Back pain may occur from an injury or from acute tightness in muscles. Even a small tear in a muscle can be very painful. Because the body’s natural defence mechanism is to tighten the surrounding muscles to prevent the injury spreading, this can be enough to stop you in your tracks.

Long-term tightness in muscles can also cause major problems by squeezing the nerves that feed the legs. This ‘sciatic’ pain can be unbearable but is one of the back problems most successfully treated by massage.

If you have back pain, how do you know that massage can help you? Try these simple tests and see.

1. You pulled something and the pain hasn’t gone away on it’s own after 2-3 days

2. You feel pain or a dull ache in your back even when not moving

3. Your back tends to ‘stab’, ‘catch’ or pull when making particular movements

4. You can’t walk far or do any exercise without pain

5. You get pain down your legs or a numb or tingly feeling in your legs or feet

If any of these are true for you, then massage could help get you back to rights.

Unless there is a structural problem or a specific medical condition, these signs are typical of muscle, tendon and ligament tightness. Massage can relieve these symptoms and keep you symptom-free afterwards.

If you would like to be moving freely and doing the things you want to do, give me a call. We can have a free consultation on the phone and see whether massage is suitable for you.