I have a 93 year old client who has a massage every fortnight. Yes you read that correctly….93 and FORTNIGHTLY massage. She believes in the benefits of massage in keeping her body strong in the aging process and to help reduce the risk of disease.
Once before her massage, she said to me “when you massaged my shoulder last time, it helped my knee” and I said “that is why I do full body massages”. She has had a notoriously painful knee but on this appointment she also has a knot in a muscle near her shoulder. It was all on the same side of the body so by releasing the shoulder it helped the tightness in her knee also release. And this is what I want to show you, the benefits and differences between massaging a specific body part and having a full body massage. This article will help you to see your body in a different way and realise that everything is connected, from your head to your toe and by simple treating one area you may not actually be treating the cause at all.
I honestly believe in the benefits of full body massage and this is why:
1. Treat the fascia. Fascia is tissue in the body that connects all the muscles, ligaments and tendons together to stabilise muscles, joints and holds internal organs in place. The fascia can become tight or locked in certain areas due to injury or posture and this will cause pain. The thing with fascia is the pain might not necessarily be in the same place the fascia is tight, so by massaging the area of pain, you might not actually treat the tight fascia and the pain will return regularly.
2. Find the cause to pain, discomfort or posture issues. This links in with the first point and what can happen is the pain in the body might not be from that area or there might be an imbalance in the body which causes the issues. Imbalances can occur by differences in limbs from the left to right, injuries to joints or muscles, which affect other areas, or imbalances in muscles causing one muscle to become locked and one to become relaxed. Unless you treat the front and back of the body as well as from the head to the toes, and left and right, you wont truly find the cause to pain and discomfort.
3. Calm the body. By being able to work on the whole body, true relaxation can occur. The vagus nerve is responsible for allowing us to drop into a state of relaxation and our parasympathetic nervous system, also known as our rest and digest system as when we are in this state our digestion can work the best. There are two main areas of the body that I massage to stimulate the vagus nerve, these are the neck and feet. Both areas are proven to activate the vagus nerve and lower the heart rate and blood pressure and calm the mind and body.
4. Move lymph. Lymph is made up of waste materials from our cells and uses the contraction of our muscles to move the lymph from our limbs back to the centre of the body to be eliminated. As such benefits of moving the lymph through the whole body are to aid detoxification and reduce swelling. We also start to feel great when the body can get rid of waste we simply do not need anymore.
5. Revitalise every muscle. Why only feel relaxed in certain muscles, when you can revitalise your whole body. If you have ever been for a massage where they only do your back and shoulders then you may know the feeling I am talking about, when part of your body feels great but other muscles are left feeling the same or even more sluggish than before the massage. In an hour massage I can do the whole body and every muscle can feel revitalised and rejuvenated.
If you are inspired by this and want to book in for your full body massage then please click on the link, find a suitable time for a massage and choose Full Body Aromatherapy massage 60 minutes.
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