Recovering from pain and injury isn’t just about getting a quick adjustment or doing a few exercises. While chiropractic care and physical therapy (PT) are valuable, they often miss a key component that can take recovery to the next level: soft tissue work.
The typical 5 to 10 minutes of soft tissue treatment included with chiro and PT sessions isn’t nearly enough to address the root of muscle tension, adhesions, and restricted movement. That’s where focused medical massage, myofascial release, and other soft tissue techniques come into play. Here are four reasons why adding dedicated soft tissue work is a game-changer for pain relief and recovery:
Looking to get out of pain?
See how we can help you!
1. Soft Tissue Work Targets the Source, Not Just the Symptoms
Chiropractic adjustments can help realign the spine and joints, and PT exercises can strengthen weakened muscles — but neither fully addresses muscle tension and adhesions that limit movement and cause pain.
Medical massage and myofascial release go deeper by breaking up fascial restrictions and improving blood flow, which helps the body heal more efficiently.
Muscle, fascia and tendon soft tissue are all tissue that pull on bone. Without the soft tissue your bone would be free-floating so it bears to reason that muscle and fascia needs to be addressed for long term results.
2. Mo’ Time Means Mo’ Results
Chiropractors and PTs often spend 5 to 10 minutes on soft tissue work, which isn’t enough to make lasting changes. A focused session of 30 to 60 minutes of targeted soft tissue work allows the therapist to work through layers of muscle tension, release trigger points, and restore proper function. Consistency matters — the more time spent addressing muscle dysfunction, the better the outcome.
For example, when you combine 10 hours of soft tissue work with 4–6 hours of PT, you create a powerful recovery environment that promotes healing rather just going back to where it was after an adjustment. At Body in Gear, your protocol includes an average of 500% more soft tissue work to heal your injury better.
3. More ST + PT= Better and Lasting Results
Strengthening exercises are critical for recovery, but tight, restricted muscles can limit your ability to perform those exercises correctly.
Soft tissue work helps release muscle tension and improve joint range of motion, allowing you to get more out of your exercise. When your muscles aren’t fighting against you, you move better — and heal faster.
To illustrate this better – try resting your chin on your chest/sternum. Now try pulling your shoulder blades together. Interesting right?
If your neck is straight as it should be, it’s much easier to retract your shoulder blades normally. This shows how tightness in certain areas can restrict ROM where it matters.
4. Pain Relief Without Relying on Adjustments
Chiropractic care can provide immediate relief by adjusting the joints, but if tight muscles are pulling the joints out of alignment, the relief won’t last. Soft tissue work helps to reset muscle tone, reduce inflammation, and improve overall muscle function — which helps those adjustments stick longer.
You’re only as strong as your weakest chain in the link. Soft tissue is now known to improve pain and injury at a faster. Add these soft tissue work into the mix and see your results skyrocket.
Just to recap
- Body in Gear utilizes 500% more soft tissue work in our treatment protocols to give you lasting results quicker and with minimal effort on your part.
- When PT and chiropractic are done alone, with minimal work on the soft tissue, it leaves desired results on the table.
- It makes more sense to do more soft tissue work (medical massage, myofascial release, cupping, etc.) in your plan as these tissues provide the glue to attach bones together – without them the bone would blow away in the wind.
- Soft tissue work makes exercise easier because looser muscle and fascia means better ROM.
As always we appreciate you tuning in and reading. Thank you from the bottom of hearts! We always plan to keep the content and resources free, and you tuning in helps keep it that way. If this helped with your headaches or relieve bugging neck/shoulder tension – we just ask that you share this with the people that are going through the same thing.