Post Massage Self Care: How to Take the Benefits of Medical Massage Home with You

David Weintraub, LMT and owner of Bodyworks DW, writes about post massage self care and how you can take the benefits of your medical massage home with you. Stay ahead of your pain!

Medical massage in New York with a NYC licensed massage therapist should be a regular and valuable part of your self care routine. Let’s face it...New Yorkers are not known for doing things gently. We work long hours, slam weights at the gym, and then maybe hit back to back yoga classes. And while this additive approach to health does have it’s benefits, it’s not restorative. Our bodies need time to heal. To help with that, here are some of our best post massage self care practices to take the benefits your medical massage home with you! 

A great medical massage helps to relax both your muscles and your nervous system. It gives your brain time to switch out of your sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight!). And engages your parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest) in a way that has benefits for long after the massage. 

In a perfect world we would all get massages every other day and feel fantastic 🙂 Given the reality of time and money this is simply not going to happen. However, there are plenty of practices you can take on to extend the great results of your massage between sessions. These will assist you in feeling great, allow you to go longer between massages, and help keep you from getting injured. 

Post Massage Self Care: Practices to take the benefits of medical massage home with you

Lying Down with Your Feet up on a Chair

This is the number 1 homework assignment we give to all of our stressed out massage clients! It’s super easy, and it’s a great excuse to chill out a bit every day. We spend so much time sitting that our muscles get locked up tight in a sitting position. Which helps us to sit, but is terrible for just about everything else we try to do. 

Lying down with you lower legs on a chair puts us in the same position as sitting but without needing to hold ourselves up in gravity. It passively shortens our psoas muscle (main hip flexor), quads, hamstrings, and calves. When you shorten a muscle but don’t make it do any work it gets to completely relax. It usually takes 4-5 minutes for your nervous system to chill enough to truly let go of your muscles. We recommend doing this for 5-8 minutes every night before bed to help you get a really good night's sleep.

All of our clients who have taken this practice on notice huge results in about 2-3 weeks. Decreased low back pain or tension, better sleep, easier mood.

 

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Does massage therapy really work? The newest scientific research on Massage Therapy

Massage therapy and other holistic health care practices are gaining traction in health care. As they become more popular, so too does the push to support the observed benefits of these practices with scientific research on massage therapy. 

When it comes to the human body, things get complicated and murky pretty quickly. We know a lot about the body. But there is likely much more about its workings and operations that we have yet to uncover. There has long been a large and ever-growing body of empirical and anecdotal evidence in support of massage therapy. Now, massage therapists are looking for these results to be backed by hard science. 

The use of precise massage therapy protocols to measure and show best results are gaining greater interest. We now have a wave of small-scale studies that examine massage therapy in highly specific contexts. The scientific research on massage therapy has begun!

Massage therapy organizations such as the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA) are working on getting massage therapy accepted as a standard form of health care (hello, insurance companies, we see you…). Getting massage therapy to be covered by insurance the same as other practices will largely depend on what science has to say about it.  

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How to find the right sports massage therapist for you?

What is sports massage and how can it benefit you?

Before looking for specific qualities in a sports massage therapist, it’s helpful to understand what to expect from a session. Sports massage can comprise any of the manual techniques that a licensed massage therapist is trained in. These techniques are performed with the intention of addressing your specific concerns around your active and/or physically demanding lifestyle. 

Often, our athlete clients will come in with an acute injury they sustained while practicing their activity. Such as an ankle sprain or a torn rotator cuff. The therapist will then work to help alleviate pain. Sports massage can decrease inflammation, assist with proper scar tissue formation, and increase range of motion or stability at the injured joint. 

Other times the concern is minimizing delayed onset muscle soreness during peak training times for a specific event. Or promoting recovery after an event like a race or competition. Frequently, an active person is simply in pain or is having trouble performing at their desired level. And is looking for someone to help them determine the root cause of the dysfunction. These are all issues that our staff at Bodyworks DW can help you tackle.

