Posture and Massage Therapy

We have evolved from being four legged to standing up and walking on two legs. This, although with it's benefit, also carries it's consequences. One of which is being prone to suffering from bad posture. This can lead to many uncomfortable or painful symptoms for the individual and put massage Therapists out of business if good supportive posture is not maintained.

To be a great massage therapist it is vital that you do not damage yourself in the process. To avoid this, massage therapists should try to maintain efficient breathing, blood circulation and balanced posture.

There are many things that can lead to having bad posture, one of which is age. As we age and gravity catches up with us, our muscles tend to loose their elasticity and their ability to hold us up as efficiently as they use to like when we were children. This can be due to lack of exercise too as the majority of us now tend to rely more on mechanical transport, work long hours and have less time to get into physical activity. Without regular physical activity to keep our muscles toned and springy, getting older may only add to your problems.

However, getting old doesn't always mean that you can't have good posture, it's vital that you maintain a good balanced diet mixed with regular physical activity. Having a massage can also stimulate the muscles as touch can awaken rarely used muscles exciting them and keeping them happy for much longer! Studies have shown that that can also slow muscle degeneration for the elderly!

Other reasons for which we end up with bad posture are stress and injury. Our bodies tend to automatically go into may forms of defensive modes when we are exposed to stress and injury.

Consequently we seem to do many things such as leaning away from the painful area of our body , retracting our necks, tightening our arms against our chests, wriggling our pelvis around to one side , tilting our pelvis forward, locking leg muscles etc in order to either psychologically put us in defensive mode or to lessen the pain and pressure on an injured part of our body. This, if left too long and not corrected tend to lead to suffering from symptoms of bad posture. This includes but not limited to, back, shoulder and neck pain and many more. Massage can help address and get rid of underlying stresses and help recover from injury when applied correctly.

In conclusion, there are many ways in which we can get ourselves into situations that can comprimise our posture. Our evolution from walking on all fours to walking on two comes with it's own complications. The fact that we as massage therapist are constantly bent over our clients to work on their muscles put us in more of a danger of compromising our posture.
However, it is up to us to make sure that we address these problems as quickly and efficiently as possiable. Massage itself also has the ability to relieve pain, stress and help with recovery from symptoms brought on by having bad posture. Being informed, deciplined and leading a healthy and balanced lifestyle may be the key to avioding suffereing from symptoms of bad posture and being a sucessfull massage therapist.