The art of massage therapy has been booming and changing in recent years, and more and more of the population are discovering the wide range of benefits to receiving a massage. Depending on your needs, a massage can help relax your muscles, chronic pain, reduce stress, or improve your overall health.

Let’s consider some of the top reasons that people choose to get a massage.

Relieve Stress:

Stress is when your body reacts to a change that requires a response or adjustment; this creates emotional, mental, and physical changes within the body. Pressure is part of your everyday life. You can get it from your thoughts, your body, or your environment. Even some positive life changes such as a promotion, a mortgage, or a child’s birth can produce stress.

With massage, your body produces endorphins (feel-good hormones), known as serotonin and dopamine. Experiencing your therapist’s therapeutic touch can make you feel better mentally and help you to relieve stress. Studies have also shown it decreases stress in cancer patients.

Lower Blood Pressure:

Hypertension is a condition in which the long-term force of blood flowing through your arteries becomes so high that it could eventually cause health problems, such as a stroke or heart disease. Many lifestyle habits contribute to high blood pressure, including lack of regular exercise, being overweight, excessive alcohol, smoking cigarettes and unhealthy diet.

In the past, studies have shown that a regular massage program calms down your sympathetic nervous system over time, which can decrease systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

Increase Range of Motion:

Range of motion is the full movement potential of a joint; usually, it’s a range of extension and flexion. The cause of ROM loss can occur by infection, or swelling, neurological like nerve damage or mechanical, such as muscle injury.

Massage helps by increasing the temperature of soft tissues, breaking down adhesions, increasing tissue elasticity, decreasing pain, reducing swelling, and removing waste products from the muscles. The benefits of increased movement are reduced tension and maximized performance.

Relieve Tension Headaches:

Everyone knows what it’s like to get a headache. The all-too-familiar throbbing pain and nagging pressure can often strike when we’re feeling stressed, tired, or emotionally upset.

Massage focusing on head, shoulders, and neck areas can help relieve the discomfort and pain associated with tension headaches while increasing the blood flow. According to research, deep tissue is one of the most effective massages for treating tension headaches.

Ease Symptoms of Depression:

The physical pain that is often chronic goes hand in hand with psychological depression. With this comes a structural collapse in clients, which involves a shortening of the abdominal muscles and tightening of the diaphragmatic arch, which pulls the chest down and forward.

Often, clients who come for massage for pain relief also suffer from depression. Of course, as massage therapists, we do not do psychotherapy. However, depression has significant physiological and anatomical components; in this area, massage can genuinely have a substantial and profound effect.

Sleep Better:

More than 3 million Canadians suffer from sleep deprivation. It has shown that with massage therapy, your serotonin levels increase; this is a hormone that acts like melatonin, which controls your sleep and wake cycles. Not only does it help you to relax, but it can also be an excellent sleep-inducing option.

Boost Your Immune System:

Someone with a strong immunity does not fall sick like others because it’s a sign of good health, and massage can play a significant role. Studies indicate this releases two certain hormones known as Cortisol and oxytocin. It causes white blood cells to increase the production, which will, in turn, improve the functionality of the immune system.

 When you are stressed, Cortisol will be released, causing anxiety, emotional imbalance and the release of too much sugar, but oxytocin will improve your mood. Although the two hormones are useful in the body, it must have an average balance.

There are different types of massage to choose from. You may not know it, but there are almost a hundred different types of massage, which means your choice is not limited to the most common ones. Depending on your needs, a massage can help improve your overall health and wellness!