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| Monday, April 27, 2009 |
| Massage for Weight Loss |
For me, massage has always been a luxury. I was lucky to get one or two massages a year. Recently, I’ve tried to incorporate it as part of my overall wellness routine. I felt that regular massage might be beneficial and could aid in living a healthy lifestyle and maintaining a healthy weight. Boy was I right. I love it! I try to get one a month. If I can’t afford it, I at least try to get a 10 minute chair massage. A chair massage usually only costs a dollar per minute, so I can afford it even in this economy.
Research shows that massage can have a positive effect on your muscle-building capabilities and fitness levels, which in turn increases your capacity to control or lose weight. Healthy, strong muscles burn calories and help you participate in all sorts of sports and activities that allow you to burn excess calories and improve your overall fitness and wellbeing. There are many benefits of massage that can help with your weight loss efforts. Here are a few of the benefits. I hope this is enough to persuade you to give it a try, although something tells me most people don’t need a lot of convincing.
- Massage can help reduce stress. Research shows that stress can actually increase appetite and cause hormonal shifts that may lead to weight gain. Massage can relax the body and mind, thereby helping your weight loss efforts.
- Massage can help your body stay ready for physical activity. Massage can relieve soreness that new exercisers experience or soreness that can occur from strenuous exercising. Reducing soreness will let you get back to exercising sooner. Since massage increases oxygenation of muscle tissue, it helps sustain endurance and shorten recovery time. This allows muscles to maintain maximum power and performance when active, and burn the maximum number of calories in the process.
- Massage can reduce the risk of injury. Injuries are a leading cause of people stopping their exercise regimen which can lead to weight gain. Massage can stretch connective tissue, improve circulation, and aid in tissue repair. It can be very important in maintaining a long term exercise program.
- Massage can increase metabolic rate. Massage increases the body secretions and excretions which may result in an increased metabolic rate.
- Massage may also help with weight loss by helping relieve conditions such as headaches, insomnia and digestive disorders which can affect appetite and physical activity.
- In addition to all of the above, massage may directly aid in fat loss. According to some research studies, massage is said to be able to burst the fat capsule in subcutaneous tissue so that the fat exudes and becomes absorbed. In this way, combined with proper nutrition and exercise, massage may actually help in fat loss.
It’s no secret that massage can improve your mood and have you feeling good in as little as 30 minutes. But now you know that there may be a hidden benefit to massage…weight loss. If you don’t currently get massages, give it a try. You will love it and you may even lose some extra weight. If you already get regular massages, now you have one more reason to continue. I know I’ll continue to find a little extra money in my monthly budget to get at least 30 minutes of massage a month.
- JenniferLabels: Fitness, Jennifer, Weight Loss
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posted by My Sensei @ Monday, April 27, 2009   |
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| 2 Comments: |
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I love massages and didn't realize chair massages were so affordable. My neck and shoulders are my big trouble area, and those would definitely benefit from a chair massage! Thanks for the info!
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My daughter is going to start studying at the Swedish Institute in Manhattan in the fall! She is really interested in the Eastern schools of massage. She was describing the technique of shiatsu and a Thai massage that was just fascinating (from her time at a weekend workshop there). Apparently it is a kind of interactive yoga-ish discipline, one that incidentally benefits the massager as well as the massagee.
I sure hope I reap some of the benefits of her education!
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I love massages and didn't realize chair massages were so affordable. My neck and shoulders are my big trouble area, and those would definitely benefit from a chair massage! Thanks for the info!