MASSAGE FOR HEALTH AND WELLNESS - Hometown Focus

[massage]

D o you have an office job where you are hunched over a computer some 40 hours a week? You work at not slouching and yet you catch yourself many times throughout the day sitting with poor posture. Your shoulders are not only rounded forward, they may also be sitting up around your ears. I t is hard to maintain good posture. Your shoulders should be down, you should not be hunched forward, and you should be sitting up straight. I believe we mean well, it’s just that we get so absorbed in our work we forget everything around us, including keeping good posture. A few hours of poor posture and your body is going to be complaining; reminding you to sit up, drop your shoulders and relax your stance in front of that darn computer.



Just a couple of days ago I got to work on someone who does spend 40 hours a week on the computer. As for many people, this is her livelihood. She’s had a couple of massages in her life and none of them were very recent. She was very knotted up and very tight, especially where her neck met her upper back. She had a knot the size of a small super ball, (I kid you not). And the rest of her back wasn’t too pleasant either. Very tight and full of tension with her lower back right along the top edge of her pelvic bone also contributing to her discomfort in a big way. W ell, her body responded nicely to the massage and by the end of her session she was feeling much more mobile and less restricted. She has an appointment to come back soon since she now understands that the tightness didn’t happen overnight and these knots are not going to just go away with her first session. W hile I get to work on many people who are knotted from too much time in front of the computer, there are many more really good reasons to get a massage. Here are the 25 reasons to get a massage that I presented over a year ago. I believe it warrants repeating them again:
• Reduce stress
• Relieve postoperative pain
• Reduce anxiety • Manage low
back pain
• Help fibromyalgia pain
• Reduce
muscle tension
• Enhance
exercise performance • Relieve tension

headaches
• Sleep better
• Ease symptoms of depression
• Improve cardiovascular health
• Reduce pain of osteoarthritis
• Decrease stress in cancer patients
• Improve balance in older adults
• Decrease rheumatoid arthritis pain
• Temper effects of dementia
• Promote relaxation
• Lower blood pressure
• Decrease symptoms of carpal tunnel
syndrome
• Help chronic neck pain
• Lower joint replacement pain
• Increase range of motion
• Decrease migraine frequency
• Improve quality of life in hospice care
• Reduce chemotherapy-related nausea

T here are many more reasons, beyond these 25 listed, to get that massage. Do you have a reason? Remember massage is good medicine.

Source: “25 Reasons to get a Massage.” www.amtamassage.org.

Susan Santi is a certified massage therapist and owner of Ahhh Massage in Virginia, MN. Feel free to contact her with questions at 218-410-2144.

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