 Does it make a difference if you come to get massages once a year, once a month, once or twice a week? Experience and science say, YES.
My eight-year long career as a medical massage therapist has shown that people who commit to regular sessions are able to get rid of pain they can’t stand, they are able to cope with daily stress with ease and have energy to accomplish their goals. Furthermore, being born in Russia where massage therapy is routinely prescribed form of medicinal care, I know its healing, restorative, and rejuvenating abilities for the body, mind, and soul. How often should you get massages to get the most bang for your buck? For pain reduction and management: To successfully treat pain, massage sessions are scheduled 2-3 times per week for the first week. When the pain diminishes, so is the frequency of massages. Medical massage protocols for low back, neck pain, headaches, TMJ, etc. heavily rely on the cumulative effect of massage therapy where the outcome of the therapy depends on the tight frequency of sessions. The lymphatic drainage massage therapy has its own protocols to be effective for the person’s detoxification, the immune system, or the cellulite reduction, and it is normally administered as a course of therapy. For general health, relaxation, and the immune boosting benefit: Massages are recommended 1-2 times a month for people under light to moderate stress. This would also include people who are sedentary or exercise only occasionally. Receiving massage therapy once or twice a month can have excellent health benefits and helps reduce the effects of stress. For people in high-stress occupations or living conditions, or frequents travelers, work out warriors, a higher frequency of massage treatments, weekly or bi-weekly, is recommended. Tension build-up from stressful situations can be more easily managed with weekly massages. Weekly sessions help to manage insomnia as well. For athletes: The frequency of massage therapy depends on the sport, training schedule, and athletic goals. A massage therapist can help to develop a massage therapy routine according to the athlete’s individual needs. Scientific evidence: The frequency of sessions play role on the effect of massage therapy based on the study of Emory University [3]. Over a period of five weeks, study participants received a Swedish massage. Compared to those who wasn’t massaged in the name of science, those who received massage therapy twice a week had lower levels of stress hormones, including cortisol, higher levels of oxytocin, and lower levels of arginine vasopressin. Participants who got massages once a week experienced big changes in immunity, including increased counts of white blood cells, which play a key role in fending off illness and infection, and decreased cytokine production. And it gets better: the benefits of massage lasted for several days, and each subsequent massage offered a cumulative benefit. In other words, a routine massage ritual is superior to an occasional rub. “The act of massage itself has amazing biological effects,” says lead study author Mark Hyman Rapaport, MD, chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine. “Of course, a single session will do great things for the body, but regular sessions seem to be even more profound.” In conclusion, Massage therapy has cumulative effect. For it to be effective, regular massage therapy routine should be adopted. Once or twice a month massage helps for general health and relaxation. Once a week massage is better for people under high physical, mental or emotional stress. For pain reduction and management, 2-3 per week massages with “diminishing frequency” is proven to be effective. Athlete’s needs determine the individual plan of massage treatments. The question is "how can you afford" massage therapy which positive effects last for days after the treatment? Bliss Therapy has the solution for you where you get the most bang for you buck. Please look into Bliss VIP Club membership here. References:
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Galina MalchikovaMedical Massage Associate, the founder of Bliss Therapy ArchivesCategories |
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