Massages can be both pleasurable and beneficial. Researchers have shown that rubbing down muscles can lead to better health outcomes, as the therapist is able to work out tightness and knots in a much gentler way than your own hands. As such, many experts recommend at least one weekly session of massage from someone who knows what they’re doing.
Without massage, your sore body will take a long time to recover from that intensive period of training. The rehabilitation process can be sped up significantly by massage after sports activities and exercises.
Moreover, massage makes you feel good. Even if you don’t have any serious pain in your muscles, massage just feels nice. There have been studies on bodywork and massage and the effects on pain, and they’re all pointing in favor of everyone getting massage!
After a 45-minute massage, recipients had significantly higher levels of blood proteins that play a major role in protecting the body from tumors, viral infections, and other pathogens.
Scientists aren’t exactly sure what massage does to our blood, but they think massage might trigger the body to produce higher levels of natural antibodies and white blood cells (better at killing pathogens) along with more disease-fighting proteins called cytokines.
Yet massage isn’t just a short-term fix for boosting your immunity – it can also help you long term, with pain relief and stress reduction. A massage can make your body feel better and help you relax, which is known to have a positive effect on immunity and mood.
But massage isn’t just beneficial to health – it’s also beneficial to health care itself. Massage therapy is minimally invasive, easy for patients to do at home, doesn’t rely on chemical changes or medication, and doesn’t require any special equipment.
The massage experience is also rewarding for both massage therapists and massage recipients – massage therapists enjoy helping people feel better, while massage can be relaxing and enjoyable for the person receiving it.