Massage Questions

Many of my clients have the same concerns and questions about making massage a part of their lives. These are a handfull of the most common questions I hear everyday. I hope you find these answers interesting and informative.

Why should I get massage?

Because your body needs maintenance.  This shouldn’t be a foreign concept.  You know that you car needs maintenance.  Why do you take your car in for oil changes?  Is it because your car isn’t working?  No, it’s because you want to avoid major problems. 

Your body is your most complex machine and your most precious resource. As you can see you have so many muscles in your body, you must take care of them with massage.

 

Why shouldn't I self medicate with  pain killers? 

It has been estimated conservatively that 16500 NSAID –related deaths occur among patients with rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis alone every year in the United States. (NSAID stands for Non Steroidal Anti Inflammatory Drugs)

In addition to being dangerous, do these drugs actually fix you problem or does the pain come back in a few hours?  Doesn’t it make sense to fix the problem rather than merely suppress the symptoms? If your car had rust would you try to address the problem or just paint over it and try to forget about it?

Obviously if your doctor has recommended pain managing pills stay on his regimen until it is no longer needed.

Is there any harm in waiting and seeing if a problem will go away? 

Yes there is. The longer you wait the worse your problems may become.  No muscle is alone in you body.  They surround each other, pull on each other and can cause problems for each other.  When you get one tight muscle it pulls on the surrounding muscles, which tighten in response.  Tight muscles don’t’ get enough blood circulation and the muscles become starved for nutrients and toxins build up. Soon you have a huge network of trigger points. The connective tissue around gets hard and becomes difficult to work with and if you leave problems long enough permanent damage can be done that will affect the way you feel and move for the rest of you life.  

How often should I get massages?

Really it depends on how far your problems have progressed. In most cases I recommed one hour of massage per week until your main pain issue subsides. If you have many complicated problems I may see you as much as two times a week, or work on you for longer periods of time. The goal is to get you into a maintenance program where I see you once every 2 – 8 weeks. The time frame in this mantenance program depends on how much stress you put your body through every day and how your body reacts to those stress.

How much education is a massage therapist required to have?

In the state of Colorado you must have 500 hours of training from a certified school.  As with any profession some will do the bare minimum, and some will pursue education further.