My Thoughts Aloud

Massage: a lifestyle or a treat?

Many people consider massage an occasional treat limited to holidays, birthdays and other celebrations. Quite a few take massage for a one-time treatment. But just for a moment, imagine people exercising to stay fit only on holidays! You might disagree and state that it’s absolutely different because performing sports strengthens health, builds up muscles and makes your figure slim.

It’s true. But there’s more to it. Sports do not relax or stretch muscles, do not return them to their normal condition nor prevent from inflammatory processes striking.

That’s when massage comes in handy.

By the way, take notice that every sports team has a massage therapist in its ranks.

Of course, you might object that sportspeople endure a greater physical exertion. However, people on physically demanding jobs also undergo considerable pressure. They need a relaxing massage as much, to return muscles to their normal state.

In this respect, it may seem that people leading sedentary lifestyle would not need massage at all. But reality is the contrary. The truth is that desk-bound workers may overstrain some sets of muscles even more, staying in the same position for long work hours, day after day.

Moreover, despite differences in methods, sports and massage share common goals. Like sports, massage increases blood circulation and it leads to metabolism boost and fat burning, including in problematic areas where dieting and sports have no effect. Besides, massage improves body posture by stretching relaxed muscles, resulting in spine straightening making the patient appear taller.

Unlike yoga, Pilates and other methods aimed at muscle stretching, massage can effectminor muscles, for example, neck and shoulder ones that often undergo pressure and negative influence originating in sedentary lifestyle.

In most cases, even when we treat ourselves with a massage, we would usually choose day spas where the basic treatment provided by the massage therapist is a gentle massage along the entire body. Generally, this type of massage takes only 45-50 minutes. Clients would refer to it as “a bliss-out”, while professionals would simply put it as “spreading oils all over the body.”

Bear in mind that day spas, usually employ therapists without much experience, often recent graduates. Another cause for the failure to get a proper massage at a day spa is the poor salary paid to those specialists, and it’s understandable because very few would do their very best for so little.

It is amazing that a person, who had experienced a professional massage treatment and felt its beneficial and curative effect, would not make it a part of his life. Furthermore, I witnessed situations where people agreed to surgery rather than to alternative medicine that definitely would have helped, only because the former was free of charge at their Medical Care Center.

Needless to say not everyone has the same attitude. A lot of my clients receive massage regularly to stay fit and healthy. Unfortunately, there still are more people who wait until the last moment to avail themselves of my services. Some of them make excuses such as lack of time, while others blame it on financial difficulties, mistakenly considering that it’s too expensive.

I often wonder why, even today, massage is regarded as a treat rather than a lifestyle. I would appreciate your opinion in this respect.