sore back and needing a massage
08
Nov

9 Reasons Massage is good for you

If you are looking for more reasons for booking a massage, other than ‘because it feels great’, look no further. Let’s face it, massage can make you a much happier person…but here are nine rock solid benefits of regular massage that make a compelling argument to book in for one soon!

1. Correcting problems in your body
With remedial massage, therapists are trained to assess your body, observe changes over time, and design individual treatment plans for each client. More than just feel-good massage, they can use specific techniques to address an individuals’ injury, postural or joint issues, as well as improving circulation, reducing pain and bringing a sense of general well-being.

2. Stress reduction
The importance of relaxation and well-being can’t be underestimated and one of the most noted effects of massage is a greater feeling of calm and relaxation. It reduces both emotional and physical stress, which is why it is often recommended in stress and anxiety treatment programs. The soothing, pampering benefits of massage encourage the release of endorphins – the wonderful chemicals that give us the feel-good factor. Conversely, those nasty stress inducing hormones such as norepinephrine, adrenaline and cortisol are reduced.

3. Immunity boosting
Due to the decrease in stress hormones, your immune system has a chance to work more efficiently, without impairment. In addition, massage increases circulation and improves lymphatic drainage, which again provide a boost to the immune system’s effectiveness.

4. Heightens mental alertness
When you are given a chance to relax and de-stress through massage treatments, your levels of mental clarity and alertness increase.

5. Releasing muscle tension and pain
Good massage techniques are a wonderful way of releasing trigger points, stretching and elongating muscles and breaking down adhesions. The therapist can focus on areas that are stiff, injured or just plain sore. By increasing the blood flow to the tissues and releasing the tension, massage not only helps alleviate the pain, but can also help eliminate toxins and oxygenate the cells.

6. Increased joint mobility
By releasing muscle tension around joints, the range of movement in the joint can be increased. When a joint is no longer hampered by stiffness, muscle function can return to support and improve joint movement.

7. Improved postureMassage helps relieve a lot of tensions, particularly in the neck and shoulder areas, common in those who sit a lot or use a computer at work. Lower backs are also prone to tightening from prolonged sitting. Remedial massage can help remedy these problems by lengthening the muscles and balancing out the body for improved postural alignment.

8. Improved skin tone
Massage can help give you healthy and toned skin – it will reduce tension in the skin and adjoining tissues as well as increasing circulation. Increased circulation in and under the skin can aid the nutrition cycle and encourage cell regeneration. Happily, massage also stimulates sebum production, helping to improve suppleness, moisturising and softening dry skin.

9. Eliminating ‘vicious cycle’ complaints
Sometimes things keep going wrong despite our best efforts! For example, someone might get tension headaches due to continually clenching their jaw. The jaw clenching may be a stress response to pain in the neck and shoulders or somewhere else in the body. By addressing the source of the pain, the jaw will stop reactively clenching, allowing the tension headaches to be reduced or eliminated.

Now, we were going to give you just NINE benefits of regular remedial massage, but we can’t go without mentioning the wide variety of disorders that massage can work its magic on…

BONUS BENEFIT: Remedial massage assists a wide variety of health disorders
Whether it is insomnia; headache; depression and anxiety; back pain; arthritis; high blood pressure; chronic pain or constipation- studies have shown that remedial massage provides positive benefits for many health disorders.