How Chiropractic and Massage Therapy Work Well Together

Many patients get massage to accompany their adjustments, and many ask why I feel that the two forms of treatment work well together. Let’s consider the reason for the adjustment in the first place. As I have stated in the past, I like to refer to the need for an adjustment from restrictions in the spinal joints. Now we can consider why the restrictions can occur. One of the most common reasons would be tightness in the muscles, whether it is due to injury, sitting at a desk too long, driving for too long, stress, etc. When the muscles around the spinal joints are tight, the spinal joints will be held tight and restricted in their motion, or the amount of movement that they should have. Adjustments can very easily relieve this restriction and therefore relieve the tightness in the muscle, but sometimes the tightness in the muscle can hold the spinal joints with such restriction that it can be difficult to adjust those specific joints, and sometimes patients have to come in for a couple of visits before the muscle relaxes enough to allow for a really good adjustment. This is when massage therapy can come in. Massaging the muscle can increase blood flow, and relax the muscle, which can allow for more movements in the spinal joints and allow for an adjustment to take place. Patient will often tell me that they went to get and got a massage and that it felt better for a short time, a day or so, and then the pain came right back. This is mostly due to that the massage alone helped to relax the muscle, but could not relieve the restrictions in the spinal joints, therefore the tightness returned. This is why I feel that massage therapy and Chiropractic adjustments work very well tighter, and it doesn’t surprise me that patients get such relief from the combination of treatments.