At Cristobal's Massage Sarasota we understand that everyone has particular requirements, and that these requirements change for individuals overtime. At Cristobal's, massage therapy sessions are skillfully designed to meet your specific needs, at that particular time. Typical primary goals for massage therapy are: Anxiety and stress elimination, improving your ability to cope with stress. Release your muscle tension and pain, thus improving body function and relieving discomfort. Reactivate your metabolism, thus increasing your energy levels during the day, and enhancing your sleep at night. Facilitate faster healing of strained muscles and sprained ligaments. Enhance athletic performance and recovery of overworked muscles. Providing greater joint flexibility and range of motion. Soothing the body and the mind.
For example, relaxation and the ensuing stress reduction might be the primary focus of your massage therapy treatments for some time. At another time the primary goal might be improving posture. After a weekend of sporting the focus might be the speedy recovery from a sports event. We at Cristobal's Massage Sarasota believe in the massive healing power of massage therapy. You will find descriptions of the most common bodywork techniques that we use below.
Therapeutic Massage is a general term for a range of body related therapies involving educated touch used to treat stress reduction, and treatment of chronic musculoskeletal problems. Massage not only feels great, it is also really good for your body, mind and spirit.
Swedish massage uses professional quality therapeutic touch, that is, direct manipulation of the soft tissues, with relaxation being its main purpose. Long gliding strokes, or effleurage, are used in abundance for their soothing effect. Swedish is normally a full-body massage.
Our goal is to meet each individual client's massage therapy needs, and in the field of treatment & performance oriented massage, our philosophy remains the same: Our massages take place in profound relaxation and comfort.
We use what you tell us, our intuition, and the massage techniques better suited for you at that moment. Some of the massage therapy techniques we use are: Neuromuscular Massage, Deep Tissue, Myofascial Release, Trigger Point Therapy, Orthopedic Massage, and Active Isolated Stretching. Sports massage helps to prevent injury, enhance and maximize athletic performance, and reduce recovery time.
Deep Tissue massage is a general term for a range of therapies that involve an understanding of the layers of the body, and the technique to work with tissues in these body layers to release holding patterns, to decompress joints, to enlarge muscles, all being achieved efficiently, with the client in perfect comfort and relaxation. A true deep tissue massage is quite relaxing and enjoyable. Deep tissue massage can be used to alleviate pain, correct deficient body posture or patterns, achieve more flexibility and better muscle tone.
Neuromuscular Therapy is a generic term that encompasses a variety of treatment approaches. Based on the concepts of tone receptor mechanism, reflex arc, muscle stimulation and positional receptors, it uses stretching, lengthening, gliding, friction, and static/ischemic compressions to muscles and trigger points to treat soft tissue pain and dysfunction, interrupting the neuromuscular feedback that maintains pain and dysfunction.
The focus of these techniques is the fascia system that energizes, supports and connects all of our tissues and that translates muscle contraction into organized movement. Myofascial techniques work on connective tissue, so that connective tissue works as designed. Goals here are to stretch and soften the fascia, resulting in the elimination of fascia attachments, restoring more ideal alignment and function, better movement, and reducing pain.
Trigger point therapy is one of the many techniques useful in the treatment of myofascial problems. A trigger point is a small area of hyper irritability in the muscle tissue, typically a point of innervation, that is painful in response to pressure, and that often refers or radiates pain to some other area of the body. Trigger points can refer pain patterns through the body. Trigger point therapy will consist first in assessment of the condition, and patterns. Trigger point therapy should not overwork irritable points, and is most often combined with a full body massage, for better effectiveness. Methods used in this therapy can involve neuromuscular therapy, body energy, direct manipulation of proprioceptors, positional release, and even myofascial release.
Aromatherapy is the use of pure essential oils and floral waters for therapeutic purposes, by using our sense of smell, or by applying essential oils on the skin for its healing properties. Humans process odors and aromas together with emotions, moods, and memories. A scent brings physical and psychological reactions, and some pure essential have wonderful healing properties when applied to the skin. We use essential oils in massage, diluted with either creams, lotions, or "carrier" oils, to nourish the skin and enhance the effects of massage. Some commonly used essential oils are:
Strain and Counterstain is a passive positional procedure that places the body or part into a position of greatest confort thereby relieving pain by the reduction and rest of inappropriate proprioceptor activity that maintains the dysfunction. Strain Counterstain relaxes hypertonic and spastic muscles, decreases fascial tension, reduces edema, decreases pain. strengthens flaccid muscles, facilitates neuromuscular reorganization, and increases circulation.