional conditions though a few obvious conditions will be discussed.

Some of the general procedures throughout this manual are listed below.  Many of the procedures are similar for each illustration and each method. Therefore, I have not repeated the same procedures and methods with each photograph.

1.         Have the patient or client breathe properly.  They should not hold their breath while the stretch is taking place.  Have the patient inhale first and exhale during the combined stretch and massage stroke.  The therapist can breathe with the patient to assure proper breathing rhythms.  Breathing techniques help enable the patient or client to be completely relaxed.  If the patient is working against the therapist the stretch and massage should be temporarily stopped and the therapist should said until the patient relaxes.

2.         Contract-relax and other proprioceptive techniques can be used in conjunction with the massage and stretching methods.  The purpose of this manual is not to go into these methods, however, they certainly can be used before, during, or after the massage and stretching.

3.         Obviously the therapist must know the contraindications for massage and stretching.  Some of these are mentioned for review.  By no means is this manual intended to be a massage textbook, so, I have not gone into detail on indications and contraindications.

4.         I have illustrated on the photos with arrows, the stretching and massage directions. Each arrow will have an “M” for massage and “S” for stretch or both “M and S” on the arrow if the direction is the same.

5.

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