When pain and tension progresses to the point that it can no longer be ignored, it can be a confusing process to figure out which pain management approach fits best for your specific needs. If you’re anything like me, you likely made an appointment with your medical doctor with the hope of finding a quick and easy fix — you might have even had some imaging done only to be told that there is no obvious problem. While the results vary from person to person, generally most trips to doctors of medicine for pain relief are unproductive unless there is a very obvious injury or point of trauma.
Unfortunately, this is where the confusion starts for most people because in the absence of a solution from our doctors, most of us end up performing a simple google search for “how to manage _____ form of pain” which results in being bombarded with advertisements and biased information that seeks to convince you that their particular approach is the best for your needs. This can lead to a frustrating and unproductive experience if you happen to be convinced to try an approach that doesn’t work for your unique situation! Personally, I started out my pain management journey with massage therapy which eventually led to me attending a massage school and becoming a massage therapist.
By entering this line of work, I’ve had the opportunity to work closely with Chiropractors and Yoga practitioners and Physical Therapists and as a result I feel that I have a pretty solid understanding of the basic philosophy that each different approach follows. In general, all of these approaches seek to improve your posture and release pressure off of the particular joints that are causing you pain, but each approach uses a different strategy to reach that goal. In an attempt to save you some frustration and confusion (and money), I wanted to take some time to describe these differing philosophies along with what you can expect when working with each different type of practitioner.
While there is a huge list of alternative options, I will focus on Massage Therapists, Chiropractors, Physical Therapists, and Yoga practitioners. My hope is that by the end of this post, you feel informed enough to make a decision about which of these popular approaches will fit best into your life.
How do Physical Therapists Help Manage Pain?
A Physical Therapist prescribes exercises that are designed to gradually correct misalignments that are associated with your pain. They operate on the logic that certain muscles associated with good posture become weak due to prolonged poor posture, traumatic injuries, and/or chronic overuse.
When working with a Physical Therapist, you can expect an exercise plan that’s designed to strengthen these weakened muscles along with some manual therapies that attempt to release the restrictions that are keeping your body in a state of pain. Some things to keep in mind when committing to Physical Therapy is that you will be required to commit to a long term treatment plan as well as performing routine exercises at home. You should also keep in mind that they tend to work with clients who have very specific injuries, so you should expect treatment focused on a specific problem rather than a full-body approach.
In general, a referral from your Medical Doctor is required to work with most Physical Therapists; however, some people who struggle to receive a referral are choosing to work directly with Physical Therapists without help from their insurance. This practice of working directly with Physical Therapists is becoming more common as a result of people becoming very driven about taking their pain management into their own hands.
While some Physical Therapy offices are adapting to accommodate customers who want to pay for their services without help from insurance, you will likely find that it's still relatively pricey to go this route at many PT offices.
How do Chiropractors Help Manage Pain?
The philosophy of Chiropractic care is much more oriented toward a full-body approach to pain management. Chiropractors are intensively trained to correct the alignment of your spine with spinal manipulations (back-pops) that seek to ensure that your body is functioning as optimally as possible. While they still seek to help improve your posture and relieve pressure off of specific muscles and joints, their overall approach is much more systemic than what you would receive with a Physical Therapist.
The benefit of these spinal manipulations is improved mobility and posture as well as increased blood flow and improved nerve supply to the joints and muscles that are experiencing pain — all of these effects are known to aid in reducing pain. Some things to keep in mind when working with a Chiropractor is that they generally expect you to commit to a long-term treatment plan that usually starts with 2-4 visits per week and ends with a recommendation for semi-regular maintenance visits.
If you’re going to go this route, it’s important that you commit to the process because it takes time to train your tight muscles to accept a more proper alignment — without frequent visits, you will typically see that your old “muscle memory” will pull you back out of alignment. Another thing to keep in mind is that treatments are relatively quick compared to other services which can lead to some patients feeling as though they aren’t getting enough focus work. While this is a major factor to consider when deciding if Chiropractic is right for you, I do want to note that most people find that in the short term, Chiropractic care is great for pulling your pain levels out of the crisis zone and in the long-term it’s great for correcting structural issues that help to get your body back to a happy place.
