Ask the Massage Therapist

You can now buy Massage-St. Louis gift certificates online using your credit card or PayPal account and print them out immediately. It's simple and easy. Purchase gift certificates any time of the day or night and have them ready right when you need them.

A reader asks:

Will sitting at a computer all day and leaning to one side cause poor posture and ultimately pain?  Linda 

Update on 4/5/13: Oddly, this has been one of my most popular articles. Apparently a significant number of people are looking up swelling and inflammation after massage therapy on google. Maybe massage therapists need to ease up a bit.

If you want to get and stay fit, how often should you hit the gym? There's good news for those of you who want to exercise but have a hard time working out two or three times a week. Research accumulated over the last ten to twenty years shows that once a week may be enough.

A reader asked the following question:

It felt like I bruised my tail bone during the last few months I was pregnant with my daughter. The doctor said the pain should go away within 3 months. It's going on 8 months and the pain is still extreme depending on how I sit. Any suggestions?

An Oxymoron?

Painless deep tissue massage. Some people think it's an oxymoron. Many clients and therapists alike believe that in order for a massage to be therapeutic is has to be painful, that harder means deeper and better and more effective. They believe that the only way to affect deeper muscle tissue is to use a lot of pressure. I once thought this myself.

On June 24, 2010, commentators on ABC TV's program The View turned a discussion about recent allegations against former Vice-President Al Gore into a general discussion about massage therapy and massage therapists. The conversation quickly degenerated into a smear of massage therapists and slandered an entire population of licensed professionals.