Massage and Scar Tissue

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Whether a muscle is damaged due to an accident, surgically cut or injured during use, you would expect that the body would repair the injury site with new muscle. In reality, this doesn’t happen; the injury is repaired with scar tissue.  Scar tissue is made from a very brittle, inflexible collagen fibrous material. This material binds itself to the damaged soft tissue fibers in an effort to draw the damaged fibers back together. What results is a bulky mass of fibrous scar tissue completely surrounding the injury site. In some cases it’s even possible to see and feel this bulky mass under the skin.

When scar tissue forms around an injury site, it is never as strong as the tissue it replaces. It also has a tendency to contract and deform the surrounding tissues, so not only is the strength of the tissue diminished, but flexibility of the tissue is also compromised.

Scar tissue can adhere to muscle fibers, preventing them from sliding back and forth properly. It can adhere to connective tissues, limiting the flexibility of a muscle or joint. And it can adhere to nerve cells, leading to chronic pain and other conditions.

Research has proven scar tissue to be weaker, less elastic, more prone to future
re-injury and as much as 1000 times more pain sensitive than normal, healthy tissue. Chronic pain is the result, pain that could remain for years after the initial injury.  Untreated scar tissue is the major cause of re-injury, usually months after you thought that injury had fully healed.

Ways to remove scar tissue

Massage therapy is one of the best treatments for scar tissue. While ultrasound therapy, chiropractic treatments, cold and heat will help the injured area, they will not remove the scar tissue. Only massage will do that.

In order for the body to heal and for muscles to function properly, all of their fibers need to be aligned in the same direction. A massage therapist will use deep tissue massage, neuromuscular re-education, cross fiber friction, active release techniques, my official release and contrast therapies to assist the body in healing the injuries, realigning the muscle tissue, breaking up excess scar tissue and improving nerve response.