One final note is that it is generally easier to get a referral from your Medical Doctor for Chiropractic care than it is to get one for Physical Therapy. The referral is a necessary step if you’re seeking use your health insurance to cover the service, but Chiropractors are accustomed to working direct with customers if insurance isn't willing to help and typically prices are fairly reasonable.
How do Massage Therapists Help Manage Pain?
There are many reasons that getting a massage is beneficial, but when it comes to using massage as a form of pain management it really boils down to two major factors that make massage therapy great for reducing pain and tension.
The first factor has to do with the increased circulation and warming of the tissues which results in a faster recovery time — you can think of this as an indirect pain relief benefit of massage.
The second factor has to do with reducing tension in the muscles that are responsible for pulling your body out of alignment — you can think of this as a direct pain relief benefit of massage.
This ability of massage to release the tension in muscles that are pulling you out of alignment make massage a great complement to both Physical Therapy and Chiropractic care. While the Physical Therapist seeks to train you to strengthen the muscles so that you can “pull” your posture back to a better place, the Massage Therapist is able to relieve the tension in the tight muscles that are pulling your joints out of alignment in the first place. In this way, you could say that massage helps to ensure that there is less resistance to the Physical Therapy treatment plan.
And while the Chiropractor seeks to manually adjust your spine back to a more natural alignment, the Massage Therapist is able to relieve tension in the tight muscles that are known to pull you back out of alignment. In this way, you can say that massage helps to decrease the likelihood that your old muscle memory will pull your spine back out of alignment. While many people are beginning to advocate for Massage Therapy’s potential to be a stand-alone pain management service, I typically warn clients that some other lifestyle change or wellness practice is usually required in between massage sessions in order to truly work towards a pain free reality.
If you’re expecting a Massage Therapist to be the one-stop-shop for ending chronic pain, I recommend that you adjust your expectations. In general, people love massage due to the ability to use it for quick relief on an as-needed basis. While no long-term commitment is necessary in order to add massage into your self-care regimen, the effects are usually greater when committing to regular sessions, making lifestyle changes in between session, and/or receiving massage alongside routine care from other professionals.
How do Yoga Instructors Help Manage Pain?
While some pain management professionals would scoff at the fact that I include yoga I the list of possible solutions, the reality is that many people who commit to yoga long-term are able to find a degree of relief that works well enough for their needs.
In short, Yoga Instructors guide you through controlled movements and stretching (usually in a group setting) with the ultimate goal of improving overall flexibility, strength, and respiration. If you recall the approaches of Physical Therapists, Chiropractors, and Massage Therapists that I described above, you should be able to see how increased flexibility and strength align with the goals of other pain management approaches, but you might be wondering how increased respiration (aka breathing) can be associated with pain relief.
Well, the most obvious answer is that better breathing means more oxygen in the blood which results in improved recovery time, but the benefit of deep breathing that you might not realize is that it actually helps to increase the movement of your lower back, shoulders, and neck.
The reason for this is that the majority of the muscle groups around your spine are required to expand to allow for you to breathe and if you have chronically short breathing then these muscles aren’t being allowed to expand as much as they would like to expand.
While Chiropractic and Physical Therapy can assist with improved breathing to some degree, many people find that the controlled group setting of a Yoga practice (or the quiet time of a massage session) makes it easier to dedicate time to be mindful about breathing deeply.
Conclusion:
I tried my very best to take a non-biased approach that simply conveys information that will help you to make an informed decision, but as a Massage Therapist I do have to admit that I have some pretty strong personal opinions regarding which approaches are the most practical. My personal approach that I take with my own body is a combination of stretching, a Chiropractic adjustment every 1-2 months, a monthly massage, and minor weight lifting focused on muscle groups that are opposite to the ones that I overuse while working.
This combination is practical for me since the stretching and corrective exercises come at no cost other than the time that it takes me to do them and they pair well with the massage and Chiropractic approaches that I have been taking with my body. As a Massage Therapist, I understand that what works well for your body could be quite a bit different than what I prefer to do with my body.
That's why I seek to keep myself as educated as possible about what approaches other professionals are taking so that I can try to adapt my massage services to complement whatever other therapies that you are currently receiving. At the end of the day, my main goal is to help you find more practical ways to feel better.
Feel free to reach out anytime if you'd like more information or if you'd like to schedule some time for a massage!
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