Many of my clients who are just starting (or restarting) massage therapy ask me: “How often should I get a deep tissue massage?” Often my answer depends on what the person is dealing with, their goals, their finances, and how I think massage therapy can serve them. In this article I’m going to provide some general recommendations for how often you should come in for a massage.
Who:
Maintenance massage is for clients who don’t currently have ongoing problematic areas, and want to reduce the chance of having pain problems in the future. If we’ve, for example, treated a shoulder for a series of sessions and now it’s doing much better, we should still do some general maintenance work so it doesn’t come back. Some clients also enjoy maintenance massage for stress reduction.
How often:
At a minimum, maintenance massage is recommended once a month. It will help you reduce stress, stay loose, and prevent reoccurring injuries. If you are overcoming a serious pain problem, or need massage therapy for stress reduction, you might consider coming in twice a month. If you love the benefits you get from massage therapy and have the budget for it, I also see maintenance massage clients as often as four times a month, and their soft tissues feel absolutely amazing.
Making it affordable:
One big benefit of committing to regular massage therapy is that you can pay less. I offer my clients both memberships (most popular) and packages so they can pay less when they commit to coming in at least once a month. To learn more about memberships and packages, check out my pricing page.
If you have an ongoing issue that you’d like to resolve through massage therapy, you’re looking at a treatment program vs a maintenance program. My treatment recommendations vary depending on the type and location of injury. For example, if a client is coming to see me for just foot pain, I might recommend 2, 30 minute sessions a week. If someone has ongoing shoulder pain, I might recommend once a week for 4-5 sessions. In general, once a week for 4-5 sessions is the minimum you can expect from a treatment plan.
The best way to make a treatment plan affordable is to purchase a package so instead of paying $150 plus tip, you can pay $130 flat rate per session. You can also space your treatments 2 weeks apart instead of one week although, depending on your condition, 2 weeks apart may be too long to see significant improvement. If your finances are limiting your ability to follow through on a treatment plan please let me know and we’ll work together to create the best plan possible.
If you want to prevent tightness before it becomes a problem, and decrease the amount of massage therapy sessions you need, another option is to work with me on personal training/corrective exercise. Most tightness in the body is caused by movement and coordination problems, and by identifying and correcting these problems we can seriously decrease your need for massage therapy. One way to get started is the equipment loan and corrective exercise program that’s included with all memberships and packages. Another option is to dive straight into personal training. Again, to view your options please visit my pricing page. Want to talk about your options? Let me know know at the start of our next session.
Pain Solutions Massage Therapy & Personal Training
Phone: 415.518.2125
Email: ben.beeler2014@gmail.com
Hours:
Monday: Closed
Tuesday: 8:30am-10am, 1pm-7pm
Wednesday: 8:30am-10am, 1pm-7pm
Thursday: 8:30am-10am, 1pm-7pm
Friday: 8:30am-10am, 1pm-6:30pm
Saturday: Closed
Sunday: 2pm-6:30pm
