Massage Therapy: Top 5 Reasons Why Massage Therapy is Good For You

It is good that nowadays people are aware and open to massage therapies. But there will always be a percentage of the population wherein they have not yet embraced wholly the concept of massage.

One major reason as to why some people are hesitant to try massage or massage spas is ignorance. They have been informed of the wrong connotation about massage. To dispel such understanding it is very important that they know what benefits they can get from it. Once they do, they will learn to appreciate its existence.

There are actually a lot of reasons/benefits one can derive from a massage therapy. Here are 5 of the most common ones.

Massage Therapy helps:

1. Promote relaxation.
There are different types of activities the body encounters daily. Each person is unique making activities of daily living vary from one person to another. But all results in one thing.

At the end of the day your body feels overworked and exhausted. Your muscles are sore from all the work done.

Massage helps relax and stretch your muscles. There are different types of massage techniques applied not only to your skin but to underlying tissues as well.

When your body is relaxed you are ready to start the next day fresh. You feel rested and you feel anew.

2. Relieve Pain.
Common pains felt are shoulder and back pain. These may be a result of prolonged sitting, standing, carrying heavy objects and/or pregnancy.

A massage session helps alleviate the pain you are feeling.

When you are in pain your muscles contract. Your mind concentrates on the pain making you feel more pain than it usually is. Sometimes pain can be exaggerated if you think of it at all times.

Today, massage is not only used for relaxation purposes. It also plays a role on the therapeutic process of relieving pain. Different pressures are applied on certain areas.

Massage works 2 ways. It works as a diversion and as a therapy. When you undergo massage, as stated in number one you feel relaxed. Sometimes a massage therapist plays a soft music in the background thus making you think of something else. Aside from diversion, the type of massage applied for pain is different from relaxation massage. Different pressures and strokes are applied on areas of the body experiencing pain.

3. Promote circulation and oxygenation
When a massage therapist manipulates body tissues they not only manipulate the muscles but blood vessels as well.

How? Blood vessels carry the blood throughout the body. For every stroke applied the muscles and blood vessels are affected.

Ever notice how massage strokes follow an upward direction? This action actually helps promote blood supply towards the heart. The heart then pumps/distributes the blood supplied to the different parts of the body.

Speaking of oxygenation, blood plays a role in oxygenation. The blood (red blood cells) carries oxygen. Since massage helps in blood circulation it also means that it helps distribute oxygen in the body.

4. Relieve sleeplessness/Insomnia.
This is related to number 1 and 3.

There are times when you experience difficulty trying to sleep. There are plenty of reasons why. You may be anxious about tomorrow's presentation or you just have a lot of things in mind.

A massage session helps relieve the stress you feel from today and tomorrow's work.

5. Promote Flexibility.
Massage helps relieve tensed and knotted muscles. When muscles are not tensed they are more free. They can move more.

Massage is one good way of a warm-up. It promotes flexibility thus improving one's range of motion.

Massage therapy has really come a long way. What used to be a form of relaxation and recreation is now used to help during treatments of certain health conditions (alternative healing).

Continuous education about massage therapy should always be practiced. This not only helps make awareness but it will also serve as reminders to those who are already familiar with it.