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How Bodyworks DW uses all of these deep tissue massage techniques in back pain massage in Midtown and Fidi

 

Great massage therapy in NYC needs to have a solid arsenal of techniques. And tools to be able to create an effective and thorough treatment plan. At Bodyworks DW, we have regular advanced trainings for all of our massage therapists. These trainings are designed to improve each therapist’s skills in assessing the primary sources/reasons for your pain. Our therapists come prepared with a toolbox full of the best deep tissue massage techniques. 

Back pain is a prevalent issue addressed by massage therapists for many of you. Each of your massage needs and cases are unique. Therefore, each of our treatments are uniquely customized to you. Your Bodyworks DW massage therapist will carefully consider your symptoms, history, routine and movement patterns. Then they determine how to provide the most effective treatment. We are dedicated to finding what will work best for you. So that you can get back to moving more freely and without pain or discomfort. We offer back pain massage in Midtown and the Financial District in New York City. Would you like to schedule a professional massage with one of our highly trained massage therapists? Contact Bodyworks DW today or click on the button to book online at our back pain massage Midtown or back pain massage Fidi studios!

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How has sports massage in NYC benefited our clients? Part 2: Massage for Triathletes & Endurance Sports

 

Competitive triathlete? Long distance runner? Swimmer? Road cyclist or Peloton junkie? At Bodyworks DW, our therapists provide custom-designed sports massage sessions focused on helping you maximize your activities. Sessions can include massage for injury recovery, injury prevention, tune-ups and maintenance. Sports massage for triathletes is hardly a luxury – it’s an investment!

Update April 2021: Massage for triathletes and other endurance sports is especially important right now after months of being indoors! As we all try to restart our exercise routines, we could all use a tune up 🙂

The Triathlete (Distance Running, Cycling, Swimming)

Swimming, biking, running…triathletes are the workhorses of the athletic community. With super long training routines! Two of these three activities are lower body heavy. However, the swimming portion means that your upper body and arms should certainly not be ignored. Great sports massage therapists also understand how important your breath and core are in any of these activities. 

We definitely want to address your chief complaints like sore knees and hips. But we also want to get to the root of why you may be continually experiencing soreness. Or why you are starting to feel less refreshed after your runs or swims. This is often where breath and core awareness come into the picture. Sports massage for triathletes focuses on helping them balance the issues that each discipline causes.

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Massage Therapy for your Office Injury: Why they occur and how to stop them!

 

According to studies completed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, musculoskeletal disorders cost approximately $15 billion in workers’ compensation costs each year. Per data collected in 2013, musculoskeletal disorders also accounted for about 33% of all office injury and illness cases. The most common of these injuries are related to the neck, shoulders and back. In addition, sedentary time and time in front of screens has only increased over the years. 

Today, the work hard, play hard and hustle mentalities are the foremost attitudes adopted by many New Yorkers. We spend a lot of time sitting in front of computers, on phones and handling stressful situations. The pile up is causing more and more office related injuries. What can you do to help alleviate your pain? Seek out a medical massage in New York City!

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How To Find a Chiropractor or Acupuncturist During The Holidays

 

What do you do when your back goes out and you are away from home?!

If you are reading this, odds are you are in New York City. And quite possibly already a happy massage therapy client at our studio. We think our blogs are relevant and important info. But we’d be fooling ourselves if we thought that Google would show them much outside of our home turf, NYC. For many of you, you already know what to do when you back (or other area) goes out of whack. Book a massage with our team of talented therapists for back pain massage in the New York area! When you are out of NYC, we recommend working with a chiropractor or acupuncturist instead. And we’ll show you how to find a good chiropractor or acupuncturist!

Travel is tough on our bodies. And holidays with family can often add even more stress into the picture. It’s not at all uncommon for injuries to crop up while away from home. There are a lot of possible causes:

• Different mattresses and pillows than you are used to
• Long plane flights crammed into uncomfortable seats
• Eating foods outside your normal diet
• Being thrown into other people’s schedule
• Your uncle/aunt/mother/grandfather asking you repeatedly why you haven’t gotten married/had kids/gotten a promotion/found a partner/insert existential dread here…..

