What Does Massage Therapy DO?

So we have covered what massage therapy IS, but that sure doesn't exactly explain what it DOES.

For that, I'll visit a mantra of mine that sums up massage therapy and virtually all of good basic healthy practices.

"IN WITH THE GOOD, OUT WITH THE BAD."

You are ailve because your cells are alive. Your cells perform the functions needed to keep you alive. The functions needed to keep you alive:

1. require necessary materials like protiens, sugars, fatty acids, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, WATER, and probably most importantly-- OXYGEN.
2. produce bi-products and waste materials that your cells and then your body eliminate.

Most of the time, we are in control of what goes into our bodies. We can choose to drink lots of clean, pure water, eat vitamin rich vegetables, find a balance of healthy carbohydrates and fats, etc. and therefore monitor our health and increase or decrease the things our body needs at any given time.

Sometimes, however, certain parts of our bodies may not be getting the things it needs and/or may not be eliminating the things it doesn't need. The things we don't need are frequently not benign. An inability to eliminate them can cause us to be unhealthy.

WHAT THE HECK DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH GETTING A MASSAGE??

If the soft tissues of our body are dehydrated, tight, stiff, injured, inflamed, or otherwise incapable of circulating in necessary materials (aka "good stuff"), or circulating out stagnant, malignant waste products (aka "bad stuff") then those areas of the body become unhealthy and can be painful and prevent us from functioning normally throughout our day. In short, if our circulation isn't coming in with the good and going out with the bad, our muscles hurt and our bodies ache.

This is where massage comes in. Manual manipulation of the soft tissues causes the body to respond with bloodflow. Blood carries with it oxygen and other nutrients that your cells are craving. Let's try an experiment.

Stick out your arm palm up and rigorously rub and scratch a small part of your forearm for a few seconds. (This part of your arm tends to be lighter in color as it doesn't see as much sunlight) Now wait about 20 seconds--see how that small patch of skin is now pinkish? That's BLOODFLOW!

How or why is your body able to do this? WHO CARES?! There is a very complicated scientific explaination for this phenomenon, and perhaps one day we'll do an article on it, but for our simplification purposes all you need to know is "IF YOU RUB IT, BLOOD WILL COME" and with that blood comes oxygen and nutrition, and when the blood leaves that area it takes with it the waste products that your body is trying to eliminate.

This is the MAIN function of massage therapy and the MAIN reason it works and makes us feel good. If a muscle is tight, that tightness may be constricting blood vessels and prohibiting proper bloodflow. The tissues then begin to starve and build up harmful waste materials. A good massage will loosen the muscle, improve the bloodflow, and restore that life-giving "in-with-the-good-out-with-the-bad" cycle that keeps us alive and healthy.

Want to help keep your whole body healthy? GET REGULAR MASSAGE THERAPY!

Thanks for reading,

Kevin