Five Reasons To See A Massage Therapist

Occasionally I meet people who, upon learning that I’m a massage therapist, tell me things like, “That must be nice. Sometimes I get one for my birthday!” While I do love doing birthday massages, what they are really telling me is that they think massage is just a special occasion treat. It’s not a priority. However, I think regular massage is essential for a number of health reasons. Here’s my top five benefits of massage.

Massage Recharges Your Internal Battery

Massage is an efficient way to regroup. Life can sometimes feel like a series of curve balls and challenging “growth events”, as we navigate personal and work relationships, thorny issues, and major life events. One of the immediate benefits of massage is a feeling of deep relaxation and calm. Massage releases endorphins - brain chemicals that create feelings of wellbeing. Stress hormone levels (adrenalin, cortisol and norepinephrine) drop during a massage. I think of it as “hitting the reset button” or a mini-vacation - and you can do it within just one hour. A new perspective allows you to face big challenges with a fresh take and renewed energy.

Massage Can Increase Range of Motion, Strength, Flexibility and Mobility

The most plentiful type of tissue in your body is connective tissue. As the name implies, it connects all the parts and major body systems together so they can work in harmony and balance. 

When a person sustains an injury, either from an accident, overuse, or just repetitive movements, the connective tissue responds. It stabilizes weak areas, which is great - but commonly overcompensates. Think of it as a box with a small tear and very heavy packing tape reinforcing the area. In a human body, the over-stabilized area is very strong in one direction, but impedes flexibility, range of motion, and strength.

Massage can bring the system back into balance. Massage uses specific techniques to break down excess connective tissue, active weak muscles and deactivate overstimulated muscles. It gets you back to doing the things you love to do.

Massage Supports Mental Health

We are in the midst of a cultural revolution around the transparency of mental health issues. Anxiety and depression, and things like panic attacks and PTSD are all incredibly common parts of the human condition. It’s important for us to have this awareness so that support is available to people when they need it.

Massage supports mental health by regulating the nervous system. It temporarily shifts us from “fight or flight” to “rest and digest.” This decreases anxiety, and lowers both heart rate and blood pressure. The levels of stress hormones such as cortisol, drop, and “feel good” hormones like serotonin and dopamine, rise. For people who are always in fight or flight, it’s incredibly beneficial to experience an easier, different way of being, and to know that this state is achievable by their own body.

Many mental health studies suggest that human connection is a huge support in both management and recovery. Therapeutic touch is specifically called out, because it can provide this human connection, and is such a great adjunct to mental health treatment.

Massage Complements Other Self Care Practices

- Exercise. When you exercise, you push your muscles until they become strained and fatigued, stressing them so that they build more muscle. Chemical reactions occur that result in soreness (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, or DOMS). Massage is an excellent tool to use for muscle recovery, and decreased soreness. and for the inevitable small strains and sprains that crop up during training, massage keeps tissues in balance, periodically restoring range of motion, flexibility, and strength.

- Complementary Medicine Practices. Massage is a natural companion to things like chiropractic care, acupuncture, physical therapy, and occupational therapy. Massage supports each modality physiologically, chemically, and energetically, making them more beneficial than if they had been performed alone. For example, after a surgery or injury, massage is often an integral part of treatment plans designed to help patients return to full function and daily activities.

Massage Therapy Provides Safe and Comfortable Touch, which is a Human Need

During the earliest stages of human development, the outer layer of the embryo gives rise to the entire nervous system, sensory organs, and skin. In other words, the nervous system and skin are inextricably linked. When a person is touched, this stimulates and communicates with their entire nervous system.

Studies have shown that babies require touch to survive. Prolonged touch deprivation is linked to a failure to thrive and the inability to create social attachments when it happens in infants and young children. In elders, it’s linked with shorter lifespans and more illness. In fact, touch is a human need, at all stages of life. But we happen to live in a society with few appropriate venues for physical contact.

Massage is one of the only modalities that provides touch, in a safe and nurturing environment. It offers support, comfort, and human connection. 

Bonus: Massage Feels Good

When was the last time you felt amazing? Everyone wants to feel good.

