14 Jan Chiropractic Soft Tissue Techniques for Healing
When you hear the word “chiropractor,” most people think bones and back cracking. You know, working with bones. However, there’s much more to chiropractic care than twisting necks and popping joints. Soft Tissues Techniques have long been used in the chiropractic field, but have only recently begun to get the attention they deserve.
Chiropractic comes from the Greek words “cheir” and “praxis.” In Greek, “cheir” pertains to the hand or hands and “praxis” mean practice or to treat. Put the two together and chiropractic essentially means to treat using the hands. Chiropractic physicians employ a wide range of tactics to treat their patients. While twisting bones into submission has a lot to do with the process, there’s a number of gentle and soft tissue techniques that are used as well. Acupuncture and Massage Therapy commonly used to alleviate pain and loosen tight muscles. But the two unsung heroes of chiropractic we want to discuss today is Intersegmental Traction and Soft Tissue Techniques.
Chiropractic Soft Tissue Techniques
Chiropractic Soft Tissue Techniques include any form of bodywork to your body’s soft tissues. So muscles, ligaments, tendons and connective tissue are all fair game. When our bodies are injured, stressed or worn, our soft tissues take a brunt of that beating. In fact, soft tissues can be some of the hardest injuries to treat. Soft Tissue Techniques work together to treat and manage body frame structures so that it can once again perform at optimal levels. In Soft Tissue Techniques, your chiropractic physician will apply firm, direct pressure to a hypertonic muscle – or an overly toned muscle. The muscle is then stretched and sometimes taped. We use Kinesio Tapeto help rehabilitate the muscle. Soft Tissue Techniques can be used on sprains, strains, bursitis, hypoxia, tendonitis and microtrauma tears. These techniques keep the muscle from becoming short or weak and keeps nerves from entrapment.
Intersegmental Traction
Intersegmental Traction is a chiropractic healing technique used to adjust the spine, but in a way that’s gentle and noninvasive. It works by using passive movement on the spine to stretch its joints and increase mobility. No sudden or jerking movements are involved in Intersegmental Traction making it a perfect solution for the first time or nervous chiropractic patient. The patient lies face up on the table with rollers placed beneath their back. The rollers are then moved up and down the length of the spine to stretch its joints in a massage-like motion. Stretched spinal joints allow blood flow and oxygen to circulate throughout the body more efficiently, as well as increasing mobility.