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Deep Tissue Therapeutic Massage

Neuromuscular Re-education (NMR) - It's the soft tissue injury solution!

As part of his practice, Dr. Hess uses a deep tissue massage developed to effectively treat soft tissues injuries.  This technique – known as Neuromuscular Re-education, or NMR – combines chiropractic adjustments with deep tissue massage and specific exercises that help reeducate the area of the body in dysfunction.

Damaged muscles are not only painful, they severely limit full range of motion and normal joint support and function.

While the deep massage work of NMR can be intense and often uncomfortable, the problem area of the body responds almost immediately to treatment.  You usually feel better right away!

Patients will usually notice a greatly improved range of motion and function as well as a significant decrease in pain.  These beneficial effects are lasting ones and usually only a few treatments are needed to significantly – and, in many cases, completely – eliminate pain and restore function.  A successful treatment ends with the worked area feeling more supple and healthy – more like it did when you were a kid.

When a muscle, tendon, ligament, or any soft tissue area of the body, is injured, the body handles the trauma through inflammation and fibrous healing.  (In other words, the tissue becomes inflamed and then is repaired by the body through the creation of “scar tissue” on and around the affected area.)  Adhesions, pain, and dysfunction can occur wherever this inflammation and scar tissue response occurs in the body, limiting strength, range of motion, and mobility, and causing pain.

These adhesions pull us out of a healthy structural orientation.  As a result, a ripple effect can occur in the body – an injury at the shoulder for instance, can substantially reduce range of motion, force new movement patterns, and lead to dysfunction not only in the shoulder girdle, but in the arm, down the back, into the neck, and throughout the body.

Freeing the Adhesion Is only part of the battle!

Each person has a subtle, complex and unconscious perception of his or her own body.  When you have pain and limitation of motion due to an injury, you adapt your body - and your body image - to protect that area of injury and fit that limitation.  That unconscious action can persist long after the injury has resolved.  NMR works to restore the body to its normal, healthy patterns.

It isn’t enough to simply fix the problem.  A patient must be convinced that the problem – and the pain – is really gone.  Otherwise, a patient will continue to favor and protect the area, based on habit and muscle memory.

For instance, patients may limp for several months after a hip or leg problem has been eliminated.  That’s why the most important part of NMR is helping the patient adapt new behavior and movement patterns to support their new pain-free and healthy reality.

NMR results are often dramatic.  While most patients report temporary soreness following a session, the soreness is a small price to pay for the long-term good that this amazing technique offers.