Medical Massage Helps Muscles Recover and Relax

Medical massage helps muscles ‘recover, relax’

By EVA VASQUEZ on February 15, 2010

There is nothing quite like a nice, relaxing massage to unwind.  However, there is much more complexity to the massage world than just scented oils and hefty salon price tags.
According to its practitioners, massage can work wonders — not only for just stress relief, but also many other health issues.

Georgia Medical Massage owner Madison Gray strives to change public opinion by presenting doctors with empirical scientific data. Photo by: Lily Price

In Athens, there are multiple places that offer the benefits of massage at prices that work with a student’s budget.
Neil Versfeld, a fifth year housing economics major, goes to Georgia Medical Massage religiously to maintain his body, as he is training for the 2012 Olympics and international swim meets.
Formerly a swimmer for the University, Versfeld now swims for the South African National team.
As one could imagine, an athlete of this level puts a lot of stress on his body, so he uses massage therapy to help keep those overworked muscles happy.
“I come here regularly for muscular relief,” Versfeld said.
Versfeld is on a membership plan at GMM, which is just one of the deals they offer to keep the therapy affordable for all.
There is also a student plan for University students at $39 dollars a massage, compared to the typical $80 massage one will find at upscale spas.
But with that extra $41 goes the mud masks and fluffy treatments.
Georgia Medical Massage seems more like a doctor’s office than anything resembling a spa, but that is what GMM owner, Madison Gray, prefers.
Versfeld and other clients of Georgia Medical Massage who simply want to soothe their muscles and their minds would receive a regular therapeutic massage, but GMM also offers a medical massage where the therapist will use neuromuscular, deep tissue and trigger point therapy techniques to address medical issues.
“Medical message is differentiated by the fact that a doctor gives a prescription and the recipient goes to a massage therapy place with the prescription,” Gray said.
So once a person is given a prescription by a doctor, how does the person know what massage place to go to? According to Gray, that is the issue.
“Doctors are willing to give the prescription — the quandary we are facing is that there is no clear system,” Gray said. “There is no guild or political body that exists to differentiate with specific guidelines.”
Gray takes pride in her efforts to set medical massage apart from other massage therapies, by striving to provide doctors with empirically-based data on a patients’ progress.
“My definition of medical massage is that a specific pathology exists as defined by the doctor and the massage therapist is capable of providing measurable results, allowing the doctor to see progress,” Gray said.
In order to do this, Gray has created a complex system to get these measurable results, including a SOAP — subjective objective action plan — note that she gives to the doctors.
The medical massage therapy Gray practices is a long process of several sessions, and one will not experience anything close to a massage until the fourth session.
The first three sessions are typically comprised of pain reflex releasing techniques and in-depth assessments of posture.

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