Counterintuitively, we don’t recommend getting a massage if you are away from NYC and in real pain. Before we show you how to find a chiropractor or acupuncturist instead, we need to tell you why!

Why we recommend chiropractic care or acupuncture instead of massage while out of New York

If you are just feeling sore and tired from a long flight, by all means go ahead and book a massage at a spa nearby. Most massage therapists around the country, and frankly the world, have enough training to provide a decent relaxing full body massage. However, if you are in real pain, you need to make sure you find someone who has the training and experience to help you.

New York State massage therapists have much higher education requirements that most other states. New York requires a minimum of 1000 hours of training to complete school and get a license. Most other states only require between 500-700 hours.

That extra 300-500 hours of training makes a real difference. Between being able to provide medical massage vs a spa massage. Of course, it’s totally possible that you will end up with someone great and experienced, but it can be a gamble.

Massage Therapy does not have national standards. So don’t count on other states having therapists at the level you are used to in New York!

There is no national standard for massage therapy (yet). There are minimum national requirements for chiropractors and acupuncturists. Both disciplines routinely deal with pain management. If you find someone with a decent number of 5 star reviews on Google, you’ll likely walk away with less pain. While there is still no way to guarantee you’ll get what you need the odds are higher. And if you follow our guide on how to find a chiropractor or acupuncturist, you’ll have an even greater chance of walking out pain free.

In states with lower requirements for massage therapy, you’ll have to rely solely on recommendations and reviews. And on their having taking advanced training courses. These courses often use language that is hard to decipher. If you aren’t up on the latest terms (pediatric oncology massage, traditional kinesiology, etc….anyone?) it will be hard to tell what you are getting.

This will only take about 15 mins and is well worth the extra time to make sure you get quality care 15 minutes.

How to Find a Chiropractor or Acupuncturist When Out of Town

1. Pick what you are most comfortable with

   Not everyone is comfortable with getting their neck or back “cracked” by a chiropractor. Conversely, not everyone is comfortable with getting needles in acupuncture. Which one appeals to you most?

2. Search online for either “chiropractor” or “acupuncturist” and read reviews

   Find someone with a decent number of 5 star reviews and read through a few. Good therapists have happy gushing clients and the reviews should show this. Also, read some of the negative reviews. A few of these are normal. Some people just can’t be pleased no matter how professional and experienced a therapist is. However, if there are consistent complaints, you probably wan’t to move on to the next well reviewed practitioner.

3. Factor in the distance from where you are staying

   A long drive to see someone is going to exacerbate your pain condition. You may walk out of the session feeling great, and by the end of the long drive back, feel awful again. Go with someone close by who has a solid reputation. It’s better than going with the “best” if they are much further away.

4. Don’t forget to read the About section of their website

   This usually lists how long the person has been practicing. Look for someone who’s been seeing clients for over 10 years. That and a solid reputation in their neighborhood (ie good reviews) means they can probably help you. If they can’t they will also be very up front about whether they think you need to see a specialist. Or go to a hospital!

5. Book a session for as soon as possible

   You don’t need to suffer in pain any longer than you have to. Is the “best” practitioner in town is booked solid for the next several days? We recommend booking with a good quality practitioner for today or tomorrow at the latest instead. Your goal here is to lessen or eliminate the pain for the time you are away. For many issues a single session will at least get your through your trip without having to spend the whole time in bed.

6. Book a medical massage session with your favorite NYC massage therapist for as soon as possible after you get back

   If you did all of the above, hopefully you were able to enjoy the rest of your trip without being in agony. But the flight back home might re-trigger the issue. When you get back home, working with your favorite massage therapist is key. They know your body already, and can quickly put together a plan to lower or eliminate the pain in the long term. They may even recommend you continue to see either a chiropractor or acupuncturist as well. The synergy between these and massage therapy will often allow you to recover more quickly. And with less overall sessions needed than if you did only one type of therapy.