Massage is a highly beneficial modality, and an integral part of wellness strategy in many situations. It’s not a luxury but a necessity. Don’t underestimate what it can do for you.

Let's Talk Sciatica

Chances are, nearly half my clients will struggle with sciatica at some point in their lifetime.

Most people have a vague sense that sciatica is some kind of lower body pain. I find that during intake, massage clients often describe any unwanted sensation in the low back, hip, or leg as “probably sciatica.”


What’s Sciatica?

True sciatica is damage to the sciatic nerve, which runs from the hip down each leg. 

However, there are other reasons that a person may feel the exact same symptoms, ones that don’t involve nerve damage. Causes are varied and numerous. Doctors typically put both under the same umbrella term of “sciatica”. 


You Feel...

Nerve sensations. This can include mild to severe:

  • Nerve pain (typically burning sensation, or a pain similar to electrical shock)

  • Pins and needles

  • Numbness

  • Muscle weakness


Where?

The hip and leg. Usually it’s down just one leg, but sometimes both can be affected. It can refer into the low back area as well. It’s most often felt down the back of the leg, but can also refer around to the front of the leg as well.


It's Caused By...

  • True sciatica: Anything that damages the sciatic nerve, like an acute injury.

  • “Non-true” Sciatica: Anything that interferes with nerve signals from the sciatic nerve, typically from issues in the surrounding structures. It could be tight muscles squeezing the nerve, or a skeletal issue that’s impinging the nerve. (Hint: These are the most common cases, and it's here that massage can really provide huge benefit!)

  • Pregnancy sciatica: During pregnancy, a lot of people get a temporary case of sciatica. It typically resolves post partum.

Obviously, if you think you have sciatica, see your doctor for a diagnosis and treatment plan. The good news is that most cases of sciatica resolve by themselves in 4-6 weeks - tho they are often not a pleasant 4-6 weeks.


Massage Can Help

While massage can’t treat the nerve damage from true sciatica, it can address the associated muscle spasms and tightness, which reduces the amount of pain you feel.

And for all those other cases of sciatica, where the underlying issue isn’t nerve damage, massage can often be truly helpful. 

Sciatica impingement issues most commonly come as the sciatic nerve bundle passes through the more complex structures in either the low back or hip (read: many layers of tissue creates less space for the nerve to safely pass through.) So best massage strategies are addressing any areas of tightness or restriction in these locations. 

And in both cases (true sciatica and non-true sciatica), you’re often holding your body in special ways to avoid pain during everyday activities, say walking or standing. This creates overuse in muscles not involved in the injury - that’s called compensation. It may be helpful to broaden our focus, identify those areas, and work on them as well.


Schedule a Massage 

If you suspect you may have sciatica, massage could be helpful for you. Schedule a massage, and let’s get you feeling better!


Common Causes of Neck Pain

Nearly every day I see clients with neck issues. Did you know that an estimated 40 million Americans struggle with neck pain?

Common Causes of Head and Neck Pain

1. Injuries to ligaments

2. Strain from loss of range of motion in the neck

3. Chronic accumulation of muscle tension in the muscles of the face and neck

Ligament Injuries

There are 18 ligaments in the neck. They attach vertebrae, one to another, to allow for relative movement. The vertebra have “sticky outy bits” ie., attachment points, called processes. Some are in the back of the neck (spinous processes), and some are on the sides (transverse processes) - those places are where the ligaments live.

Massage can improve some ligament issues, and/or sometimes these issues heal over time.

Strain from Reduced Range of Motion

Range of Motion diminishes for many reasons - our use patterns, or it can happen slowly as we age. We may not even notice it happening. Issues occur when we suddenly “overdo it” by suddenly doing a task that takes the neck past its end range. This can cause a strain across the structures of the neck: muscles, tendons, fascia, ligaments, and joints.

One example: imagine that for the past decade, you’ve slept on your back every night with giant, fluffy stacked pillows. Your neck is craned far forward for 5-8 hours a day on those stacked pillows. After a decade passes, even during the daytime, your head has shifted forward of your body, and you lose a lot of your neck’s range of motion. One day you are startled by a loud noise from behind you. You swivel your head suddenly and strongly to see what the issue is… past your range of motion. The next day you are sore, and it feels like you’ve strained something.

