What is a Massage Worth?
What happens during a massage that makes it worth your time and hard earned money? This is a tricky question to answer because the response can never be the same from day to day and any two people that you ask will have different answers. This idea of subjective definitions is something that I think affects many choices made by therapists and guests alike both in treatment and also in day to day decisions.
I have heard it said that one hour of massage is the same as 6 hours of sleep.
Have you heard this? Is it a gimmick? In this blog I want to look at some common understandings of massage therapy and talk about whether it is a misconception or a truth. With that information, you can have a better understanding of what massage is worth to you.
An hour of massage feels good. The body has what is referred to by some as an "intrinsic intelligence" or an innate ability to adjust, improve, grow, communicate, learn and respond as well as many other things. It is a well oiled machine and in most cases it can take care of itself. As a massage therapist, try to think of my work not as a healer, but as a facilitator of your bodies own natural healing. My work helps to relieve the aching muscles and release holding patterns. Your body can relax better and therefore its innate healing is stronger.
So when it is said that a massage is like 6 hours of sleep, it is perhaps a mis-statement. It could be said that " massage will improve the healing your body naturally performs during sleep, and you will wake more refreshed and feel better" or "massage will leave you relaxed and in many cases, feeling great, like you just took a 6 hour nap". The only reason I would stay away from saying a massage is like sleep is because I wouldn't want guests to get massages in lieu of actual sleep.
Is an hour of massage really like 30 minutes of cardio?
This is a tricky one. I think the main thing to remember is that the heart is a muscle and that cardio is a workout for that muscle. When you are running or dancing or whatever makes your cardio workout "worth it", your heart is pumping the blood to your muscles and other organs. Many chemical reactions happen while blood is rushing to different areas of your body, but one thing that happens relevant to massage is the transference of oxygen and other nutrient rich fluids. Every organ has something it needs, and the heart is the pump which gets the nutrients to the places it needs.
Massage works a little differently. The blood is still moved and the nutrients are still being pushed into muscles that need it. The way we do this is by creating a pumping effect of physical tissue manipulation or by eliciting a response from tissue. The two types of responses we elicit are release and inflammation. When there is a release in a muscle, it creates more space for blood to move into the tissue and exchange nutrients. If there is an inflammation response, the nutrients will be able to find the muscle that needs it and the immune system will respond by trying to clean out metabolic waste and other toxins. Neither of these two responses necessarily create a pumping affect physically, so it can not be argued that a massage is similar to cardio in that respect. Furthermore, neither physical tissue manipulation nor elicited tissue response takes the place of the heart getting its much needed strength training, so I would argue that it is misleading to claim that a massage is like 30 minutes of cardio under these premises.
We all know that much can be said about much and that trying something new is sometimes fun. Many naysayers of massage can be swayed with quick objections to their misgivings of an idea or thing. Perhaps when there was a need to convince someone of getting a massage, there was a person who said that massage is like cardio or like 6 hours of sleep. In my opinion, massage is a necessary part of life and energy that all people should have the opportunity to experience. Relaxation in a working world can seem unattainable. So can sleep. So can finding time and motivation to get in your cardio.
What is massage worth to you? A nap that helps you catch up on sleep? Getting the knots out of your shoulders so you can lift weights comfortably. Help for an old muscle or joint injury that is worsened by sitting at a computer every day during work hours. Is it an escape? Look inside yourself and ask not if you should get a massage, but what you need from massage and if that takes priority over other things you might need or want. We must all take holistic steps to achieving attainable goals.
Thank you and until next time, stay healthy.