What to do once you get back home

Like we said above in step 6, the flight back is probably going to re-trigger the issue. Hopefully, you followed our how to find a chiropractor or acupuncturist guide. And were able to locate a great practitioner. And hopefully that meant you were able to enjoy the rest of your trip. Now that you are back home, it’s time for a good reset massage to make sure the issue goes away for the longer term.

We offer back pain massage to the New York area in Midtown and the Financial District. Would you like to schedule a professional back pain massage with one of our highly trained massage therapists? Contact Bodyworks DW today or click on the button to book online at our back pain massage Midtown or back pain massage Fidi studios!

What do you do when your back goes out and you are away from home?!

If you are reading this, odds are you are in New York City. And quite possibly already a happy massage therapy client at our studio. We think our blogs are relevant and important info. But we’d be fooling ourselves if we thought that Google would show them much outside of our home turf, NYC. For many of you, you already know what to do when you back (or other area) goes out of whack. Book a massage with our team of talented therapists for back pain massage in the New York area! When you are out of NYC, we recommend working with a chiropractor or acupuncturist instead. And we’ll show you how to find a good chiropractor or acupuncturist!

Travel is tough on our bodies. And holidays with family can often add even more stress into the picture. It’s not at all uncommon for injuries to crop up while away from home. There are a lot of possible causes:

• Different mattresses and pillows than you are used to
• Long plane flights crammed into uncomfortable seats
• Eating foods outside your normal diet
• Being thrown into other people’s schedule
• Your uncle/aunt/mother/grandfather asking you repeatedly why you haven’t gotten married/had kids/gotten a promotion/found a partner/insert existential dread here…..

Counterintuitively, we don’t recommend getting a massage if you are away from NYC and in real pain. Before we show you how to find a chiropractor or acupuncturist instead, we need to tell you why!

Why we recommend chiropractic care or acupuncture instead of massage while out of New York

If you are just feeling sore and tired from a long flight, by all means go ahead and book a massage at a spa nearby. Most massage therapists around the country, and frankly the world, have enough training to provide a decent relaxing full body massage. However, if you are in real pain, you need to make sure you find someone who has the training and experience to help you.

New York State massage therapists have much higher education requirements that most other states. New York requires a minimum of 1000 hours of training to complete school and get a license. Most other states only require between 500-700 hours.

That extra 300-500 hours of training makes a real difference. Between being able to provide medical massage vs a spa massage. Of course, it’s totally possible that you will end up with someone great and experienced, but it can be a gamble.

Massage Therapy does not have national standards. So don’t count on other states having therapists at the level you are used to in New York!

There is no national standard for massage therapy (yet). There are minimum national requirements for chiropractors and acupuncturists. Both disciplines routinely deal with pain management. If you find someone with a decent number of 5 star reviews on Google, you’ll likely walk away with less pain. While there is still no way to guarantee you’ll get what you need the odds are higher. And if you follow our guide on how to find a chiropractor or acupuncturist, you’ll have an even greater chance of walking out pain free.

In states with lower requirements for massage therapy, you’ll have to rely solely on recommendations and reviews. And on their having taking advanced training courses. These courses often use language that is hard to decipher. If you aren’t up on the latest terms (pediatric oncology massage, traditional kinesiology, etc….anyone?) it will be hard to tell what you are getting.

This will only take about 15 mins and is well worth the extra time to make sure you get quality care 15 minutes.

How to Find a Chiropractor or Acupuncturist When Out of Town

1. Pick what you are most comfortable with

   Not everyone is comfortable with getting their neck or back “cracked” by a chiropractor. Conversely, not everyone is comfortable with getting needles in acupuncture. Which one appeals to you most?

2. Search online for either “chiropractor” or “acupuncturist” and read reviews

   Find someone with a decent number of 5 star reviews and read through a few. Good therapists have happy gushing clients and the reviews should show this. Also, read some of the negative reviews. A few of these are normal. Some people just can’t be pleased no matter how professional and experienced a therapist is. However, if there are consistent complaints, you probably wan’t to move on to the next well reviewed practitioner.

