Wake-Up Massage & Yoga

The goal of wake-up massage is to make your body feel and perform better by getting out the kinks caused by a “good” night’s sleep and the soreness and stress caused by a “bad” night’s sleep. Traditionally this kind of massage is done before getting out of bed and takes about ten to fifteen minutes.

Wake-up massage allows you to zero in on the muscles most affected by your nocturnal twists and turns, on those occasions when you awaken with your neck at a right angle to your head or one of your legs twisted under the other. The problems sleep causes can drag on for days or be gone with a few minutes of massage in the morning. You can do it yourself or hire a professional.

Many people believe that they are entitled to wake up fully refreshed and invigorated. Most of the time though we wake up in the morning feeling as if we’d been in an accident. We’re tired and have deep doubts about how we’re going to get through the day.

Little has been written about massage in the morning because people use to believe there was only one small part of the human anatomy that needed a massage in the morning. Science has debunked that theory and many scientists now believe that massaging the whole body in the morning is a good idea, especially if it’s their body that’s getting massaged.

We’re not too concerned now about technique. You can pick that up on the website. What you will probably want to know now is how morning massage will benefit you. How will it improve that most important relationship of all, the one you have with yourself?
Having played around with morning massage for a while, here are the three main benefits I’ve gotten:

1. Morning massage relieves muscle pain and soreness, i.e., those tiny knots called trigger points that often form in muscles while I sleep. Massage gets rid of them.

2. A massage in the morning identifies muscle pain and soreness so I can focus on those areas of my body that are weakest and most likely to get injured. By detecting these tiny injuries early, I’m able to prevent them from growing into large debilitating problems. Massage is an effective way to eliminate them.

3. Massage has been shown to improve health and mood by reducing stress which not only affects my mental well-being but physical well-being. Most illnesses are believed to be related to stress. I notice I’ve experienced far fewer sick days since starting my day with a massage.

Can I have all these benefits independent of massage? Definitely. There are other ways to relieve muscle pain and soreness, improve health and mood, and prevent injury. So why even consider using massage? This is a hard case to make, only if you have to get a massage therapist over every morning when you wake up.

The value of self-massage is obvious: immediacy and cost. No other therapy or medicine can work as quickly and cost effectively with no harmful side effects.
With self-massage you get instantaneous feedback from the only person who knows how your body feels. Your body tells your hands exactly how deep to go, how long to go, and where to go.

I’m a big believer in using self-massage to understand how massage works, even if you are fortunate enough to wake up next to a massage therapist in the morning. After all, you didn’t understand the value of working out until you started doing it regularly yourself, even if you were living with an athlete.

The benefits you get from massage are only going to be achieved when you’re genuinely interested in feeling and performing better. If you’re interested, take self-massage for a test run, play around with it and let me know what you think.

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