The Science Behind Massage and Stress Relief at Work

Work can be a stressful place. Stress resulting from stringent deadlines or simultaneously managing too many tasks can affect you emotionally, causing burnout. It can also take its toll physically, leading to ailments like diabetes, high cholesterol, heart problems, and body aches and pains. A stress-relief massage can help relieve these symptoms.

The Science Behind Massage

Many people believe massage therapy can only be done in a spa to pamper yourself and feel better. While you certainly will feel better after a massage, there’s so much more to the process. Getting a stress-relief massage from a professional or using a good massager has several physical and emotional benefits. 

Physical Benefits

Physically, a stress-relief massage activates your body’s parasympathetic nervous system — an in-built stress reducer and relaxation inducer. It also increases your body’s natural release of endorphins, lowering your pain levels while improving your serotonin levels to reduce any depressive and sad feelings you’re experiencing. 

A massage also drops your body’s cortisol levels. Cortisol is a natural steroid hormone that your kidney’s adrenal glands release to regulate stress responses in your body. So, relief from that workday stress is underway with your massage.

These are great reasons alone to buy a massager or book a massage session, but there’s more. It also relaxes your muscles by breaking down internal scar tissue and adhesions to reduce muscular tension. In turn, your flexibility improves, so those experiencing chronic fibromyalgia and back pain tend to appreciate massages.

Emotional Benefits

While massages are known to improve sleep quality and your brain’s cognitive function, you can put these down to their primary psychological and emotional benefit — stress relief. 

Through the physical work that a stress-relieving massage does in activating the parasympathetic nervous system, increasing releasing endorphins and serotonin and decreasing cortisol levels, you experience a sense of calm and less anxious and unhappy feelings. As a result, your work-related stress levels decrease, leaving you more relaxed and upbeat afterward.

The Best Stress-Relief Massages

While an hour-long deep tissue massage, Swedish massage or therapeutic massage are all known stress relief techniques, a five-minute self-massage at home or work can provide instant relaxation and reduce stress and anxiety.

  • Deep tissue massage: As its name suggests, this targets the deeper layers within your body’s soft tissues to reduce tension buildup. A deep tissue massage stretches and opens muscle tissues and fibers to loosen the muscles, reducing pain and decreasing stress.  
  • Swedish massage: A Swedish massage targets the body’s superficial layers to relieve tension and tightness. Releasing physical stress and pain promotes mental relaxation and reduces emotional strain.
  • Therapeutic massage: By applying gentle coercion to soft tissue body regions, therapeutic massage releases muscular knots and the buildup of tension and anxiety. This smooth and consistent pressure encourages improved localized blood flow and loosens stiff joints and muscles. Fewer knots and tension mean less stress.

While a professional massage session using one of the above techniques is a recommendation, it’s not always possible or practical. Therefore, the ability to self-massage for a few minutes during a work break or before a relaxing bath can do wonders to destress. If you know a colleague or employee battling stress, consider gifting them a massage voucher or personal massager tool. It will be a much-appreciated gift. 

The Science Behind Personal Massagers

Massage guns, or percussion massagers, are popular additions to any household. They provide economical alternatives to visiting a professional masseuse and have several benefits, including alleviating work-related stress. The best massage guns combine heat, percussion and vibration to provide handy and practical self-massages. You can do this within minutes by clicking a switch to adjust strength levels when targeting different body areas.

The personal massager can soothe your body’s muscular aches and pains while providing the gentle touch needed for soft tissue areas. Some popular brands can also target aching joints and bones. When used correctly, these qualities positively impact your body’s nervous system, increasing blood flow, relieving pains and providing stress relief similar to professional Swedish, deep tissue and therapeutic massages. 

Relieve Your Work Stress in the Best Way

Whether you visit a qualified massage therapist, ask your partner to do their best for you at home or invest in a personal massager you can use at the office or anywhere else, massage can reduce the work-related stress you carry around with you.  

Myobuddy designs our self-massage tools to target your body’s crucial soft tissue, muscular knots, tension buildup and aching joints. These tools provide physical and emotional stress relief to assist you in managing better at work. If you need further advice about how our products can help, contact us, and we’ll provide the answers you need.

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