Why We Love Soft Tissue Techniques (And You Should Too!)
Love is in the air, and we wanted to take a moment to declare our love for soft tissue techniques, sometimes known as deep tissue techniques. Soft tissue techniques are the perfect companion to chiropractic care and we don't think they always get enough credit. Read on for some of our reasons why we think you should love these techniques too!
What are Soft Tissue Techniques?
First things first, you may be asking what these techniques are. Soft tissue techniques are a collection of methods that manipulate your soft tissues. This can look like pressing on your pressure points (known as trigger point therapy), acupuncture, or STMI (soft tissues mobilization via instrument) or electrical stimulation of your soft tissue. Your chiropractic doctor will likely use these deep tissue treatments and therapies to supplement and compliment their adjustment of your spine and joints.
Longer-Lasting Adjustments
Manipulating your soft tissue offers many benefits. For one, it allows your adjustment to hold longer. Our muscles learn patterns; if we have been out of alignment for any length of time, our muscles want to pull our bones right back out of alignment after a chiropractic adjustment. The addition of soft tissue techniques gives your muscles permission to relax and learn new patterns; which helps your body maintain proper alignment for longer periods of time.
More Effective Adjustments
If you are especially tight, your chiropractor at Sioux Falls Chiropractic may chose to use deep tissue techniques before your adjustment as well. This allows your muscles to calm down and essentially "get out of the way" of the doctor's efforts to perform an adjustment.
Relaxation
Most of our patients really enjoy soft tissue treatments. In fact they often seek out the soft tissue techniques and ask for it! If we have a patient who is especially tight, the experience of soft tissue manipulation can sometimes cause a little pain. But this pain is temporary and is almost always followed by an increased range of motion and feeling of calm. At Sioux Falls Chiropractic, we are always careful to make sure our patients are comfortable, so we ease into all our treatments and follow your lead to stop if the treatment causes pain. Chiropractic care should be relatively pain free! Our goal is to manage your pain, not cause it!
You Can Do It From Home
There is one soft tissue treatment that we can recommend you do at home, and that is foam rolling. Foam rolling involves moving your body over the top of a hard foam roller that helps relieve muscle tension and increase blood flow. Our rehabilitation specialists at Sioux Falls Chiropractic can show you the proper techniques for foam rolling at home if that is something that you and your chiropractor believe could benefit you.
We know that most Valentine's week posts don't involve love for soft tissue therapy, but we hope you can forgive us for being so excited about all the benefits it has to offer! If you want to experience deep tissue techniques for yourself, give us a call today!