How Heat Can Help You Heal
Ever notice how great you feel after relaxing in the sun on a warm day! Heat is truly a powerful thermal agent, and it
is one that I just love!
Heat application to a sub-acute or chronic injury can help with pain relief, reduce muscle spasm, increase overall relaxation, increase blood flow, help speed tissue healing, and ease joint stiffness.
Heat can also make collagen tissue (i.e. - scar tissue) more pliable, allowing for passive stretch to help break up
adhesions and increase range of motion within a joint.
Although most heating agents do not actually penetrate very deeply into the body, they can cause effects in deeper
structures like muscles through reflex mechanisms. (Superficial heating agents such as hot packs penetrate to about a half a centimeter, applied for 6 to 8 minutes, or up to 2 cm with 30 minutes of exposure.) The benefits of heat are greatly increased if you combine it with exercise, so it is a great idea to warm a sore achy shoulder, and then perform some range of motion exercises to help mobilize and really get the blood flowing to the muscles and joints.
It is also great to warm an area up prior to massage, either self-massage or a professional treatment. This aids in
relaxing the area, increasing blood flow, and producing an analgesic effect, so the area isn’t as tender while being
worked on! The increased blood flow also helps carry away any toxins that are lying around in overworked
and/or stagnant tissue, so that your muscles can stay loose and relaxed after, thereby continuing to receive better
blood flow and nutrition after the treatment!
Talk about a win-win situation!
So the next time you feel a little achy (as long as you didn’t just injure yourself, and think it might be inflamed
- this calls for ice), plop on a hot pack for 15 minutes, then do some self-massage or range of motion exercises and
stretching to the area, and feel your pain melt away!
© 2007 Denise Mackinnon RMT
Denise Mackinnon is a registered massage therapist and health and wellness advocate.
You can sign up for her free “simple health ideas” ezine by going to her website at
http://www.denisemackinnon.com
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