Your First Chair Massage -- A Treat!

You are about to have your first chair massage--What should you expect?

Expect to feel pampered!

When you see a massage chair, you may be slightly baffled. Do not try and guess how to sit in it or you may tip the chair over! Have the massage therapist show you how to get on it.

Once you are seated, your massage therapist will adjust the seat, headrest, and arm rest to fit your body. He or she will then ask if you are comfortable and make any necessary adjustments.

Your back should be straight and the armrest should be lowered until your shoulders are not raised. Once your face is in the face cradle, your neck should be ever so slightly flexed forward.

If you are not comfortable, please tell your massage therapist as your comfort is of the utmost importance in a chair massage, especially your first chair massage. Don't be shy about it.

The therapist should ask if you are having any pain or discomfort so he or she knows what part of your body to give the most attention to. The majority of chair massages are given for relaxation.

If you do not want your head touched or your hair or makeup messy, please let the massage therapist know and he or she will not include your face and head in the massage.

You will be seated with your knees and lower legs on cushions built onto the sides of the chair. Your forearms will go on the armrest and your face will go in the face cradle. Make sure to remove your eyeglasses for your comfort. You may want to remove your watch and bracelets to allow the therapist better access to your wrists, especially if pain or disease is an issue there or in your forearms.

The massage therapist will then give you your first chair massage! He or she will perform a series of strokes and compressions.

When your first seated massage is complete, you should feel relaxed and very comfortable.

Make sure to drink plenty of water after your chair massage (and every massage thereafter) to flush toxins from your cells that were loosened during the massage and to prevent a headache.

Update, August 2008---When I went to massage school in 2004, I was taught that it was imperative that all clients drink a lot of water after each massage to flush toxins out of the cells and to prevent headaches.

I just read in one of the massage magazines this week that this information is not true. Almost every single class period, my instructor would mention this. I believed it and now, after having read this article by two highly respected massage therapists in the country, I am not sure what to believe.

The article states that none of this is true and that when they mentioned flushing the toxins by way of water to physicians, the physicians had never heard of such a thing. The article calls the water drinking to flush out toxins a myth. Maybe it is....Massage therapists, let me know what you think about this here.

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