How To Get The Best From Your Massage

DO!

Use the consultation session to state your preferences and restrictions. E.g. if you want your therapist to avoid treating the neck area or want firmer pressure on your calves, say it here so your therapist knows from the beginning the best way to treat you and there are no mid-way suprises, disrupting the flow of the massage and the routine.

Before your massage, if you feel you may want to go to the toilet beforehand, go! You don’t want to be distracted whilst receiving your treatment and have to interrupt the session mid-way.

Put your phone on silent mode (or even better – turned off) for the duration of the treatment, so as to avoid you being disturbed!

During the massage, if you feel at all sleepy – go with with it! And please do not feel embarrassed. A therapist always takes it as a compliment that that they are doing their job well if they start hearing the “zzzzzs’” from the massage couch!

The same goes for noisy bellys! Massage can affect digestion, so please don’t feel embarrassed if your tummy rumbles.

During the massage, always tell your therapist if you feel cold or uncomfortable in any way or want the lighting adjusted. That way you can address that niggling little issue and get back to fully enjoying your massage!

You don’t want a busy mind whilst you are receiving the massage as it will distract your attention away from how lovely it feels. Use the time during the consultation to chat openly, vent what you need to, in order to then free you’re your mind for a quiet, peaceful and rewarding massage.

During your massage, if you feel you could benefit from more or less pressure and the therapist hasn’t asked you in a while, please don’t be embarrassed to ask! The therapist wants to feel like their doing their job well, so they will be more than happy to adapt their technique to suit your needs.

Afterwards, always drink plenty of water. It is likely you will feel thirsty and pass more water after a treatment, this is because massage is excellent at speeding up the body’s waste removal process and flushing out toxins. Aim to help the process along by staying hydrated and drinking plenty of water over the following 24 hours. Your body will certainly thank you for it!

Take a bath afterwards! The warm water will continue to soothe and relax the muscles. By adding some Epsom salts – you can help boost that toxin removal too.

Rest afterwards. Ideally you don’t want to make any plans after you’ve had a massage.

Please take care when driving home from your massage as your reaction speed might be lessened.

& Best To Avoid…

Eating a heavy meal during the following 6 hours. Instead, have a light meal like a salad for instance, so your body can concentrate on falling into relax mode.

Don’t worry if you feel slightly achy afterwards! This is just your body adapting from the massage, any aches / pains are usually short-lived.

During and after the massage, your body will be cleansing itself so avoid toxins like cigarettes, alcohol, caffeine or stimulants like Red Bull for the next 12 hours.

Avoid vigorous exercise. Massage warms & dilates the blood vessels, so your body doesn’t have to work as hard pumping the blood and so your blood pressure can temporarily lower. So avoid any vigorus excercise straight afterwards, or you could likely feel very light headed and faint. Take this opportunity to relax and if needs be say “your therapist told you so!”