04/27/2024
Los Angeles Massage Therapy, LLC
By: María de los Angeles (Angie) Bartholomew
LMT, MMP
www.angelesmassagetherapy.con
MASSAGES FOR BODY MAINTENANCE
If you are new to massage, or if it's been awhile since your last massage, you may be letting muscular tension get too far ahead of you, making it ever more difficult to manage a balanced and pain free lifestyle.
As many people have experienced when attempting to lift weights/cardio at home or gym only once every month or two, we won't tend to notice the beneficial gains in muscular and joint stability we were hoping for. Instead, we tend to experience muscle soreness afterwards and for the next few days following the workout, which tends to deter people from habitual workouts or even working out altogether for fear that they are too out of shape. But, when we establish a daily or weekly workout routine, not only do we experience less soreness and pain afterwards, we are more excited to keep the routine going. Massage therapy works very much in a similar way.
Lactic acid re-uptake is one of the main cause in both situations, as it is a normal biproduct of muscle metabolism. But if the lactic acid in you body is not flushed out through the body/liver often enough, either through proper fluid intake, lifting weights regularly, cardiovascular activities and/or a massage therapy treatment, they will tend to build up and make muscles sore following their usage (usually for 2-3 days following activity). This effect is known as "Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness" or DOMS for short. But, there is something you can do to prevent all of this. The solutions are to drink plenty of purified water, soaking in an epsom salt bath, doing cardio or weights more often, or having a massage therapy treatments more frequently to avoid this lactic acid buildup in the body.
By supplementing your routine with a monthly massage, you will not only be gaining the benefit of catching up with your lactic acid re-uptake cycle, but you will leave your muscles and joints more able to work freely throughout your daily physical activities, lessening the chances of injury and cramping, and leaving less restriction against your body's nerves and blood flow, thereby giving you the advantage of better muscular capability, quicker recovery rates, and less pain overall.
It is fairly common for people who have suffered with pain for years, and even despite having the ability to benefit through personal or work insurance health plans that cover massage treatments, they have yet to have experienced the benefit that maintenance massage treatments can provide.
Why not give your muscles and joints the gift of a maintenance massage treatment at least once every month to see what relief and mobility you have been missing out on.
If you have yet to have scheduled a massage without evident aches and pains present, then you have yet to experience the best massage treatment of your life. You are far more likely to be in a fully relaxed state by the end of the treatment when compared with those that receive only one or two treatments per year. If you find yourself getting massages on the same areas every time, and you are not able to take slightly more pressure every time that you're in session, then it's a sign that you are not getting massages often enough to break the pain-spasm cycle. Once these cycles are broken, you should notice overall better posture, energy and motivation to stay mobile in the busy lives we lead.
Begin your monthly maintenance massage habit today. Remember to get plenty of filtered water afterwards, and give some of my homecare suggestions a try for plenty of ways to gain relief through the comforts of your own home. You will be gaining all the benefits massage therapy can provide for an even less-painful and more mobile lifestyle.
