Massage Therapy and Fat Loss

In case the title has thrown you for a loop, I'm not suggesting that you can lose weight with massage. However, if you have been training hard to get in shape for Summer, give your muscles a reward and get a massage.

As a massage therapist, I know the value of soft tissue work in helping recover from intense training. Regular work can also help prevent injuries, in addition to increasing performance.

Today I got worked on by another therapist in my building. Having my studio located in a massage therapy school should mean plenty of massages, especially since I am one of the teachers.

But unfortunately, I don't get worked on as often as I need....... and with loads of past injuries, I should be getting worked on much more frequently. In any case, I was just going to get a half hour on my upper body, which turned into an hour, as the skilled therapist couldn't let me walk away with so much work needing to be done.

I think she about broke her thumbs on all my scar tissue. I have lots of chronic soft tissue problems that sometimes keep me from working as intensely as I would like, but lately I have been training my butt off.

Or rather, building my butt by spending so much time pushing my Prowler sled. I've been at the point where my body might break down if I didn't get some good massage work.

Nothing relaxing about this stuff, she was sweating and I was gritting my teeth at times, but that's what my muscles needed...... some skilled deep tissue massage.

So my point is, in trying to build the body of your dreams, don't forget to take care of your muscles in the process. Getting skilled soft tissue work can go a long ways to staying healthy and looking good.

She was kind of amazed that I didn't have much pain, as stiff as some of my muscles were. One of the things that has kept me going is the joint mobility training that I do on a regular basis. It doesn't replace other ways to keep your body healthy......

but it allows my body to move more efficiently and in this case, train with more intensity. I just need to get massages more frequently and get a chiropractic adjustment once in a while, kind of like maintenance work.

If you want more info on preventing injuries, self massage and flexibility/mobility training, go to BrianMorganFitness.com