Massage Therapy

Massage therapy, where have you been all my life?

Several years ago when I was in university I started getting persistent headaches every day.  I figured I probably had a brain tumour or something so I went to the doctor and she said it sounded like tension headaches.  She told me to go get a massage.  I went and got one, my back hurt like crazy for several days after, but then my headaches were gone.  After that I didn't get another massage for a long time because I knew what tension headaches were and as soon as I felt them coming back, I just worked hard to relax my shoulders and stuff and they'd go away.

A few weeks ago I got a super stiff neck from I'm not sure what, so I sucked it up and booked a massage.  My neck got better, but a couple weeks later the tension headaches came back on the same side as my sore neck.  So, I went for another massage and I'm hoping this one worked.

The night before I went I told Brahm to rub my shoulders because I was pretty sure they were stiff.  When I went for the massage, the therapist was like "WOW your shoulders are tight" and she had to do all these weird things like pushing really hard into my armpit to fix everything.  She said my shoulder blades basically were not moving with my arms anymore which is bad, haha.

After the massage my shoulders were sore from being prodded around so I got Brahm to rub them and he said the difference between that day and the night before was extremely noticeable.  Who knew?  I have an excellent benefits plan through work so I might as well go every once in a while just to keep things loose.

The first time I went for a massage I expected it to be like, a relaxation massage.  I did not realize real massage therapy often has to be pretty painful for them to actually work out all the kinks.  But, it's pain that's worth it.

The only weird thing about massages that I don't really like is that it's basically a medical procedure because it's covered by health plans, but you're supposed to tip.  Do any other medical professionals get tipped?  No, so why do I have to tip my massage therapist like they just served me a meal?  Oh well.