2 Your Health: How Often Should I Get a Massage?

Heidi Overman, LMT #MT-24997

Most of my clients ask me, “How often should I get a massage?” This can be a tough question.

Because our bodies have gone through different things (we have all had different levels of exercise, different jobs, and different adventures through the years), what type of bodywork to get and how regularly can differ.

I like to approach this question more generally and then narrow it down to specifics.

If you are in your twenties through forties and perfectly healthy, minimally a massage every few months would be great. Your massage will help relieve stress and tightness. You will be checking in with your muscles to make sure they stay flexible and healthy.

If you are in your fifties and sixties and perfectly healthy, minimally a massage once a month should be perfect for you. Your monthly massage will help to keep your muscles flexible and lengthened as you age, and the muscle memory and patterns start to set in.

If you are over seventy, minimally a massage twice a month is optimal. This will keep your muscular pain to a minimum and keep you active and flexible.

Healthy muscles are key in aging and prevention when keeping your body agile, mobile, pain-free, and flexible.

Many times, clients come once a week for a massage. Generally, this is needed when there are issues with muscles that are embedded with poor patterns from repetitive motion, injury, a car accident, a fall, pain, or other issues. We need to break those muscular patterns and teach them how to release and relax again. Frequent massage will teach those muscles how to release for longer and longer periods of time, which will allow for massage every other week, then twice a month, and eventually once a month.

This can be a process that takes time, depending on how your muscles respond to the work and the years of repetitive motion or injuries we are working out.

Many of my clients come in once a week because they see and feel a dramatic difference in their quality of life with more frequent massages. Yes, once a month would be just fine, however, more frequent massages have helped them feel even better and helped with their whole wellbeing.

Massage can help in many aspects of life: sleep, anxiety, emotional wellbeing, lowering blood pressure, injury prevention, stress levels, body awareness, and more. How often you receive a massage can have a significant impact on how successful you are in living a balanced, pain-free life.

If you are interested in a therapeutic massage, please call me for an appointment at 520-771-1514. My website is www.mymendingplace.com, and I’m located at MEND Therapeutic Massage and Restorative Skincare at 15920 N Oracle Rd., Ste 170 Tucson, AZ 85739 (next to the Golden Goose).