Injury Treatment

The focus of an Injury Treatment massage is to identify the structures involved in the injury and apply the appropriate techniques to facilitate healing.

Deep Tissue

Deep tissue massage focuses on specific muscles of the body in an attempt to release deep tension. After sufficient warming up of the tissue, the strokes are applied slower than a traditional massage and incorporate a greater amount of pressure.

Trigger Point

Trigger points are a phenomena in a tight muscle that refers pain to a different area of the body. First discovered by Dr. Janet Travell (personal physician to JFK), trigger points can cause tremendous pain. Our staff are highly qualified to find and treat trigger points causing dysfunction.

Maintenance Massage

60-minute massage sessions focusing on maintaining and repairing fatigued and/or injured muscle tissue most used during activity. Allows the body to maintain its’ function for optimal performance.

Postural Analysis

Postural dysfunctions can cause a wide variety of problems in your body, such as scoliosis, flat feet, or increased curvature of the spine. These dysfunctions often cause your muscles to act as a brake against gravity rather than as movers of your skeleton. Qualified staff at IHC can assess your posture and make suggestions to improve your posture.

Myofascial Release

Fascia is a sheet-like membrane, laying just below the skin, encasing all the muscles of the body. A muscle cannot fully relax if it is bound to this membrane. Slow movements and light pressure are used to soften and stretch the facial tissue, in an effort to break up any adhesions.

Swedish Massage

The focus of Swedish massage is general relaxation, stimulation of circulation, enhancing muscle tone and is also therapeutic in reducing muscle tightness.

2008 Massage Therapy Consumer Survey Fact Sheet

Stress Propels Americans to Massage Therapy for Relief

Fifty-nine percent of Americans reported they are more stressed this year than they were a year ago, according to a survey sponsored by the American Massage Therapy Association® (AMTA®).

The current economic situation, or other factors, was found to be a source of great stress for 45 percent of Americans. Younger Americans and women have felt stressed out due to the economy or other factors. Fifty-five percent of those ages 25-34 say they are greatly stressed by the economic situation, and 51 percent of all females agree.

Massage therapy for stress reduction

People are using massage for relaxation/stress reduction more than in the past. The number one reason people say they got their last massage is relaxation/stress reduction.

• This year, 36 percent of Americans said they got a massage for stress and/or relaxation in the last five years; compared to 22 percent last year.
• Thirty-eight percent of Americans say they have considered massage to manage stress

Health Benefits of Massage

Cancer
A study published in the journal Cancer studied 4,139 cancer survivors about their use of complementary medicine.

• 11.2 percent of cancer patients use massage as a complementary therapy.
• 16.6 percent of female cancer patients, and 3.9 percent of male cancer patients use massage.
• Massage was found to be an especially popular complementary therapy with breast and ovarian cancer patients.

Sports Medicine
In a first of its kind animal study, conducted at Ohio State University, researchers tested the benefits of massage in a sports & fitness setting.

• Muscles massaged after exercise recovered an estimated 60 percent of strength in the following days, compared to restoration of about 14 percent of strength in muscles that simply rested after exercise.
• Muscles massaged after exercise had fewer damaged muscle fibers and virtually no sign of white blood cells, compared to rested muscles. The absence of white blood cells indicates that the body did not have to work to repair muscle damage after exercise.
• The massaged muscles weighed about 8 percent less than the rested muscles, indicating a reduction in swelling.

Massage for health reasons finds a strong audience among the young and old

Baby boomers most likely to seek massage for medical/health benefits:

• Among those who’ve had a massage in the last five years, 41 percent of those 55-64 and 44 percent of those over 64 received their last massage for medical/health reasons.
• Younger Americans, aged 18-24, were the next group most likely to seek massage for health reasons; 34 percent reporting having a massage for medical/health reasons.
• Twenty-three percent of those in the 25-34 age group reported getting a massage in the last five years for medical/health reasons.