What is soft tissue therapy?
Soft tissue therapy is a modern discipline combining traditional massage with other soft tissue techniques to offer better and more tailored treatments. It uses a set of advanced soft tissue techniques originally developed by osteopaths that are now commonly used by soft tissue therapists as integral part of their treatments. These techniques are applied on specific muscles or muscle areas to help release tension in the deepest layers where traditional massage alone would not be very efficient.
Soft tissue therapy is a combination of direct and indirect techniques (muscle energy technique, soft tissue release, positional release, myofascial techniques, friction, etc.) that a therapist selects and applies individually to meet the needs of each particular person. This can depend on age, health condition, pain tolerance, type of injury or the person's specific needs.
While general massage has a rather whole-body approach, soft tissue therapy focuses on specific areas, so it can provide more efficient treatments. It's ideal for the treatment of chronic injuries caused by poor posture, stress and repetitive movements, overuse injuries or injuries during sports. It speeds up the healing process and recovery after injuries and operations, helps with rehabilitation and offers sports and lifestyle advice.
What is the difference between "soft tissue" (therapy) and deep tissue (treatments/massages")?
Even though it sounds like soft tissue is the opposite of deep tissue, it is not the case in the context of physical therapy. Soft tissue therapy (aka Sports massage) is more general term to describe a type of physical/massage therapy used to facilitate body movements [ and which parts of the body are targeted: the soft tissues of the body - i.e. muscles, ligaments and tendons, - as opposed to "hard tissues" which are bones. So soft tissue therapy includes deep tissue treatment techniques amongst others. ,includes deep tissue treatments means therapy of the body's "soft tissues" - i.e. muscles, ligaments and tendons, used to facilitate body movements - as opposed to "hard tissues" which are bones.
While deep tissue treatments are specific massage techniques to affect the deepest layers of muscles, soft tissue therapy is more general term, and is used to treat soft tissues anywhere on the body, including deep tissue.
What are the benefits of soft tissue therapy?
Soft tissue therapy is a versatile discipline that can be applied to anyone, regardless of age or physical condition. It combines various techniques that the therapist chooses and applies depending on the person's condition and needs. Some of them can be more uncomfortable than others, some of them are more suitable for older people, others are better for younger people or athlethes. It's all very individual and depends on the person's mobility, pain tolerance, age or specific health condition.
It's especially efficient to treat long-term (chronic) injuries that develop over time through build-up of tension. This is usually due to poor posture, incorrect sports techniques, repetitive movements, lack of exercise and weak postural muscles. Through its indirect techniques it can release tension in the deepest layers of muscles where application of traditional massage techniques alone would not be very effective.
Soft tissue therapy works with specific muscles or muscle areas and, especially in combination with general massage, can provide more efficient treatment of the most common minor musculoskeletal problems.
What is the difference between massage and soft tissue therapy?
In short, soft tissue therapy is more complex. It's the most advanced form of massage on the market. Both massage and soft tissue therapy are manual therapies used to release tension in muscles and other soft tissues of the body. While traditional massage usually includes only application of direct techniques, such as effleurage (= longitudinal slow strokes), petrissage (= grabbing and lifting of the tissue, a.k.a. "kneading"), tapotement (= quick, energetic but shallow slapping strokes) and friction (= intense and focused pressure), soft tissue therapy is a complex system that uses both traditional direct techniques but also advanced indirect soft tissue techniques developed by osteopaths. Soft tissue therapy can be applied either alone or in combination with massage.