Good news! You can restore and maintain range of motion yourself by stretching and watching your ergonomics. And of course massage is always here to help.

Accumulated Muscle Tension

Millions of people suffer from tension headaches*. Chronic tension in the face and back of the head (occipital region) are a common source of these.

A good rule of thumb: a “normal” number of tension headaches is 3-4 per year. 

Massage therapy is very effective in reducing frequency and intensity of headaches resulting from muscular tension. 

*Note that migraines are different than tension headaches, with more widely varied causes. For those, massage might help, but there are more effective modalities I might turn to first.

Obviously, this isn’t a comprehensive list. These are just some of the most common neck issues, from the perspective of a massage practice. There’s also acute injuries like whiplash, and referred pain from other issues. Every person is unique when it comes to their health issues.

Massage Can Help 

If you’ve got a sore neck, and you suspect massage might be helpful for you, book a massage, and let’s get you feeling better!

Upper Cross Syndrome: How Massage Can Help

I used to have such trouble with upper back pain when I worked in tech! As a 20-something, I worked long hours in front of a computer with an aspirin bottle next to my keyboard. I eventually learned that a lot of my issues were due to Upper Cross Syndrome, and that massage was an excellent way to dial down neck and shoulder pain.

What’s Upper Cross? It’s a combination of Tight and Inhibited Areas.

Tight: Muscles along the black line are super tight and over working: in the front of the body, the Pecs are Short and Tight (hint: these are the real key to the issue!) In the back of the body, it’s the upper back: Traps and Levator Scapula are Overstretched and Tight.

Inhibited: Muscles along the blue line are inhibited. That's the neck flexors in the front of the body, and Lower Traps in the back of the body.

It feels like severe tightness in the upper back, “between shoulder blades” or “tops of shoulders.” And often neck pain.

Sometimes also:

  • Limited range of motion, ex. in the shoulder, or “I can’t turn my head”

  • Tension headaches

  • Anxiety. Head forward posture is part of the muscular pattern of the startle response. Staying engaged in this muscular pattern can cause your nervous system to assume you are perpetually in Fight or Flight, and to release the associated stress hormones.

Common in:

  • Tech workers who are stationary for long periods on laptops, or at a desk

  • People who do lots of driving

  • New moms. Holding a baby in your arms for long periods of time, with head to one side, looking down at them

  • People with skeletal issues, like extra degrees of curvature in the thoracic spine (read: a rounded upper back.)

What’s Happening in the Tissue? Short and Tight pecs are overactive, engaging for nearly every upper body movement, even when they shouldn’t. Over time, Short and Tight muscles are unable to return to a resting state, which inhibits the muscles responsible for opposing movements. The pecs act as pulleys - they pull the upper body and neck forward, sometimes with great force, causing muscles on the upper back to stretch all the way to their end range and beyond, and stay there. So, upper back muscles become overstretched, tight (actually taut), and painful.

When your chest caves in from tight pecs, your head moves forward of your body. And it takes a lot more strength to keep your head up and your eyes level to the horizon from here. (Think: the strength it takes to hold a bowling ball up, with the weight centered over your forearm, versus holding it shifted a few degrees forward.) Stabilizing your head becomes more difficult, and your body begins recruiting nearby muscles to help, usually those overstretched upper back muscles - Total overload!

Massage can help! The physical impact of massage is mostly to relax, ie, elongate muscles. So this is one of those interesting cases when getting “massage where it hurts” in the upper back feels good in the moment, but is actually elongating an already overstretched area, without addressing the shortened muscles that are pulling you forward - in this case, only working where it hurts puts you farther into dysfunction.

A massage plan with more lasting impact: Release the pulleys. Releasing the “short and tight” pecs allows you to return to a more normal posture. This, in turn, releases the force on the overstretched upper back muscles, letting them return to a normal resting length. (Yes, we typically work on the upper back as well, to check for trigger points, and also... hey, it feels really nice!) Pain levels go down, you see more ease of movement, and more normal range of motion.



Does this sound like you? Book a massage, and let’s get you feeling better!