No one can promise you weight loss after a massage. There are, however, many reasons to get a massage to support your goals of weight loss.
Digestion and Massage
Some people believe, you can’t lose weight if you don’t have healthy bowel movements. Massage can help relax abdominal muscles and specific massages can even help reduce constipation. If you’re working on weight loss, consider focusing on healthy bowel movements and using massage to help.
Exercise and Massage
Weight loss is an important part of getting healthier and improving the quality of life for many people. To achieve this, exercise is often added in to our day and can result in sore muscles and a tired and aching body. Massage can decrease the inflammation associated with exercise and bring some relief. This makes it easier to follow through on your commitment to exercise.
Massage can speed up muscle recovery and increase the number of mitochondria in the muscle cells. Why is this good news? Mitochondria are the power plants of our cells… they take oxygen and food and turn it into the energy needed for powering everything in our bodies. When we have more mitochondria, our metabolism rate increases and in turn burns more calories.
Stress Reduction and Massage
Stress has become a large part of our modern life. A new study seems to come out every month reflecting on the damage pervasive stress can cause to our health. One of the ways our health can be impacted is thru an effect on our appetite.
According to Elissa Epel, PhD, an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco, “While the immediate . . . response to acute stress can be a temporary loss of appetite, more and more we are coming to recognize that for some people, chronic stress can be tied to an increase in appetite — and stress-induced weight gain.”
Reducing stress may then be an important component in our campaign to improve our health AND our waistline. Massage can be a great tool towards that end. When getting a massage, the autonomic nervous system can shift from being mainly in sympathetic nervous system mode – the fight or flight response – to a more relaxed parasympathetic system mode – the rest and digest response. Spending time in this more relaxed state can be like finding a safe harbor in the storms of life… It can give you the chance to catch your breath again before going back out to the stressful job or home. It can be the perfect antidote after a particularly grueling week.
In some massages, particular essential oils are used to help the relaxation response. These can then be used during the week, in favorite body creams etc or even just inhaled from a cotton ball, to help the body remember the lowered stress state it experienced in the massage. Thus, the effects of the massage can last well beyond the office visit.
How has massage helped you lower your stress?
