New Year, New You

2024 has arrived and many of us make resolutions to improve some element in our lives: Our jobs, homes, social life, and the most frequent ones: Fitness and health.

One way to give yourself a physical boost that supports your fitness regime and decreases the tension in your entire nervous system is to incorporate regular massage into your routine. It doesn't have to be more than once a month, but it does bring added benefits.

It increases circulation to the major muscle groups in your body. When you work out, micro muscle tears occur that help you build more muscle as your body repairs them. Increasing the circulation to these areas that have been overworked speeds up that healing process.

Massage around the knee, shoulder, and hip joints can increase your range of motion by increasing the pliability of your tendons, especially the IT Band and attachment sites of your hip and shoulder rotator muscles. IF you have noticed that you're not able to reach higher than your shoulders to grab something from a high shelf or you are having twinges in your low back when you tie your shoes, it might be a good time to schedule a massage.

Massage will also help you have time to just relax for an hour, calming your mind and helping you to stop focusing on multiple things at once. One of the nicest things you can do for yourself is to just concentrate on yourself, even if only for a few hours.

I'd like to encourage you to add massage to your new year's resolutions. Make this the year you take some time to make a new you!