By: Dana M. Brandt-Tinker, LMT

Only 32% of adult Americans received a massage in the past 5 years. And even fewer get massages on a regular basis. So it’s not surprising that most people don’t know much about massage.

Here are some fun facts to build your knowledge:

1. Massage can help you sleep better. (Even if you don’t fall asleep during your massage.)

2. When your back hurts, that might not be the only area that needs to be massaged. Sometimes back pain comes from the hips, legs or even the abdominal muscles.

3. Likewise, sometimes hand, and arm pain is caused by dysfunction in the neck and shoulders.

4. You can stop a massage session at any time. You never give up control of your body. At any time during a massage you can say “no”, “stop”, or even “can you just work on my neck for the rest of the time and skip everything else?” If you are uncomfortable or feel like the therapist isn’t hearing your feedback, or if you just feel like the table is too hard and you have to pee and gosh, this is awful. You can end it.

5. Massage can help your mood. It’s been shown to be helpful in treating both anxiety and depression.

6. Even small therapists can provide extremely deep pressure. It’s not about size, it’s about the techniques we use!

7. Massage doesn’t ‘detoxify’ your body. That whole thing is a silly myth. It was taught in many schools and you may have heard me say it, back before I knew better. But we know now that it’s just not true.

8. Massage is safe in the first trimester of pregnancy (unless there are unusual health issues).  Some practitioners choose to not do it, but that’s a liability choice and they might ask you for a prescription from your OBGYN. If you’re not sure if the practitioner does pregnancy massage please don’t hesitate to contact them.

9. Deep tissue massage, or any massage, doesn’t need to be painful to be effective. For reals. Run screaming from any practitioner who insists there needs to be pain in a treatment. But remember, the therapist might find areas that you didn’t even know were tender.

10. Scars are living tissue that can be transformed with massage and other manual therapies, no matter how old they are. And they can be affecting you in places farther away from the visible scar than you’d ever suspect.

11. It’s OK to focus on certain areas of discomfort and not always get a full-body session. If you only want your arms massaged, that’s fine, too.

12. Your massage therapist loves your feedback. We like to know if you hate having your feet touched and if you love having your ears massaged. We like knowing your musical preference and if you prefer to start face down or face up.

13. It’s also okay if you prefer to let our hands do the walking to design the specific treatment plan tailored to your specific needs for the session based on what we feel.

Do you have questions about massage?
Email me at nourishingmassage@gmail.com or
ask me at your next appointment (BOOK HERE) and I would LOVE to answer them!