Massage Often?

Some people ask, “How often should I get a massage?”

A simple answer is: as often as you want. Just like anything in life, it depends on other conditions.

You might have heard you should get a massage once a month but that is a naïve answer. If you get good, quality sleep, proper hydration and exercise, embody optimal eating habits for your individual needs, meet your social needs, etc., and manage stressors well, then you might not need a massage EVER. In reality, the majority of the general population falls short somewhere with these guidelines. Let’s take a look at a few different scenarios.

Scene 1: you decide to see a massage therapist for neck pain and the first session helps but you still feel as if the neck pain is present. After a few days, you return for a follow up session and after that, the neck pain is greatly reduced to almost nothing. If you decide that the goal has been met, then you don’t have to continue with massage.

Scene 2: you are training for a Spartan race, training daily. You might not have any aches and pains but you feel as if your body needs help with pliability. Having massage or myofascial therapy on a weekly basis might help you throughout the long training process and maybe recovery days after the race.

Scene 3: you just lost your partner after their year-long battle with cancer. You had to be the caretaker and are now dealing with grief. Turning to touch therapy, you find the session soothing to body and mind, deciding to use it as an aid to help get you through this major life change, booking weekly sessions for 3 months to every other week then to once a month for almost a year when you begin to feel more like yourself.

Hopefully I’ve demonstrated how each of these scenarios dictate massage frequency. Not only is personal preference a factor but I think you should also consider the purpose. Is the massage helping? Are you reaping the benefits that you were seeking? If not, maybe massage isn’t what you need and another modality would help more or a different practitioner. We each carry a different perspective and style in which we work with varying degrees of skills and experience.

Richard