Massage chairs and low back pain.
As a chiropractor, low back pain was a daily part of my practice. We found that having a massage chair in our waiting room for patients to sit in actually provided therapeutic benefits while they waited for their chiropractic treatment.
But how does a massage chair help with low back pain?
As with most musculoskeletal issues, massage chairs use rollers that travel up and down your back. These rollers knead and tap, working the paraspinal muscles—the muscles that run along both sides of your spine.
In the low back, the rollers also affect the quadratus lumborum muscle, as well as the gluteal muscles and the piriformis muscle. So, a number of important muscle groups are being addressed as the rollers move along your spine.
Another key benefit of the rollers is not just muscle relaxation, but also the introduction of motion into the spinal segments. This can help improve your range of motion. You may find that you can bend more easily, move side to side with greater flexibility, and rotate more comfortably.
All of this is part of the overall benefit of massage chairs when dealing with musculoskeletal problems—especially in the low back, which is a very common source of pain for many people.
There are limited options for treating low back pain outside of massage therapy or exercise. We’ve found that massage chairs can work deeply into the muscles, including the glutes and the areas under the seat, which are often involved in low back issues.
So, you’re essentially addressing a wide range of contributing factors simply through the use of the chair’s rollers.
I hope you found this video helpful.
I’m Dr. Alan Weidner from Massage Chair Relief, and I’ll see you in the next video. Bye-bye.