Why You Should Get a Massage

By:  Matt Nicholson              April 14, 2017

Massage therapy is both physiologically and psychologically potent and as a natural method for healing. “How well you respond to an injury has everything to do with how tense you’ve been for the last ten years”.  Massage therapy manipulates and stimulates all of your skin, muscles, nerves, connective tissues, and joints.  Muscles are mostly water which means stiff and sore muscles are sick muscles.  Massage therapy can break the myofascial pain syndrome including waste products of metabolism and it also serves as a form of passive exercise, increasing circulation, waking up the enormous complex tissues of your skin and muscles by stirring the forces that keep them fit and vital.  We are tactile beings; the human body needs tactile stimulation which is often deprived. 

As the relief of massage therapy sinks in, people who get massages begin to sleep better and exercise more comfortably. Coordination is stimulated and injury becomes less likely.  In addition, the effects of stress and injury also become less severe.  Take care of yourself and invest in your body.  “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”.

How often should you get a massage?

Massage frequency should be dependent on what you seek from the massage.  If you are looking for massage therapy to relieve general tension, monthly massages may be adequate to sustain relief.  If you seek relief from chronic pain, acute injury treatment, or high levels of stress, however  treatments every week or two may be necessary.

25 Benefits of Massage Therapy

1 – Relieves stress

2 – Relieves postoperative pain

3 – Reduces anxiety

4 – Manages low-back pain

5 – Helps fibromyalgia pain

6 – Reduces muscle tension

7 – Enhances exercise performance

8 – Relieves tension headaches

9 – Better sleep

10 – Eases symptoms of depression

11 – Improves cardiovascular health

12 – Reduces pain of osteoarthritis

13 – Decreases stress in cancer patients

14 – Improves balance in older adults

15 – Decreases rheumatoid arthritis pain

16 – Tempers effects of dementia

17 – Promotes relaxation

18 – Lowers blood pressure

19 – Decreases symptoms of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

20 – Helps chronic neck pain

21 – Lowers joint replacement pain

22 Increases range of motion

23 Decreases migraine frequency

24 Improves quality of life in hospice care

25 Reduces chemotherapy-related nausea

How to Maximize the Benefits of Your Massage:

Water: Drink plenty of water following a massage to release and flush toxins from the body. Post massage hydration also helps promote circulation of blood flow and oxygen.

Stretching: Helps maintain joint mobility and prevents muscles from tightening up to keep the life energy flowing.

Exercise:  Working out should be continually cultivated and can help maintain the benefits of massage.  Exercise can help provide muscle memory to alleviate and prevent joint pain.

Body Awareness:  Listen to your body and know it’s demands and needs

Diet:  Support the body’s renewed state by eating a healthy diet rich in fruits and vegetables to continue the detoxification process of riding the body of toxins.

http://www.massagetherapy.com/articles/index.php/article_id/658/Making-the-Most-of-Your-Massage

https://www.amtamassage.org/articles/1/news/detail/3124


Local Indianapolis (Zionsville) Massage Therapy

Hack Your Pain- http://www.hackyourpain.com/

317-363-6708