“How often should I get a massage? “
The question of how often to get massage therapy and bodywork comes up quite often. Especially people who are new to massage ask me at the end of a session. When they are putting their shoes and are ready to leave a question pops up, so “how often should I get a massage?”
From my personal experience working with clients and getting massages for my self. It really varies what is persons level of physical activity, stress, hours of being sedative. In times where a person is very active in sports, hobbies or at work massage is necessary more frequently like once a week or bi-weekky. The same with people who are sitting for a very long periods of time everyday and works a high stress job. In my experience, people who can move around in their job, does have to do much physical activity and the job is relatively a low stress mentally, they can get away to do massage less frequently like once a month.
However, if one is already experiencing pain it is recommended that they would get a massage as soon as possible. And continue the massage program to keep their pain at bay if they are performing same activities and their stress is high. I had clients who increase the intensity of a massage during times when they are experiencing pain. And when pain disappears they stop getting the massage all together. But they continue experiencing stress at work or repetitive strain and movement and of course pain comes back. So even if the pain stops from getting massages, I recommend doing care for yourself, once a month. It will help you feel better, have less stress and do the pain management.
Don’t completely quit taking care of yourself just because you feel better.
Sometimes people do not realize how sore or tense they are until they get a massage. Do it is a great monitoring tool for how your body is feeling as well. It is easy to get carried away in our daily lives. However if we don’t care of ourselves our productivity, quality of life and mood can suffer.
People have reported to me that after getting a massage they feel better for up to a week. Their tension headaches go away fro up to 3 weeks! They have more energy, they pain subsides or disappears. As well its not just for physical benefits. People who have high demand to be “energetically” strong, like mental health counselors, doctors, other therapists , benefit from boost of that energy. Its like they replenish the,selfes by reaching service and than they can give it to other people better.
In conclusion, there is two-three main reasons why people get massage, and the frequency can be determined by that as well:
Massage for Stress Management
For people who have high-stress occupations or living conditions, or who travel frequently, a higher frequency of massage therapy weekly or bi-weekly is recommended. In this case, massage therapy helps the individual in coping with their stress. Tension builds up from stressful situations can be more easily managed with weekly massage. Additionally, just knowing that you will be receiving massage therapy each week or every-other-week can be very comforting.
Massage Therapy for Pain Reduction and Management
Reduction of, and management of pain requires a different type of frequency, sometimes referred to as diminishing frequency. People in severe pain not requiring medical intervention can and do receive massage therapy 1-2 times per week in the first week. Although rare, this may continue in the second and third week of treatment depending upon response of the client to the massage therapy. When the pain is reduced so is the frequency of massage therapy. At first it may be reduced to once per week, then every other week or less often.
Massage Therapy for Athletes
How often should i get a massage if I am an athlete? For Athletes the frequency of massage therapy depends on the sport, training schedules, and athletic goals. Some athletes can get a massage as frequent as everyday before certain events.