3. Factor in the distance from where you are staying

   A long drive to see someone is going to exacerbate your pain condition. You may walk out of the session feeling great, and by the end of the long drive back, feel awful again. Go with someone close by who has a solid reputation. It’s better than going with the “best” if they are much further away.

4. Don’t forget to read the About section of their website

   This usually lists how long the person has been practicing. Look for someone who’s been seeing clients for over 10 years. That and a solid reputation in their neighborhood (ie good reviews) means they can probably help you. If they can’t they will also be very up front about whether they think you need to see a specialist. Or go to a hospital!

5. Book a session for as soon as possible

   You don’t need to suffer in pain any longer than you have to. Is the “best” practitioner in town is booked solid for the next several days? We recommend booking with a good quality practitioner for today or tomorrow at the latest instead. Your goal here is to lessen or eliminate the pain for the time you are away. For many issues a single session will at least get your through your trip without having to spend the whole time in bed.

6. Book a medical massage session with your favorite NYC massage therapist for as soon as possible after you get back

   If you did all of the above, hopefully you were able to enjoy the rest of your trip without being in agony. But the flight back home might re-trigger the issue. When you get back home, working with your favorite massage therapist is key. They know your body already, and can quickly put together a plan to lower or eliminate the pain in the long term. They may even recommend you continue to see either a chiropractor or acupuncturist as well. The synergy between these and massage therapy will often allow you to recover more quickly. And with less overall sessions needed than if you did only one type of therapy.

What to do once you get back home

Like we said above in step 6, the flight back is probably going to re-trigger the issue. Hopefully, you followed our how to find a chiropractor or acupuncturist guide. And were able to locate a great practitioner. And hopefully that meant you were able to enjoy the rest of your trip. Now that you are back home, it’s time for a good reset massage to make sure the issue goes away for the longer term.

We offer back pain massage to the New York area in Midtown and the Financial District. Would you like to schedule a professional back pain massage with one of our highly trained massage therapists? Contact Bodyworks DW today or click on the button to book online at our back pain massage Midtown or back pain massage Fidi studios!

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Guidelines for Vaccinated Massage Clients

 

In response to the latest reporting on the transmissibility of the Delta variant for covid-19, we are returning to our previous masking policy. Going forward, all clients and therapists will be required to wear a mask at our studios both in the waiting area and during treatment.

Please note that the below policy is being paused while viral spread of the Delta variant is rising in NYC. If spread reduces back below 1% we will return to the guidelines below.

Updated as of May 24th

NYS’s lifted mandated covid safety guidelines for most businesses on May 19th. In accordance with the newest CDC guidelines. What this means is that businesses now have the option to either continue their existing safety protocols. Or to establish their own. The only true mandates on most businesses are that non-vaccinated patrons must continue to wear a mask and socially distance wherever possible. And for vaccinated massage clients, there are no longer any NYS mandates.

That being said, we are going to gradually scale back our existing covid safety plan. So, for the most part, we will be keeping our existing plan. There are some immediate changes, specifically to mask policy for vaccinated massage clients.

The main change: updated mask policies for vaccinated massage clients

1. You can remove your mask during your massage if you choose to. You will need to show proof of vaccination to your therapist (see #4). If you prefer leaving your mask on, that’s totally fine. Therapists will honor all requests to keep their own masks on.
2. Vaccinated therapists can work in treatment rooms without a mask as long as the client is comfortable with that. Non-vaccinated therapists will continue wearing masks as required by NYS and your safety.
3. For now, masks are still required in the waiting and common areas regardless of vaccination status. The waiting areas of our studios are meant to be peaceful and calming. We want to avoid having clients having to navigate asking each other’s vaccine status. And/or argue over mask safety which is not in line with our vibe.
4. For proof, you can show your therapist your vaccination card OR download the NYS Excelsior App. The app is super easy to use and you can add your pass to your phone wallet.
5. Without proof of vaccination, we’ll require you to keep your mask on under existing safety protocols.

