What Happens During Massages?
Fascia and Referred Pain
Fascia is a thin sheath of fibrous tissue enclosing a muscle. Fascia binds all of your muscles together to basically combine all of your muscles into one single organ. This is why you can get referred pain. Referred Pain is when you have a Trigger Point or a "knot" in one area of your body that causes pain, numbness, tingling, or even a "pins and needle" sensation in another area of the body. This is commonly seen with Psuedo Carpel Tunnel Syndrome. This is when you get the same kinds of pain that you would get from actually having Carpel Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) caused only from muscular skeletal issues in your upper arm, neck, shoulder, and or chest. Many people get misdiagnosed as it being actual CTS, which is when the median nerve gets impinged between the carpel bones. At which point, surgery will be recommended and often times, the surgery will not help if the CTS is pseudo (False). So how do we take care of it? If you have referred pain caused by Trigger Points, we find the source of the pain or the problem and focus attention to that specific area to work out the Trigger Point. Which is very similar to untying a knot in the fibers of the muscle. Once the Trigger is taken care of, the muscle has more freedom to contract properly and have less restrictive effects on your range of motion. When there is less tightness in the muscle, there is less tension put on the muscles attachment points on the bones, giving you less pain and more freedom or movement.
Cupping Therapy
What is Cupping?
Cupping Therapy is a noninvasive form of muscular manipulation that is done using multiple different varieties of suction. A cup is used to create a suction, using some sort of systematic vacuum, against the skin that will affect the musculature below the skin. When a muscle is injured it suffers inflammation which is the overabundance of blood that rushes into an area. If inflammation is left untreated, the blood inside the muscle can become stagnant and rotten. This causes the injury to become persistent and chronic which can lead to excessive pain and long term loss of range of motion. The purpose of cupping is to draw the stagnant blood out of the muscle tissue and bring it to a more superficial level closer to the skin where it can be more easily flushed from the body’s system. As the stagnant blood is drawn out of the muscle and brought up to the “surface” a visible circle of multiple different colors may appear. These markings are not bruises though they can look similar in coloration. Bruising is the breaking of blood vessels that causes tenderness until the body has healed that area. The markings left from cupping therapy are sensitive only superficially within the first 12 hours after cupping. Cupping cannot be done in the same area until the previous marks from cupping are completely gone. If the markings are not completely gone it can cause damage to the skin such as blistering. After the stagnant blood is brought out of the muscle, fresh blood will rush the area to replace it with the ability to rinse the muscle tissue. This therapy is highly recommended as a follow up treatment for massage therapy as well as chiropractic care to immediately reduce the inflammation.
How long does Cupping take?
A complete Cupping session takes only up to 20 minutes. The cups are left in their specified location for between 10-15 minutes. We leave the cups for exactly 12 minutes. This time frame is the sweet spot of cupping therapy; it gives time to remove the inflammation without risking any damage to the skin.
What's the Cost?
While Cupping ranges in price from $50-$80 per session, our goal is always to make it affordable for you!
We only charge $35 to add cupping therapy to your Massage!