Why massage?

Here are just a few reasons why you should consider scheduling a table session for yourself or a loved one.

Massage is one of the best-known antidotes for STRESS. Reducing stress gives you more energy, improves your outlook on life and in the process reduces your likelihood of injury and illness. Massage can also relieve symptoms or conditions that are aggravated by anxiety such as asthma or insomnia.

It can relieve many types of muscle tightness, from a short-term muscle cramp to a habitually clenched jaw or tight shoulders. Massage acts directly on your muscles with stretching and kneading motions. It also stimulates the nervous system to instruct muscles to relax even more.

Massage flushes muscles of built-up waste products that can make you sore after vigorous exercise. Muscles can become so contracted that they press on nerves to the arms, hands and legs. If this happens, a massage can help to release muscle spasms in the shoulder or hip and bring relief.

Massage can help heal injuries such as tendonitis that develop over time, as well as ligament sprains or muscle strains caused by an accident. Massage reduces inflammation by increasing circulation, which removes waste products and brings nutrients to injured cells. Certain massage techniques can limit scar formation in new injuries and can reduce, or make more pliable, scar tissue around old injuries. Massage can relieve secondary pain that can outlast its original cause. Some examples are headaches from eyestrain, a lower backache during pregnancy, or the protective tensing of healthy muscles around an injury. Massage can help prevent injuries that might be caused by stressing unbalanced muscle groups, or by favoring or forcing a painful, restricted area. Besides releasing tight muscles that restrict joint movement, massage works directly on your joints to improve circulation, stimulate production of natural lubricants and relieve pain from conditions such as osteoarthritis.

Massage releases restrictions in muscles, joints, and the muscles' tough connective tissue coverings, freeing your body to return to a more natural posture. It can also relieve the contracted muscles and pain caused by abnormal spinal curvatures such as scoliosis.

Massage on normal tissue is almost always a pleasant sensation. Massage in the area of an injury or chronic pain may at first cause some discomfort, which usually lessens noticeably in the first few minutes. As a therapist, we are taught ways to minimize pain, and will work carefully to achieve what feels right for you.