Other changes to our covid safety protocols for both non-vaccinated and vaccinated massage clients

These are minor, but ones that we see as easy to make in the current environment. IE very low viral spread in NYC and continuing to drop.

• Now that viral spread is well below 1%, we feel it’s time to ditch the bulky and uncomfortable eye protection.
• We will be reopening our waiting areas again. We ask that you keep masks on in the common areas of the studios. So for now, no food or drink please.

These are exciting times after so much turmoil! Getting used to these new changes may take time. And that many of you will need some time to adjust. Feeling safe without a mask is a new idea. You can read about just how amazingly effective the new vaccines are here: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/health-departments/breakthrough-cases.html

As the viral spread continues to drop and vaccinations continue to increase we will introduce other changes. Stay tuned!

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Chronic Wrist Pain & Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?

 

In our modern device driven world, wrist pain and carpal tunnel syndrome have gone from rare to ubiquitous. Between typing, holding up our phones all day, carrying bags everywhere, etc. our high paced way of life takes a toll on our vulnerable wrists. Luckily, wrist pain and/or a carpal tunnel syndrome diagnosis does not mean you'll wind up in surgery. With a few lifestyle adjustments, more breaks in your routine, and a series of advanced massage therapy sessions, wrist pain can be a thing of the past for anyone.

Elizabeth Dashiell interviews Senior Massage Therapist Evana Class on Wrist Pain & Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Elizabeth: What kind of pain do you address in your clientele at Bodyworks DW that you're very successful at treating? 

Evana: I have been really successful at working with clients that have chronic wrist pain and/or a diagnosis for carpal tunnel syndrome.

Elizabeth: How do you tend to address this kind of wrist pain?

Evana: I begin with a range of motion assessment. Is the client able of open and close the hand? Can they move each finger independently, flex and extend at the wrist?

Doing this will tell me which muscles in the forearm and hand are “tight” or restricted. The massage will start at the palm of the hand and moves through towards the elbow on both sides of the arm.

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Shoulder Pain: What’s Causing Yours and How Massage Therapy can Help

 

Shoulder pain is one of the most common issues people face today. The shoulder is a very complex set of muscles and bones designed for a large variety of movements. In order to gain that freedom of movement, evolution had to sacrifice some stability. This makes shoulders especially vulnerable to injury. Both impact injuries such as a torn rotator cuff, and overuse injuries such as a pinched nerve. Thankfully, shoulder pain massage can work wonders on many types of shoulder pain.

How Your Shoulders Work – Two Joints, Not Just One!

The shoulder actually consists of two distinct joints, the shoulder joint and the shoulder girdle.

The Shoulder Joint

The arm bone (humerus) connected to socket of the shoulder blade makes up the shoulder joint. The shoulder joint allows for movement of the arm in many directions. All while keeping the shoulder blade locked in place. Your shoulder joint can move your arm forwards, backwards, sideways. As well as rotating your arm in the socket.

There are many different muscles that attached to the humerus and allow for these movements. The pectoral major, latissimus, and deltoid create forwards, backwards, and sideways movements of the arm. The rotator cuff set of muscles creates rotational movements. Contrary to popular belief there is no “rotator cuff muscle.” The rotator cuff actually refers to a set of 4 different muscles: supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres major, and subscapularis.

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How can massage therapy help sports injuries?

 

This blog discusses every detail on how massage therapy can help athletes with sports injuries and shares a focus on massage therapy for injury prevention. We have kept this blog short, precise, understandable, and informative to give you the best insight. Within the first section, we discuss a brief introduction to massage therapy and its relation to sports injury. In the next section, we discuss how massage therapy helps athletes with sports injuries. In the sub-divided section, we discuss each benefit, including better nutrition to muscles, quick recovery time, enhanced muscle flexibility, followed by how it helps to prevent over-training. In the last section, we talk about how massage therapy helps prevent sports injuries in the future. So, let's dig in.