Massage Therapy Ottawa

Sore muscles resulting from playing sports, sitting at your desk all day, or doing an activity over and over can impact your body’s performance, comfort levels, and overall well-being. If you experience aches or have difficulty moving around, our registered professionals at Expert Physio Plus offer massage therapy in Ottawa to help you recover.

We use various techniques to loosen tight areas and aid quicker and easier healing. We’re here to ensure you can return to your daily routines without pain. Contact us today to learn more about our therapeutic massage treatments.

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What is Massage Therapy?

Massage therapy uses various techniques to manipulate soft tissues, like muscles, ligaments, skin, connective tissue, and tendons. Depending on the type of massage, our therapists will apply pressure with their hands, forearms, or even elbows. Intensity applied to areas of the body depends on the conditions you’re dealing with and the goals you want to accomplish from the session. For example, light manipulation is excellent for relaxation and relieving tension, while more intense pressure targets deeper muscle layers.

At Expert Physio Plus, our massage therapy in Ottawa can help you with many different concerns, whether you are tight and sore, have sustained an injury, or just need a moment to relax. Often, we will integrate this therapeutic practice into our other services, like physiotherapy. Our multidisciplinary approach ensures you’re getting the best treatments for your unique needs, so you can restore the movement in your body and take on your regular routines with less stiffness and pain.

Types of Therapeutic Massage

Therapeutic massage promotes tissue healing, so you can return to the activities you love as quickly as possible. We offer different types of massage therapy at our Ottawa locations, each with its own purpose and technique. These include the following:

Swedish Massage

This type of massage targets the uppermost layer of muscles to relieve tension on the surface. On top of reducing pain and stress, Swedish massage therapy relaxes your body, increases blood flow, and can promote fluid drainage in swollen areas.

Our massage therapists may use a variety of strokes, including smooth, gliding movements, circular motions, squeezing, kneading, or tapping. This type of therapy is perfect for you if you:

Are an athlete and need to relax your body before or after training
Want to relieve stress (body tension or mental stress)
Need help coping with conditions like fibromyalgia, chronic pain, or arthritis
Have tightness from sitting at your desk for too long or engaging in repetitive movements or positions

Myofascial Release

This type of massage targets myofascial tissues (the thin connective membranes that support and protect your muscles and bones). Pain typically originates from these tissues when they become trapped and constricted, which can happen from an injury or continuous strain. These spots are called “trigger points” and need to be located and released.

Generally, your physiotherapist will massage the myofascial and find stiff or tight areas. They will feel for knots or small bumps in the muscle until the issue is located. Then, your therapist will apply light pressure and use stretching techniques to work on the spot until the tension dissipates. Myofascial release may benefit you if you:

Have myofascial pain syndrome, carpal tunnel syndrome, fibromyalgia, or other conditions
Experience chronic headaches
Feel a sense of intense pressure and pain in muscles and joints

Deep Tissue Massage

Our deep tissue massage therapy in Ottawa uses firm pressure with slow strokes to reach the deeper layers of muscle and connective tissue that may have adhesions or “knots.” We will work on these points to break up scar tissue and knots to release pain, make movement easier, rehabilitate injured muscles, and reduce symptoms of chronic conditions such as arthritis and fibromyalgia. Deep tissue massage may be the right therapy for you if you:

Are an athlete
Have an injury (due to sports or other accidents)
Experience chronic pain or specific conditions

Sports Massage Therapy

You know the amount of effort it takes to be good at your sport if you’re an athlete. The amount of training and planning is seemingly endless, whether you're practicing for a marathon, contest, recital, or big game.

Since you spend lots of time training your muscles and tissues to perform as you want them to, this can eventually contribute to discomfort and pain. This experience is a slight setback, but it doesn’t change the fact that it temporarily impedes the training process you’ve worked so hard to achieve. That’s where therapeutic massage for athletes comes in. It helps:

Loosen up muscles to alleviate pain
Increase your range of motion
Restructure the body so you can improve your physical performance and get back in the game
Reduce the risk of future injury

Therapeutic massage for athletes is also an excellent proactive practice to help you before beginning a vigorous exercise regimen or engaging in your sport. By working to promote mobility and loosening and relaxing your muscles before you train, your body will reach higher performances and be more agile and flexible throughout the process. These forward-thinking measures will decrease your risk of strains, sprains, and tears.

