Benefits of Massage

How does Massage benefit you?

There are several reasons people choose to receive a massage. For some, it is a stress-reliever, for others it allows them to participate in the daily activities of life. In my practice, I encourage you to commit to regular massage sessions. The benefits can truly only be realized and maintained. Listed below are a few of the most common benefits of receiving regular therapeutic massage:

• Increased Relaxation - Mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically.
• Reduced Stress - The body naturally reacts to positive and negative stress. The reaction causes your body to increase the production of cortisol** and puts your body in the "fight or flight" response. The only way to combat the effects on the body is put it into a state of physical relaxation.
• Increased Flexibility - Massage helps lengthen muscle tissue and break-up scar tissue, allowing the body to move more easily and bend.
• Improved Balance - By increasing the awareness of how your body feels and where your body needs help. Additionally, the nervous system can be stimulated to function at a higher level.
• Decreased Pain - In two ways: 1) manipulating the soft tissues of the body to increase circulation and increase the rate of repair to a damaged or overused area; 2) depressing the nervous system and the pain receptors in a local area.
• More Energy - By increasing the blood flow, circulation of nutrients, and removal of toxins, the body feels energized and performs more efficiently.
• Increased Awareness - Full-body massage brings your awareness to areas of the body that were otherwise never touched, never known to be tense or painful, or never realized the potential for use. Chronic pain dulls the body, thereby cutting off receptors in the skin and muscles.
• Recovery from Injury - Receiving regular massages as maintenance, comfort, a treat, recovery, pain management, or various other reasons allows the overall function of the body to improve. Muscles, skin, tendons, ligaments, respiratory function, heart function, immune function, organ function, lymphatic flow, and elimination processes all perform better and allow you as the client to perform better and recover faster from exercise, surgery, and daily activities.

*Benefits vary depending on specific modality, these listed are general benefits.

**Cortisol has been shown to increase the amount of fatty deposits in the body (especially in the abdominal area), increase risk for heart attack, heart disease, cancer, respiratory dysfunction, and many other medical conditions.