01 Mar Massage Isn’t Just For Relaxation
1 Mar 2021
Never had therapeutic massage before? Think it’s just a way to pamper yourself?
Hi, I’m Eiko, the newest remedial massage therapist at tonika health. Lovely to meet you all (albeit virtually!). This is my ‘first massage’ story…one where I had an ‘aha’ moment and realised that therapeutic massage is about needs, not just wants. This is a big misconception that I often hear about massage – that it’s a nice way to pamper yourself and relax if you want to…but that it’s not something that you actually need or something that will result in tangible and significant changes.
One day in August 2012 during my Karate training, I snapped my left ACL. I had nicely executed an aerial – a jumping spinning back kick…with a dodgy landing. Ouch! Right then and there, I knew the grading test for my second-dan blackbelt in 3 weeks wasn’t going to happen…
It took just under a week for the pain and swelling in my left knee to come down. I carefully went back to Karate classes in a gentle, controlled manner as approved by my orthopaedic surgeon while awaiting ACL reconstruction.
My goal was to regain my left knee function. (I knew I’d missed out on the current second-dan grading, but it was my goal to be ready for the next one as soon and as safely as possible). One week after the ACL surgery, while still needing crutches to walk outside, my twice weekly physio sessions began.
For the first time in my life, I was introduced to a range of myotherapy techniques from my physio as part of my recovery and rehabilitation. It included deep tissue massage, trigger point therapy, musculoskeletal alignment and stretching. (Psst…did you know these are all also within a remedial massage therapists scope of practice?). The experience was honestly eye opening! Before all of this, I’d never experienced soft tissue pain to the point where I needed manual therapies for relief. However, receiving this sort of therapy (i.e. manual therapy that included my modality, remedial massage, where soft tissues are directly and indirectly worked on) changed my entire perspective. I was able to feel the incredible difference it made.
SO, if you think you’ve been thinking about massage as a nice way to pamper yourself and nothing else…I invite you to shift your perspective and see it as something that can indeed result in noticeable changes and make an incredible difference to your life. Whether it be a sporting injury (like mine), chronic neck or back pain, postural correction, issues in your hands or feet, stiff joints, sore muscles…or any other number of things.
If you’re reading this and are still wondering if booking a massage is the right decision, you can book a free 15 minute phone consult here with me to find out more about how massage can help you.
Oh, and if you’d ever like to talk more about karate…I’m always up for a chat!
Warm wishes,
Eiko