How often should you have a massage?
It’s not just for pampering and relaxation —massage therapy has a number of benefits and should be an important addition to your health regime. Each year studies from trusted medical sources like the Mayo Clinic confirm that massage can be used together with standard medical treatments to improve health conditions, like:
- Stress
- Anxiety
- Chronic pain
- Muscle tension
- Chronic migraines
- High blood pressure
Understand your massage therapy coverage and maximize your benefits
The frequency of your massage therapy treatments depends on your condition, treatment goals and existing insurance coverage. Massage therapy is often covered through employee health benefits or other forms of private insurance. Patients with coverage often plan their massage frequency to coincide with how to best maximize pre-existing coverage. Meadowlands Physiotherapy can help you understand your coverage and how to maximize your benefits.
The American Chiropractic Association suggests getting a massage once or twice a month for general relaxation and to maintain a low stress level. If your goal is general relaxation, then consider getting a traditional massage once a month and a hot stone massage once a month. Hot stone massage is a great way to relieve stress, but it also offers excellent health benefits by expanding blood vessels and increasing blood flow.
On the other hand, if you deal with a high level of stress on a daily basis or suffer from chronic pain or migraines, you’ll benefit from more frequent massage therapy treatments. Depending on the acuteness of your condition and symptoms you may want to start with a massage once or twice a week and reduce massage frequency as your condition improves.
Patients who have suffered a recent injury and are using massage therapy to treat their pain will also want to start with frequent, weekly massage visits and then gradually taper off as the injury begins to heal.
Regardless of how often you choose to go, you should consider the benefits of regular massage therapy to reduce symptoms and improve your overall health. Meadowlands Physiotherapy has a team of registered massage therapists in Ancaster who can help you decide on your massage therapy options and what may be best for your health.