Are you a first timer to remedial massage or a regular basis client who knows a lot about how the treatment goes and what to expect? If unsure what to expect, we’re going to talk about 5 tips which will be useful and help you to maximize the benefits and have prolong the effect from the same treatment.
1. Avoid coffee just before the treatment
Sadly, your beloved coffee have to wait a little while if you have an appointment in the morning. This is not because we don’t like a chatty client but it is because coffee energizes our nervous system and it would not help you to be in the calm state which is ideal and crucial for a massage treatment. Also, one of the acid contains in coffee will increases the visit to toilet as well.
2. Know your pain medication & dose
You need to know what medication you normally take in daily basis, however, if your pain has increased and you started taking new pain medication closer to the appointment you need to remember what type it is and the dosage.
Most pain relieve medication “numbs” the central nervous system so your brain receive the pain and you feel there is no pain or less pain. However, because you don’t feel it doesn’t mean that there’s no pain or there will be no further damage to it, especially during the massage treatment. This is why any type of manual therapy after taking pain medication should be cautious and monitored well during and after.
If you’re getting firmer massage therapy such as trigger point therapy, deep tissue therapy, and sports massage and took pain medication right before the appointment, make sure you discuss the medication with your therapist.
3. Avoid heavy load of physical activity
Now you had your massage treatment, either it was pure relaxation or multiple modalities combined with firm techniques you would be feeling looser and less tension. The reason not to do heavy load of physical activity is not because for you to feel good and take that relaxation further but it is because the “worked” muscle and connective tissues are still trying to settle after the treatment.
Muscles and fascia (deep connective tissue) take time to realigned and find it’s place since they have been moved during the treatment. If you do heavy activity straight away without giving its time to settle and cool down, it might disturb the process and upset the connective tissues that we worked on. Therefore, we recommend couple of hours to give its time to settle or only do activity which doesn’t require to use the muscles that we worked on.
4. Hydrate and nourish your muscle
This seems to be the easiest advice yet the hardest to my client. Hydrate is so underrated when it comes to an advice from a practitioner, however, water, healthy fluid plays a crucial role in our overall health but also in our muscle tissue health. Healthy tissue is when the body fluid can move freely and bring elasticity to our tissue and healthy flow takes out toxins and bring in more healthy fluid to nourish the muscles and tissues. Therefore, when massage treatment releases toxins, stagnated fluid from your muscles and tissues it needs to go out and be nourished with quality food and water.
5. Follow the advice of the therapist
Yes, I said that. But as an honest therapist, if you want to spend less money on visiting expensive massage appointments, follow the instruction of the therapist that you TRUST is providing you. From postural advice such as stretch and exercise, hydration to how often you need to visit currently to keep your body aligned which will help you in long term. Most of us care for you and trying to help you.
Once you've started your wellness journey it is important to be aware of your action, habit and how you can adapt things to make your body better. With Remedial massage following the tailored stretches, exercise, lifestyle advice and some more advanced advices will help you tremendously in long term. We are focused and targets mainly to our client’s wellness and the healthy lifestyle with harmonized body.
Written by Seonkyo Kim; Dip. RMT
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