Aftercare

After your massage treatment, your body and mind are in a relaxed state. To ensure you receive maximum benefits from your treatment, it is recommended that you read and follow the aftercare advice sheet • It is common to feel a little sore after your massage session. We feel sore after massages for the same reason we feel sore after a good workout. It forces blood into your muscles and helps bring in nutrients. This process can temporarily increase inflammation in areas that the body feels need attention. After stimulating muscles that you may not usually use, you might experience delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). This is a physical response to the inflammation as your body heals. This can also happen when the muscles aren't accustomed to massage. With frequent and regular massage, many clients report that this soreness decreases over time • Water is your post-massage best friend. If I had to choose just one piece of massage aftercare advice, it would be this: drink plenty of water. Why drink water after a massage? Well there are a bundle of reasons. During a massage, built-up toxins are released. That’s great, but they need to be expelled from your body. Your kidneys do the brilliant job of eliminating toxins from your system and they need water to work and push these free radicals out. If you’re feeling lingering soreness after a deep tissue massage, water is also the primary solution. Simply drinking some extra water can help to shift soreness. Massages can also be quite dehydrating. They usually take place in a nice warm environment and I am actively encouraging your soft tissues to expel water. So the best thing to do after a massage is to have a lovely long drink of water to get your hydration back up. • Take a warm bath or shower to soothe any sore muscles. Sore muscles usually love heat. It gives them a sense of ease and they relax. If your muscles feel sore after your massage, a warm bath or shower can soothe this soreness and leave you feeling even more supple. A warm shower or soaking in a warm watered bath with Epsom salts will give you even more relief. Where inflammation exists from injuries, the opposite treatment of ice therapy may be appropriate on the isolated area. (Wait a few hours after massage) • Avoid drinking alcohol or caffeine containing beverage for 12 hours. I promise that abstaining from caffeine or alcohol for at least 12 hours or so after a massage will make you feel fab. Both are dehydrating and won’t help your body eliminate the toxins that are on the move thanks to the massage. •Take a painkiller if needed. I love complementary therapy and believe that in most cases muscle pain can be resolved using massage therapy as opposed to courses of painkiller medications. This following advice might therefore feel a little confusing to you. Remedial, sports or deep tissue massage might leave you feeling sore as it creates a lot of little micro-traumas in your body. Although this is a good thing and it stimulates your body to heal and repair, the natural temptation to guard or protect painful area is common. I think that taking painkillers in response to post massage ache may be appropriate. If doing so assists you in keeping your body moving freely and staying loose, then it will have a good effect on your long-term progress. Of course, if you’re not in pain or only experiencing a mild ache or soreness, there is no need for taking painkillers – stretching, a warm bath and drinking plenty of water to rehydrate will do the trick to soothe it. • Avoid heavy physical activities for approx. 24h REST. A sports or remedial massage treatment can create biomechanical changes in your body. It can take a moment for your brain and central nervous system to understand this new “muscle image”. Muscles get stretched and become longer, and joints become de-compressed. Thus, muscle imbalances begin to get corrected, and posture realigned. Going to the gym, for a run or participating in heavy activities might put your body at risk of injuries whilst your brain tries to adjust to these changes. Your body will also be trying to heal many micro-traumas that occur during massage so there is nothing wrong with cutting yourself some slack and relaxing for a day or two. If you feel like you’re not able to do nothing, you can substitute your usual activity with a long walk, yoga, Pilates, or a stretching class. • Massage treatments work best, when performed on a regular basis. Make sure to book your next session promptly. Love, K x