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Heat Therapy: Making Muscles More Malleable

Heating muscles during a massage can result in deeper relaxation throughout the body. Learn how heat affects muscles in this Groupon study.

A heating pad, a hot bath, an electric blanket—heat makes us feel comforted and cozy all over, but it works on a smaller scale as well. In the massage studio, heated stones, bamboo rods, or even special tables relax muscles to allow for easier manipulation, especially of the soft tissue around joints. Heat makes each muscle fiber more flexible, so that it can be stretched farther without risk of injury—when you “warm up” before a workout, you’re literally raising the body’s temperature by a couple degrees to get this effect. This lets the massage therapist work out knots buried deep within muscles. Heat also increases blood circulation, washing out some of the byproducts of inflammation and sending in a fresh dose of oxygen and healing nutrients that set to work on injured tissue. Finally, the effect of heat on the skin can actually alter a person’s perception of pain, decreasing the discomfort of the treated area.

Though heat ups the relaxation factor of any massage, it should not be applied on skin that is bruised, swollen, or otherwise wounded. Similarly, conditions such as deep-vein thrombosis, diabetes, and being a snowman might react negatively to thermal treatments.