Minimize soreness after a massage:

After Massage – there are a number of things you should do after your massage.  These will help minimize any soreness or discomfort and will help you keep the effects that have been achieved.

• Muscle Memory:
  
  We have a program in our brain that remembers the lengths of all our muscles at all times.  This allows our body to move without our conscious thought and allows us to adapt to changes in muscle length caused by injury, exercise, or simple use of the muscles – also without conscious thought.  There is, however, a tendency of muscle length to become habituated.  This means a muscle that is shortened due to a repetitive activity or injury gets stuck at a certain length and will remain at that length (or degree of contraction) unless there is some outside force that acts upon it to change that length.  It is why we recognize certain body postures or forms go with certain professions or activities.  We don’t reset to zero or optimal muscle length each time we stop an activity if a muscle is contracted over a long period of time, its inclination is to go back to that degree of contraction even after prolonged stretching or after massage or bodywork.  It is why it often takes more than one treatment to effect change and also why it is so important that people take it easy for a day or so after a massage to allow their brain to reset to the new muscle length and to prevent the muscle suddenly “remembering” its previous length and contracting profoundly into spasm.
  

If you notice a feeling of physical disorientation after a massage it is because your brain is working to recalculate the new lengths of the muscles that have been worked on.  It is a good idea to be very conscious of movement, of the feeling of your feet as they contact the ground, of sitting, of getting into your car.  This serves the dual purpose of activating the brain’s muscle program and also prevents injury from a too abrupt change in posture or position when your muscles are not working quite as unconsciously as they do normally. 

• Epsom Salt Bath:

An excellent bath to relieve muscle pain is the Epsom Salt Bath.  The recipe:

4 cups Epsom Salt

2 cups Baking Soda

1 cup sea salt (optional)

Run a hot bath, add Epsom Salt, Baking Soda and salt if desired.  Soak in a full hot tub for 30 minutes.  This bath should be taken right before bed or when you can thoroughly relax for the rest of the day.  Be careful getting out of the tub as your muscles will be very relaxed and therefore a little shaky.  The Epsom salt and baking soda create a very alkaline solution.  This alkalinity draws the lactic acid out of the muscles.  It is especially beneficial to take this bath after a massage, it helps to draw the toxins out of your body so you don’t have to metabolize them and you avoid the slight flu-like symptoms that are often the result of a deep massage.  It can also be taken after exercise or after a hard day at work that leaves you tense and stressed.   It is especially effective when you first feel the symptoms of a chronic muscle problem.

• Drinking Water:

You want to drink a lot of water after your massage to help flush out the toxins that have been released into your system.   Muscles receive nourishment and clean out metabolic waste from contraction and relaxation.  When muscles have been held in contraction this metabolic waste continues to build up.  With relaxation massage, and with deep tissue massage especially, the pressure the therapist exerts on the muscles releases these stored wastes into the blood stream.  Drinking water after your massage helps to flush these metabolic wastes out of your system.  Combined with an Epsom Salt Bath you will likely feel  no discomfort after your massage. 


• Calcium/Magnesium Supplement:
  
  If you are calcium deficient (and upwards of 80% of American women are) you will find that the beneficial effects of your massage will evaporate after about three days.  This is because the lack of available calcium in your body prevents the muscles from relaxing after use.  So as you go about your daily routine, the muscles contract and then without that available calcium, cannot relax.  This is important to keep in mind if you have found that neither massage therapy, nor chiropractic adjustments seem to help you.  Read more …