Why Massage Therapy?
Your body is your vehicle in life. It carries out your work, experiences your pleasure and realizes your dreams and plans. Where would you be without it?
Just like any vehicle, your body needs to be well taken care of and maintained. What would happen if your car door were to become dented and was not fixed? How long do think it would be before you would have a hard time opening it, or not even be able to use it?
Soft tissue injuries behave just like this. At first the injury is painful, then usually, the pain subsides or more likely you just get used to it, and you forget about it.
Something has happened, though. Your body is designed to survive and to continue operating as effectively as possible, so it starts making accommodations. You will start using your body differently to get things done, and energy that was once there to be used freely is now being used to deal with pain and having to do things less efficiently.
Stress has a similar effect. When we experience stress, all of our body systems react as if under assault. Constant and prolonged stress on the body is as damaging as any physical injury, if not more so, because damage is usually to internal body systems that we really can't see.
After just one massage you will probably feel a lot better than you did before you came in. But it is important to continue regular massage. Your body wants to heal and needs support and positive reinforcement. This doesn't happen with just one session.
Usually six sessions about a week apart are sufficient to break a cycle or deal with an injury or pain. A maintenance schedule of once every 3-6 weeks should help to keep you in good health.
Factors that will influence how often you should receive massage are going to be how long you have had a specific problem, how much stress you are experiencing and what degree of performance you are expecting from yourself.
Isn't it nice that something that feels so good is so good for you?