Why are Soft Tissues so Important?

Soft tissues are connective tissues that link your muscles, bones, blood vessels, and nerves. They also support your organs. They include:

Muscles
Tendons
Ligaments

Soft tissues are essential because they help mobilize your joints and give your body the strength it needs to perform tasks. While they allow you to perform many movements, they can also limit you when you push yourself too hard. Exceeding these limits may cause pain and injuries.

Specific stresses can cause damage to soft tissues, especially repeated actions from athletic activity. If these areas are not looked after through proper stretching and form, the soft tissue may tear or get stuck — increasing the risk of injuries. Engaging in massage therapy, regular stretching, and even physiotherapy is vital for maintaining and growing your abilities and avoiding permanent injury.

What are Soft Tissue Injuries?

As mentioned above, soft tissue injuries are caused by different stressors like overuse, repetitive motions, or lack of stretching. As a result, you may experience discomfort and decreased mobility. Here are some examples of soft tissue injuries:

Torn tendon: Failure to stretch before or after exercise can strain a tendon, causing it to tear and produce a significant amount of swelling and inflammation.
Sprains: This soft tissue injury is common in athletes and is caused by an over-stretched ligament, also resulting in swelling and pain.

No matter how you sustain a soft tissue injury, therapeutic massage can help relax your muscles, promote recovery, and even prevent future issues that may permanently hinder your ability to do the things you love.

Contact Our Clinic About Massage Therapy Today

We often don’t realize just how vital our soft tissues are for daily functioning. It is crucial to optimize the health of these areas because they work hard to ensure your body moves and adapts in the way you want it to. If you’re ready to experience the transformative benefits of massage therapy in Ottawa, book an appointment at our Gloucester or Orleans location. Our registered massage therapists are here to discuss our techniques and methods and how they will improve your mobility, performance, capabilities, and well-being.

Why are soft tissues so important?

Soft tissues help in mobilizing your joints and give your body the strength it needs to perform tasks. Your soft tissues provide you with the ability to do many things; however, they also limit you from pushing yourself too far - even if that’s your intention.

Your muscles are made up of many small, thin fibers that contract on command, working together to mobilize your muscle groups.

These muscles are attached to your bones by connective tissues, called tendons, enabling them to move your body parts. Your bones are then connected by tough bands of connective tissue, called ligaments, for added stability. Your ligaments are covered by yet another connective tissue called fascia. All of these connective tissues can be referred to as “soft tissues.”

These soft tissues can be damaged by certain stresses, especially those caused by the repeated actions within the athletic activity.

A tear in the tendon causes you to experience a significant amount of swelling and inflammation. Many athletes also experience sprains, which is caused by a ligament stretching farther than intended.

These injuries may occur in response to the intensity of your sport, but they can also occur if muscles simply are too tight before you begin one of your workouts. Therapeutic massage can help with this, as it relaxes the muscles, and may even prevent some of these injuries from occurring in the first place!

Contact our clinic about massage therapy today!

It is important to help optimize the health and function of your soft tissues because they work hard to make sure your body is functioning correctly! If you are in Gloucester, ON looking for massage therapy services, request an appointment at Expert Physio Plus. Our Gloucester, ON Registered massage therapists are happy to discuss our t massage therapy methods with you and how they will benefit your physical performance.

Therapeutic massage therapy for athletes

You know the amount of effort that it takes to be good at your sport if you are an athlete. The amount of training and planning is seemingly never-ending, whether you're practicing for a marathon, contest, recital, or big game.

You need to train your muscles and tissues to perform the proper ways you want them to, which can eventually contribute to discomfort and pain. This is a slight setback, but it doesn’t change the fact that it temporarily impedes your training process.

That’s where therapeutic massage comes in - it helps loosen up the muscles to alleviate pain and increase range of motion. This helps restructure the body so you can improve your physical performance and get back in the game!

Therapeutic massage can be extremely beneficial for athletes, both before and after their training process.

Sports massage therapy can also be used before you even begin your rigorous exercise regimen, targeting the specific muscles and tissues that see the most use for your sport. By working to mobilize, loosen, and relax these muscles before you train, you can help them stay limber throughout the process. This will decrease your risk of strains, sprains, and ruptures.