![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
So, after my last massage therapist left town in late 2011, I sulked, and avoided, and waited until I was totally tied up in knots before I finally broke down and tried someone new. And I am pleased to say that my new massage therapist is no Trini, Mistress of Pain*, but she's the closest second I've found in years.
This is a good thing, yes. Also, she scolded me for delaying so long to come to her, and rightfully so. I really need to go every quarter, minimum. I let myself forget that, the past year. Which explains why, for the past week or so, my right arm has been giving me so much pain, to the point where I couldn't work for more than an hour at a time. Ow, and other words of annoyance.
so Yay! for being beat back into shape.
I know many otherwise right-thinking people hear "massage" and they think "oh, naked, and a stranger touching you...that has to be awkward. Or sexual. Or awkwardly sexual." I blame bad 1970's porno films for much of this. But a proper massage, especially a therapeutic or deep tissue massage, is no such thing. It's like a gym workout more than anything else - when you're done you will be dehydrated, and sore, and your muscles will bitch at you like nobody's business. And you might even feel worse the next morning, if you were really knotted up.
(and oh dear god i was knotted. All my stress and tension, lodged under the right scapula. As usual.)
And then the day after that, if your therapist did the right things, suddenly your body will remember how it's supposed to move. And pains you were so familiar with you didn't even notice any more will magically disappear....
Right now, after a 50 minute deep tissue workout, yeah, everything hurts, particularly my right shoulder and arm, where most of the trouble lay deep underneath the surface. BioFreeze and a lot of water, and early to bed will put me mostly to rights. And then I am under strict orders to come back next week for another 40 minutes, and then she'll re-evaluate where we are. Like a coach? Exactly like a coach, yeah.
So if you're achey, or your body's not moving right - especially if you have a job that requires a lot of, oh, typing, or drawing, or other repeating motions? You might want to try a massage therapist. Don't let your preconceptions keep you from feeling better!
And me? I have a cheeseburger, and a glass of red wine, and everything's just dandy....
*the therapist I saw when I lived in New Haven. She was Jamaican-born, about 4'1", with arms like steel and fingers that could dig every last knot out of your body, and a voice that could terrify Marines, and she had me running like a fine-tuned machine for two years.
This is a good thing, yes. Also, she scolded me for delaying so long to come to her, and rightfully so. I really need to go every quarter, minimum. I let myself forget that, the past year. Which explains why, for the past week or so, my right arm has been giving me so much pain, to the point where I couldn't work for more than an hour at a time. Ow, and other words of annoyance.
so Yay! for being beat back into shape.
I know many otherwise right-thinking people hear "massage" and they think "oh, naked, and a stranger touching you...that has to be awkward. Or sexual. Or awkwardly sexual." I blame bad 1970's porno films for much of this. But a proper massage, especially a therapeutic or deep tissue massage, is no such thing. It's like a gym workout more than anything else - when you're done you will be dehydrated, and sore, and your muscles will bitch at you like nobody's business. And you might even feel worse the next morning, if you were really knotted up.
(and oh dear god i was knotted. All my stress and tension, lodged under the right scapula. As usual.)
And then the day after that, if your therapist did the right things, suddenly your body will remember how it's supposed to move. And pains you were so familiar with you didn't even notice any more will magically disappear....
Right now, after a 50 minute deep tissue workout, yeah, everything hurts, particularly my right shoulder and arm, where most of the trouble lay deep underneath the surface. BioFreeze and a lot of water, and early to bed will put me mostly to rights. And then I am under strict orders to come back next week for another 40 minutes, and then she'll re-evaluate where we are. Like a coach? Exactly like a coach, yeah.
So if you're achey, or your body's not moving right - especially if you have a job that requires a lot of, oh, typing, or drawing, or other repeating motions? You might want to try a massage therapist. Don't let your preconceptions keep you from feeling better!
And me? I have a cheeseburger, and a glass of red wine, and everything's just dandy....
*the therapist I saw when I lived in New Haven. She was Jamaican-born, about 4'1", with arms like steel and fingers that could dig every last knot out of your body, and a voice that could terrify Marines, and she had me running like a fine-tuned machine for two years.
no subject
Date: 2012-09-19 12:00 am (UTC)A massage therapist is different from a chiropractor, correct?
no subject
Date: 2012-09-19 12:06 am (UTC)The two tend to, um, badmouth each other a lot, traditional vs non-traditional, which is, IMO, a shame.
no subject
Date: 2012-09-19 12:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-19 01:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-19 04:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-19 12:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-19 01:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-19 04:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-19 01:18 pm (UTC)My massage therapist knows exactly where to find knots I don't even know exist.
no subject
Date: 2012-09-19 05:06 pm (UTC)