Is A Full Body Massage Good For You?
An oasis of complete relaxation akin to floating on clouds above the Pacific Ocean. A full body massage at home. Total bliss. Right? Well sort of …
It is certainly true that as you lay back to enjoy your relaxing Swedish massage you will probably be enjoying soft lighting, music and warmth (check our tips on how to create your own massage room at home). A primary aim of many massage styles is to completely relax you and make you feel like you have floated away on a soft cloud for a while. But have you ever considered what might be going on inside your body during your therapeutic massage in London? Massage therapy is not only about relaxation but also has inherent benefits for your internal and external health. It’s not necessarily all calm, but it’s all good.
Manual therapy through a full body massage helps awaken, refresh and relax many of your vital inner body functions. Your nervous system relaxes; your organs and muscles spring into action; and blood starts pumping faster around you. This is all good stuff.
Health benefits of a full-body massage
Below are 6 of the most widely accepted aspects of professional massage therapy that positively affect your health:
1. Pain and tension
As your muscles are worked and begin to relax, the pressure against nerves that may have previously been present due to tight muscles begins to reduce. Your body’s natural feel-good chemicals (known as “endorphins”) are produced and released and the production of your body's stress hormone (known as "cortisol") is reduced.
2. Detoxification
As your massage therapist works on your muscles, blood is naturally pushed through and along your muscles and ligaments. This helps your lymphatic drainage system to energise and work more efficiently, thus aiding the removal of waste products from your body.
3. Flexibility
As your muscles are massaged, they will also be gently stretched. Over time this can improve muscle elasticity and increase your overall flexibility levels.
4. Digestion
Our full body massage includes stomach massage, if you wish. Just make sure you click the stomach when selecting which areas your would like your massage focused on. This is usually performed in gentle clockwise strokes around your large intestine area. The strokes aid digestion by encouraging food to move more smoothly through the final stages of the digestive process. A healthy digestive system contributes greatly to a healthier you.
5. Breathing
Remember the last time you felt really stressed? You were probably breathing really quickly at the time. Our massages often being with your masseuse saying “please take a deep breath” … well now science has proven why deep breathing calms you down. If it is your first massage you will probably start off breathing quite quickly, but as you relax and become accustomed to your therapist’s touch and develop a relationship of trust, your breathing is sure to slow down to a stress-reducing level.
6. Touch
The human touch is one of the simplest, feel-good factors, available to us. Yet sadly as adults so many of us ignore this easy to access potentially huge benefit, especially in midst of living busy city work lives.
It has been shown that friendly, warm patterns of touch (such as those received during a massage), deactivate stress-related regions of your brain. It's true, touch can make you happier! We all do it naturally and often with young children. Like many things in life, our deeper physiological selves already know the benefits but as busy adults we teach ourselves to suppress these natural skills. Your massage therapist is trained to provide empathy through touch so you can rest assured that this feel-good factor will be one of the top benefits.
