The ‘best’ time to have a massage can depend on a range of things, though if you ask us…we’d say ANY time is the best time for a massage! But if we’re attempting to look at this objectively, the best time to have a massage is influenced by your overall goals for a session, if you have other activities planned, if it’s the start or end of the week, whether or not you have a workout (or some physical activity planned) or for some of us if we have some kind of performance or event coming up.
Your Thai Massage session really be aimed at any number of desired outcomes ranging from easing mental stress, to encouraging mobility in chronically stiff areas. In these situations and for most massage treatments in general, sessions are often done at a time when you have no strenuous activities planned for the remainder of the day. It’s not that you shouldn’t necessarily work-out after a treatment, it’s more that you probably won’t feel like doing a whole lot. That’s because a chief intention in our work is to choose Thai Yoga postures and techniques that bring about a profoundly deep sense of release. We aim to encourage your body and mind to completely relax.
Though, on the other side of the coin, there are also times when Thai massage can be used to help prepare your body for physical activity. Depending on the techniques used it can help with mobility and the preparedness of your soft-tissues for your best possible performance. Personally I work with quite a lot of athletes. When they come in for a Thai massage session it’s either to help them warm-up before a practice or game, or to wind down afterwards and to kickstart the recovery process. In a warm up session, I generally use techniques that are a little more invigorating and energizing to get you ready for movement (instead of relaxing you too deeply). We would save the deep relaxation until after a match/game/training/movement practice.
In recovery, if you happen to have a soft-tissue injury, Thai massage can really facilitate the healing process. We only ever work with injuries once the initial 72hrs have passed. After that, once again we tailor our work to help reduce any build-up of scar tissue and limit the development of adhesions that form due to immobility. Gentle and mindful movements can also halt any losses in range of motion and help keep the local tissues and joints well lubricated, even in the early stages of recovery. All this helps to reduce the amount of time it takes to heal.
This gives you an idea of the versatility of our beloved Thai massage practice. We have so many different techniques, postures, and ways to apply pressure at our disposal that each and every session is completely customizable, down to the last detail. The ability to change the pace, depth, intensity, (and to select the most appropriate series of postures) really creates a unique experience that can be used at any point during the day, for any number of purposes.
The key part of this equation for you is to let your practitioner know what your goals are for a session, and what types of activities you may have coming up within the next few hours or days. This way we can really seek out the best ways to help you, using the many tools in our Thai massage repertoire!
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