I have heard many people say when they got a soft tissue injury that they wished the limb would have broken instead. When a bone breaks you get a cast on it and it’s usually healed within a couple of months. A soft-tissue injury is usually more painful and requires a much longer recovery time.

According to WebMD a sprain is a stretch or tear in a ligament. Ligaments are bands of fibrous tissue that connect bones to bones at joints. A strain is also a stretch or tear, but it happens in a muscle or a tendon. Tendons link muscles to the bones.

The good news is massage can greatly speed up the healing time. Massage will relax muscles and increase blood flow, this will provide more oxygen and vital nutrients to help heal the injury. Never underestimate the benefits of relaxation, by relaxing muscles you will be releasing endorphins, oxytocin, dopamine, and serotonin (feel-good chemicals), the morphine-like effect from the endorphins works by blocking pain signals.