So, lets set the scene! Work is crazy, you have deadlines looming, the days are long, you still have to try to find time to fit in your run, yoga with Stacey from the office and not to mention you promised your bestie that you would start Zumba with her.
Your neck aches and you have had a headache since, well, when have you not?
Your lower back is giving you grief and no matter the amount of stretching you do throughout the day you just can’t get the relief.
You happen to mention this to your co-worker at the desk next to you and the response, “Just go get a massage”, like the thought, never occurred to you! Apart from the fact time is NOT on your side, what’s a massage going to do apart from giving you the chance to take a nap?
Well, asides from the obvious relax you, how about any one of these top 5 benefits!
INCREASE RANGE OF MOTION
Ever turn your neck and all is good, but go the other direction and you have got to turn your entire upper body around just to look in that direction? Well, massage will help to restore that range of motion back to a normal non-back-breaking movement. How? Simple! On the affected side, your muscles are in a shortened or contracted position. Permanently. Until your therapist comes along, presses on a bunch of sore spots and hey presto. Think of it like this, massage is going to steamroll the hell out of your short muscles and give back that length.
IMPROVE JOINT MOBILITY
Having trouble bending that right knee of yours? Well although you have that old footy injury from back in your heydays, massage is going to help get you squatting like a champion powerlifter by reducing the constant load on the tendons that attach your muscles to bone. Ever pulled a rubber band to the point of snapping? Right, well when your muscles are tighter than a footy player’s hammies, it will place an increase in the tensile load on those joints reducing flexibility and general movement. Get rid of the tension (stop pulling on the rubber band) and boom, crepitus be gone.
REDUCED STRESS LEVELS
Everyone is talking about reducing stress levels these days. And for a very good reason. One of the causes that people have latched on to is HORMONES. “It must be that your hormones are all over the place”. Words like cortisol, adrenaline, and norephedrine. How about this one! Endorphins? No? Well, that last one is what’s released when you get a massage. It’s those dolphins that give you that happy-go-lucky buzz we all chase. Touch my friends, the simple act of touch is enough for that brain of yours to release the dolphins and let them swim around and meet up with good mate dopamine and together, stop party poopers getting into the party. Dopamine gets the spotlight and low and behold, we forgot all about that report due on Monday.
IMPROVE CIRCULATION
Right, so there are 2 types of circulation that massage can help with, blood flow and lymphatic flow. We increase your blood flow and you are going to enjoy the benefits of reduced muscle tenderness and we increase the lymphatic flow; you can expect a reduction in swelling. Reduced muscle pain and get rid of puffiness? While it sounds too good to be true, science tells us otherwise. Whoop lets all get our flow on!
QUICKER RECOVERY FROM INJURIES
If ONLY you had a massage therapist back in the day when you received that knee injury, you might have been able to play in the Grand Final and you guys FOR SURE would’ve won that year. Well, possibly! Massage can only do so much. Like, help that injury get better quicker by increasing blood flow (you knew that already didn’t you) to the site helping all the good little healing friends get there asap. It’s going to help chill out the pain receptors (help free the dolphins) so you can get movement back pronto increasing the strength in the muscles. Also, healing hands will reduce that tension in the muscles surrounding that injury because beautiful people, TIGHT MUSCLES ARE WEAK MUSCLES.
Yep that one is true and one day I will explain that to you a little more but for now, I hope you enjoyed this post. The aim is to educate you without boring you. I’ll do the science and you get the fun stuff. Like getting your treatment with us. https://www.body88.com.au/booking/
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