Get A Morning Massage!

Is a morning massage crazy? Maybe. But there are many great benefits and one awesome offer when getting a morning massage.

Firstly, it’ll boost your energy levels. Before you grab that cup of coffee, consider some additional ways to get that morning boost. Remedial massage isn’t just for rehabilitation and maintenance. Stretching out and loosening those tight muscles allows you to start the day right and gives you the boost in energy that your body craves. When you wake up in the morning, stiffness saps your body of energy that it so desperately craves.

Exercise in the morning has been shown to boost your energy, but let’s face it, exercise in the morning while it sounds great, it’s pretty difficult to stick to. But massage on the other hand is a great alternative for starting the day off right. Here at No More Knots we’re open as early as 7am many days of the week so you can get in before work to start your day off on a high!

AM Massage

Massage for Lower Back Pain

Lower back pain is a concern that plagues many people. Some blame core instability and weakness others put it down to degeneration but what does the academic literature say and what does it say about the effects of remedial massage on treating the problem?

The International Journal of Neuroscience evaluated the effects of massage therapy versus relaxation for chronic low back pain. They wanted to find out if remedial massage was effective in reducing pain, depression, anxiety and stress hormones, as well as sleeplessness and for improving trunk range of motion associated with chronic low back pain.

The trial took twenty-four adults (12 women) with lower back pain. They were randomly assigned to a massage therapy or a progressive muscle relaxation group. The Sessions were 30 minutes long twice a week for five weeks, then on the first and last day of the 5-week study participants completed questionnaires, provided a urine sample and were assessed for range of motion.

By the end of the study, the massage therapy group, as compared to the relaxation group, reported experiencing less pain, depression, anxiety and improved sleep. They also showed improved trunk and pain flexion performance, and their serotonin and dopamine levels were higher, thus highlighting the positive effects of massage therapy in reducing pain, stress hormones and symptoms associated with chronic low back pain.

Preyde (2001), performed a similar trial on 107 subjects. He concluded that the massage therapy group had improved function, less intense pain and a decrease in the quality of pain. Additionally, he found that at 1-month follow-up 63% of subjects in the comprehensive massage therapy group reported no pain as compared with 27% of the soft-tissue manipulation group, 14% of the remedial exercise group and 0% of the sham laser therapy group.

It’s obvious that patients with subacute low-back pain are shown to benefit from massage therapy, so why put up with it any longer? See your remedial massage therapist today at one of our No More Knots clinics!

Sources
1. Maria Hernandez-reif, Tiffany Field, Josh Krasnegor, and Hillary Theakston International Journal of Neuroscience. Vol. 106 , Iss. 3-4, 2001

2. Michele Preyde, CMAJ. Vol. 162 no. 13 1815-1820, 2001

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