Everyone knows what a massage is, right? It’s a way of treating yourself when on holiday or after a long day of work. A bit of a rub down that will loosen you up and temporarily let you escape the stresses of everyday life.
But what exactly is a remedial massage?
Most people these days have heard of remedial massage and might think that remedial just means that it’s a deeper, firmer massage. But it’s so much more than that.
The massage industry in Australia is unregulated which means that any regular joe can set up a corner shop that offers ‘massage,’ and we’ve all seen the countless amount of dodgy massage shops with neon signs up the front offering a cheap massage. But these people have no formal training and often end up hurting clients more than they help them.
To become a remedial massage therapist, you have to get a diploma, which means these therapists spend hours studying anatomy, physiology and biomechanics. This means they have a detailed and thorough understanding of your bones, muscles, joints, ligaments and tendons as well as all your other body systems and how they all interact and affect each other. They also study movement and the roles that the various soft tissues play in each stage of a movement sequence.
When you get a remedial massage, your therapist will take a detailed history and perform a thorough assessment so that when they treat you, they are working towards specific goals. It also helps to inform them whether a remedial massage is appropriate or not for you. They won’t just use sequences (as they do at day spas) and will focus on addressing your specific issues, whether its reducing pain, increasing range of movement, stretching or strengthening your muscles, correcting postural imbalances or helping to recover from an injury.
Remedial massage therapists are trained in various techniques and will select the ones appropriate to a client’s complaints. They will adjust their pressure to suit your needs and will keep an open dialogue during their treatment. They can work in conjunction with your doctor, physiotherapist, chiropractor or any other health practitioner to ensure you get the best results.
This doesn’t mean that you can’t get a good relaxation massage from a remedial massage therapist. In fact, a remedial massage therapists’ knowledge and understanding of human body functioning means they have superior insight into how to calm an overloaded nervous system and evoke the body’s parasympathetic response (the opposite of the ‘fight or flight’ response), which allows the body to heal and digest.
So now that you know that the difference between a remedial massage and a normal massage, you can choose what’s best for you. Speak to a remedial massage therapist at Centre 4 Health to discuss your options and make an informed choice. A remedial massage will help improve your quality of life, no matter what stage of life or dysfunction you’re at.
Centre 4 Health therapist provide the best Remedial Massage Caulfield has to offer. To book a remedial massage, you can call us at 9193 2170 or book online here.
Centre 4 Health – All your health needs in one place
What is the difference between a remedial massage and a normal massage?
Centre 4 Health
Remedial Massage Caulfield
368B Hawthorn Road
Caulfield South
VIC Â Â 3162
