At Michigan Massage and Wellness we are no strangers to regular visits with our clients. In fact, most of our clients have a standing appointment (and a lot of them have their appointments scheduled through the year, because they’re smart like that).
Now, with the global pandemic that is Covid-19 going on, NO ONE is getting massages right now, at least in Michigan, and probably in 90% of the rest of the country. Unfortunately it’s impossible to maintain a 6 foot distance when you’re getting all up in someones trapezius to tame a headache.
So let’s pretend that we AREN’T in the middle of a pandemic and we are all carrying on with life as normal. I’m sure a lot of people think “I have general aches and pains, but that’s just life”. And yes, that’s true, to a point. However, some people wait until they are at their wits end with pain or injury before they seek out help from their friendly neighborhood massage therapist.
If you ask me, massage therapy belongs in a couple of different categories:
- An acute injury
- Chronic pain and injuries
- General well-being and stress management
- Just because
For an acute injury, my general recommendation is to get as many sessions as close together as possible, and as quickly as possible.
Let’s say you overdo it lifting heavy things up and putting them down and you ‘tweak’ your back. But you tweak it so much that it hurts to walk, bend and forget about getting in and out of bed!
That’s going to be something that may need a little more work a little more frequently to start. My general recommendation (because it varies on the person and the problem) is once a week for 2-3 weeks and then we re-evaluate.
From there, we move into the maintenance phase. You know, what we do to avoid getting you in that chronic pain and injury realm and instead move you to a general well-being camp. From there we might look at once every 2-3 weeks or once a month, depending.
For the general well-being and stress management group, we find that most of our clients do best with a monthly massage. Some do more, a few do less, but then we move into the ‘just because’ category.
If you are one of those people that wants to get a massage once or twice a year ‘just because’, well, you just answered your own question. And you may be looking for the more pampering experience that a spa may have to offer. (Or you can try our popular 90 minute Escape treatment).
Although once we all can resume some sense of normal in our post pandemic world, I think EVERYONE is going to need to get a massage at least weekly for a while. If not daily.
And when you are ready for that massage, no matter what it’s for, we will welcome you with open arms and clean hands.
In good hands,
Rebecca Tamm, LMT