Meg Donnelly, Nova Weekend Warriors

07/11/2025

Thank you WTOP News for covering our concerns!

Fairfax County has started the process of rewriting its regulations for massage therapy businesses for the first time in decades.

07/11/2025

📣 We’re in the news! Please listen, read, comment and share! 📰🗞️🔔
Big thanks to for covering how proposed massage regulations in Fairfax County could unintentionally harm small, therapist-owned businesses, and why we’re speaking up. I’m honored to be quoted in this article alongside other thoughtful voices.

🙌 Special shoutout to Casey White of for connecting with WTOP and recommending they reach out to me as well. That’s the power of collaboration over competition! Something our Fairfax County Licensed Massage Therapist Business Owners community of over 40+ massage therapist-owned businesses takes seriously.

📑 Fairfax County elected officials and staff have been providing easy access to meeting openly with us to discuss our concerns and ensure our voices are a part of the conversation. More work is needed but we appreciate their willingness to meet. If you are a Fairfax County Official that we haven’t met with yet, please connect!

👥 Community members who want to keep massage therapy readily accessible in Fairfax County, DM me! In a week or so we’ll be sharing easy ways for you to let county officials know you county

💬 If you’re a licensed massage therapist in Fairfax County who owns or operates a business, you’re invited to connect with us. We’re now over 40 strong and organizing to ensure any updates to massage code are fair, effective, and do not harm access to care.

📰 Read and share the full WTOP article:
👉 https://wtop.com/fairfax-county/2025/07/as-fairfax-co-considers-changes-to-massage-therapy-oversight-small-businesses-worry-about-impact/

📬 DM me to get involved.

Herndon

07/09/2025

🫖✨ Tea is a ritual here at NoVA Weekend Warriors, not just a beverage. It’s one of the many little extra touches I added to the studio as we work together to *recover, unwind, and reset*.

Whether you’re an athlete sore from a weekend race, a parent carrying stress in your shoulders, or someone healing from chronic pain, a complimentary soul warming cup of tea after a session is available to you.

But harmful tariffs will make tea harder to afford for small businesses like mine, harder for manufacturers and shops we love like and harder for all lovers of tea. Tea isn’t grown in the U.S. at scale. These tariffs don’t protect American farmers, they just drive up costs for small businesses and wellness-centered spaces like mine.

So today, we’re standing up and sipping up for the virtual protest.

📸 This cup is our protest sign.
☕️ Let tea stay affordable

07/02/2025

Grateful to Mayor Keven Mayor Keven LeBlanc for taking the time yesterday to meet with us as representatives of both the Independent Massage Therapists of Herndon and the Fairfax County Licensed Massage Therapist Business Owners.

We appreciate the support! Not just for our small businesses, but for recognizing massage therapy as a vital allied health profession. These kinds of conversations matter.

💬 Are you a licensed massage therapist who owns a business in Fairfax County?
DM me to get connected. We’re advocating together, collaborating with local leaders, and sharing our voices.

06/29/2025

📣 Podcast Alert! 🎙️

I joined up with fellow massage therapist and advocate Casey White to chat with Amanda and Mark with podcast about what’s going on in our massage world: proposed local regulations aimed at targeting illicit businesses… but that inadvertently would actually make it harder for law-abiding licensed massage therapists to do our jobs.

We break down:
👉 What’s happening in Fairfax County, VA and how we are proactively working together with our government officials to ensure our voices are included
👉 Why these policies if enacted would miss the mark
👉 How we’re organizing (with a little grassroots magic)
👉 What other LMTs can do in their own communities

Whether you’re a massage therapist, policymaker, or just someone who cares about smart, effective regulation, give it a listen!

🎧 Listen by searching for 2 Massage Therapists and a Microphone wherever you normally listen to your podcasts or visit 2rmtsandamic.com.

Website version: https://www.2rmtsandamic.com/episodes/episode/28cc82ef/more-on-massage-regulation-advocacy-with-guests-meg-and-casey

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4j5g7gMNRbv7KS3kMAt3Uo?si=zN2_K1RGQF-6_5TYGSpFlQ

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/2-massage-therapists-and-a-microphone/id1398483309?i=1000714945277

06/28/2025

It’s Sat June 28th! 2 important events today!!!

11th congressional district special election primary voting today until 7pm! Was so glad to see my 2 favorite election poll workers while we voted!

Then we headed down to at . Hand styled my new tshirt, and got to hang with some of my fav Herndon and Reston peeps, see some awesome roller skating from and picked up some pink pineapple and juice from !

Polls open until 7pm.

Herndon Pride in full effect until 5pm!

06/20/2025

📣 Fairfax County Government is proposing new massage regulations that could unintentionally harm licensed massage therapist owned small businesses (like mine).

We’re organizing and working with Fairfax County officials to respond thoughtfully and professionally. I’m thankful that our county is open and willing to meet with us as they review potential changes. But, some of the proposed changes would limit where we can work, ban locked doors (a safety concern for solo practitioners), and make our fees up to 400% higher than all but one other regulated business. So we need to continue to educate and collaborate with them.

If you’re a Fairfax County licensed massage therapist and business owner, a business landlord, a supportive community member, or a Fairfax County leader we haven’t connected with yet, I’d love to hear from you. 📩 DM me to stay updated or get involved.

06/17/2025

🗳️ I voted! For democracy… and okay, maybe I did it a little bit for the sticker too. 😄
⁠
Virginia primaries are today!
⁠
Polls are open until 7PM—go do the thing. And get your sticker, too. 😉
⁠

06/07/2025

Yay science!

Pounding the pavement is not a major driver of arthritis, as shown in 2024 study. (This one via RunningPhysio, thanks Tom.)

(UPDATE: Yes, am aware the study has limitations. It is just one new addition to an existing body of diverse evidence on this topic.)

So what does drive arthritis? Above all, getting old. Being out of shape. And old injuries/surgeries. And much of that mediated by GENES, of course. 🧬 Let me spell that out a bit…

Being injury prone — e.g. how easily tendons and ligaments degrade, and therefore how likely you are to "blow a knee" — is a function of genetics, which regulate the intricate BIOCHEMISTRY of tendon tissue maintenance. It ain't rope!

And those injuries are behind a large percentage of surgeries — which also add to the amount of time the joint spends being inflamed. And the inflammatory burden is a major arthritis factor.

But smacking the ground 50,000 times in a marathon — and hundreds of thousands more in the training — does NOT increase the risk of arthritis.

So, what was that you were saying about knees getting worn out by subtle biomechanical stresses? By “inefficient” movement? 😜

~ Paul Ingraham, PainScience.com publisher

06/01/2025

🏳️‍⚧️ 🏳️‍🌈 Happy Pride Month from NoVA Weekend Warriors.

Today is Sunday June 1st and I’m out of town this weekend, but my heart is at from afar today! The Mister will be volunteering all day on our behalf… be sure to say hi if you see him out at Lake Anne Plaza.

Creating a safe, comfortable space is something I take seriously. The Progress Pride flag and my GLMA pins stay up in the office year-round, not just in June.

I’m also proud to be part of Equality Virginia’s Equality Means Business program since 2018 and a 2 year member of GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality. These provide a commitment for me to keep learning and better support everyone I work with without known, unconscious, or implicit bias.

That said, I know I’m not always the right fit for every client. If you’d prefer to work with an LGBTQ+ massage therapist or other health or wellness provider, I’m always glad to connect you with other affirming professionals I trust.

Wishing you a safe, grounded, and joyful Pride Month. 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈



🖤🤎🩵🤍🩷🤍🩵♥️🧡💛💚💙💜