The Many Benefits of Massage
The Many Benefits of Massage Therapy
The positive benefits of massage are countless. Getting a regular, or even an occasional massage, can provide many benefits both physical AND mental. From the more obvious benefits of massage such as the relaxation you feel almost immediately after hopping onto the table, to the more subtle, yet equally important, long term benefits your body receives and absorbs over time. The list of the benefits of massage is long and continues to grow.
Picture the following scenario: You stumble out of the office. Ok, not literally ‘stumble’…but close to it. You knew that today was going to be a tough one, but nothing could have have prepared you for the day you’ve just faced. You’re old enough and wise enough to have many tools in your arsenal that can help you to relax and unwind after a day such as this, so you begin your mental checklist. Perhaps a workout at the gym is in order to “work out” your frustrations; maybe meeting some friends for drinks at Happy Hour would be the thing to do; you could also simply take a nap. All these ideas are well and good, but today you’re truly in the mood to do something a little bit nicer for yourself.
That’s when you remember the gift certificate you received for Christmas from your best friend good for a 90 minute massage! That thing has been sitting in the “junk” drawer for 3 months now. It’s not that you didn’t appreciate the gift, you just haven’t set aside the time yet to make the call and book the appointment. Today looks like the day to break the pattern.
Two hours later you find yourself face down on the table in a dimly lit room. Relaxing music soothes you while your therapist slowly works the knots out of your muscles and makes your entire body relax from the soles of your feet from the crown of your head. Your mind is completely focused on the bliss your body is feeling and you can barely even remember the stress that caused you to book the appointment in the first place! Why on earth did you wait so long?
The Benefits of Massage Therapy are Scientifically Proven
As health care communities are becoming increasingly open minded, the many benefits of massage are continuously being scientifically proven along with many other holistic healing therapies. Even the Mayo Clinic acknowledges the benefits of massage therapy and has compiled their own list of symptoms for which massage therapy is of benefit. These include:
- Anxiety
- Digestive disorders
- Headaches
- Insomnia (related to stress)
- Myofascial pain syndrome
- Soft tissue strains
- Sports injuries
- Temporomandibular joint pain
The ‘AgeLess’ list of benefits
Here at AgeLess we’ve kept a bulleted list of benefits on our Massage Therapy pages for quite some time. Our list includes:
- Fibromyalgia
- Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
- Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Rotator Cuff Injuries
- Golfer’s or Tennis Elbow
- Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
- Thoracic Outlet Syndrome
- Shin Splints
- Plantar Fasciitis
- Herniated or Bulging Disks
- Whip Lash
- Back Pain
Human Touch: An understated benefit of massage therapy
While basic human touch encompasses far more than massage, massage obviously falls into the category of human touch.
In a world that increasingly makes it easier and easier to rely on technology to “communicate” with one another, many experts in human psychology fear that we’re slowly losing the human connection factor of touch. And why wouldn’t they? We send more emails than we extend handshakes, more smiley emojis than hugs, more facebook “likes” than pats on the back.
Human touch as it relates to physical & emotional benefits
The actual benefits of non-sexual human intimate contact are extensive and go far beyond the scope of this short blog post, but in the spirit of giving you a brief overview, here are just a few things to consider.
Non-sexual human touch has been proven to make us better learners. Human touch can help us be better members of dynamic teams (ie; sports). It is shown to boost the immune system, foster cooperation and trust and decrease violence. Human touch has even been shown to lower blood pressure and cortisol levels.
Let the list of benefits grow! Or, create your own ‘benefits of massage’ list
There is little doubt that the (officially acknowledged) lists of the benefits of massage continue to grow. It isn’t necessary, however, to limit ourselves to only getting a massage to help treat or alleviate a symptom on a list. If you think a massage could be helpful with some other issue you have why not give it a try? Of course, if you question a particular condition, consult your doctor first.
Experiment!
Yes the benefits of massage therapy are huge. Some are well documented and “proven”, some may just be speculation at this point. Either way there is no need to keep our minds “in the box” when considering how massage therapy can be beneficial to us. Heck…get a massage for the simple reason that you WANT to. You deserve it.
What we can offer…
At AgeLess, we offer lots of choices when it comes time to make a decision regarding what type of massage you’d like to try out next. *For a complete list, follow this link (link will open a new browser tab).
*Our massage offerings are the same at both locations. If you’d like to visit the website for our Radisson Hotel location in Corning, follow this link – to the Massage Page for that location.
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