Monday "Massage Day"

Today was massage day.  About once a month, I get a one-hour deep tissue massage to keep things loose. Sounds so nice, doesn't it? Well, let me tell you, about 40% of the hour is relaxing, and the rest of the time I am just trying to breathe through the pain. It feels like I am going to walk away with bruises all over my body, but instead I feel amazing after the massage!

I am fortunate that my friend referred me to Krystle about a year and one-half ago. Krystle practices just down the street from my house. She provides for me deep tissue, cross fiber, and friction massaging. I trust her completely. She follows up each appointment with great advice on stretching, and motivates me to actually do it!

Krystle focuses on specific high-needs areas of my body.
1) My calves. She explained there are layers of muscles wrapped in fascia and they can stick together. She works on separating them. Ouch.
2) My hamstrings. She works on relaxing the knots in them. Ouch. They can get pretty tight and I can tell that they need stretching out when it gets difficult to sit in a chair on them!
3) My glutes and hips. My weaknesses here lend to the overcompensation of my hamstrings, of course. So, along with massaging and stretching to loosen them up, I really need to do some strengthening work, like the side lying hip abduction (commonly called the clam exercise).
3) My back and shoulders. They get pretty stiff from hunching over a computer while I work.

Krystle uses rubber suction cups, too. They stretch and lengthen the muscle somehow--it's beyond my comprehension. But they definitely work!

Here is an example of rubber cups.

I think I rely on massages to make up for the stretching that I should be doing. So, I am going to go stretch now. Let me know if you get massages and how well they work for you!