The Benefits of Combining Reiki and Massage Therapy

Reiki has become a popular healing modality over the last several years due to reports that it can help manage stress, anxiety and even physical pain.

But what exactly is Reiki?

Reiki is a kind of energy healing that addresses universal lifeforce energy. All living things have this lifeforce energy flowing in and around them. Just like highways can become jammed up during rush hour, our energy pathways and centers can also become congested.

When this occurs, we can begin to feel fatigued or experience headaches, digestive disturbances, depression, anxiety and overwhelm. If this pattern continues, it can lead to dis-ease in both the emotional and physical body.

When you receive a reiki treatment, the practitioner is essentially treating the energy in and around your body by laying their hands on or above energy centers to help restore proper flow, so that your body can then begin to heal itself.

What makes Reiki a great addition to your massage session?

Massage therapy tends to work more with your physical body; muscles, tendons, lymphatic and circulatory systems, and it can help calm your nervous system as well.

Often times dis-ease and imbalances begin in the energy centers of your body, and you often aren’t able to see or experience these imbalances until they reach the physical level.

By addressing both the physical and energetic body during one wellness treatment, the results can truly be remarkable. Reiki is a gentle, calming adjunct to your bodywork treatment, which can go deeper into addressing the root causes of your imbalances and restoring homeostasis. You will most likely leave feeling lighter, calmer, refreshed, uplifted and more grounded.

If you’re interested in combining massage therapy and reiki energy healing, book your appointment online today!

How To Save Money on Your Massages

For many people, massage therapy is not just a luxury. It is part of a well-rounded healthcare plan that helps improve physical, mental and emotional health when received on a regular basis. But how can you make regular massage therapy more affordable?

Buy packages

Many wellness centers and massage therapy establishments offer discounts on massage therapy and other wellness services when you purchase several at one time. This can also help keep you accountable and more likely to commit to care on a regular basis when you know you have more services on your account that you’ve already paid for. To view pricing for our packages at TheraKneads, click here.

Look out for sales

At TheraKneads, our Annual Black Friday Sale is our biggest sale of the year with the greatest opportunity for savings. Many clients actually choose to purchase all of their massages for the year at this time to make the most out of the sale. You can also follow us on social media and sign up for our emails to learn about other sales that pop up.

Come monthly (or more)

If you come in at least once a month or more and receive a service that is 60-minutes or longer, you’re automatically eligible for our monthly discount of $10 off your session. Over the course of a year, this adds up to a free massage!

We know how beneficial massage therapy is for our community. That is why we try to keep our services as affordable as possible while offering multiple ways to save on your sessions throughout the year. Click here to book your next massage therapy appointment online.

The Benefits of Cupping Therapy

These days it’s hard to watch the Olympics, a professional basketball game or even scroll through social media without noticing those circular cupping marks on many of the athletes’ backs, shoulders and legs. Michael Phelps, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Steven Adams and Conor McGregor are just a few athletes known for donning these infamous marks.

But what’s the deal with cupping anyway? What are its benefits? Are the marks “bruises?” And how can it help not just professional athletes—but also gym-goers, runners and your typical office-worker?

What is cupping?

Cupping is a type of bodywork therapy that involves placing cups on the skin to create suction. This suction creates negative pressure, which pulls, lifts and decompresses muscles and connective tissue. This process promotes blood flow to compromised areas, enhances circulation and helps to speed up the body’s own healing processes.

How does it feel?

Cupping is relaxing and generally not painful.  The sensation is akin to a slight pulling of the skin as the cup is moved in a rolling, circular or stationary fashion.  Redness or a feeling of warmth is usually experienced after the release of the cup due to an increase of blood flow to the area. 

Are the marks bruises?

No. Bruises are caused by blunt injury or trauma. They are the blood from broken capillaries trapped under the skin. Unlike bruises, cupping marks are stagnant blood, cellular debris or pathogens that are brought to the surface for the lymphatic system to clear away. Generally, cupping marks will last from about a day up to a week, depending on the stagnation of the area. However, it is possible to use a technique called dynamic cupping (constantly moving the cups around), which leaves no marks behind.

What are the benefits?

        1.      Treats stubborn knots or trigger points

1. Releases scar tissue and fascial adhesions

2. Reduces pain

3. Improves circulation, blood and lymph circulation

4. Promotes mobility and range of motion

5. Releases toxins

6. Achieves faster results (it is said that 5 minutes of cupping is the same as 30 minutes of deep-tissue massage)

If you’re interested in experiencing the many benefits of cupping therapy, simply add it on to any massage service with one of our skilled massage therapists. Book here https://therakneads.com/massage-eldersburg-sykesville-maryland or give us a call at 410-549-7711 with any questions.

Massage May Be the Missing Key to Your Fitness Gains

“A massage? Come on, man. I don’t need a girly spa experience; I’ll tough it out.”…..If we had a dollar for every time, we heard that sentence or something similar from an athlete or anyone who works out on the regular, we’d be rich! 

If there is one common denominator for people who work out, it’s that they will do almost anything to see faster progress in their workouts, and even more so for their body’s aesthetic.

They have no problem spending hundreds of dollars at their local vitamin shop for supplements, pre-workouts, protein powders, and the like—so why pause at the suggestion of massage therapy?

What if we told you the thing that may be stopping you from achieving your optimal “gains” could be something as simple as a monthly massage?

Mark Allen, the six-time winner of the Hawaiian Ironman Triathlon, believes that massage was an indispensable part of his training. Just as athletes need hard work to excel, they also need a massage to quicken recovery between workouts, prevent injuries, and reduce stress.

NBA stars and legends such as Grant Hill, Steve Nash, and Kobe Bryant, have all used sports massage as a means to stay healthy on and off the court. World Series champs, the 2005 Chicago White Sox, relied heavily on the team’s massage therapist to experience peak performance.

Most NFL teams also have a massage therapist on staff. And according to Forbes, James Harrison, the famed Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker, spends around half a million dollars per year on bodywork, which includes massage therapy.

So, how exactly does massage affect recovery and performance?

1. Massage speeds up your recovery time

Massage increases blood flow to the whole body. When blood flow circulates well, your muscles and tissues receive much-needed oxygen and nutrients. Adding a post-workout massage helps restore your range of motion, and helps you perform exercises more efficiently. This increased range of motion can improve your speed and strength during workouts.

2. Massage decreases muscle soreness (or DOMS)

The increase of muscle enzymes in the blood after exercise causes damage to the muscle fibers and cell membrane. This damage is responsible for localized pain, tenderness and swelling associated with DOMS. Prevent post-workout pain, tight muscles and trigger points by enjoying a massage after your workout.

3. Massage increases lymph flow and helps remove toxins

Lactic acid accumulates when we exercise and contributes to post-workout muscle soreness. A massage after working out helps break up and remove lactic acid from muscles, as well as promote lymph movement.

4. Massage improves flexibility

Muscles may feel tight and constricted after intense workouts. Post-workout massage helps release the tightness and improves flexibility. Muscle recovery means it will be easier to do everyday things that require your body to be flexible. Runners who focus their post-workout massage on their hamstrings find they gain endurance and speed when running.

With years of study and hands-on experience with athletes of all ages and levels of fitness, you will be sure to find the perfect massage therapist and customized treatment plan at TheraKneads Wellness Center. 

From sports massage, deep tissue massage, assisted stretch sessions and foam rolling demo—we have something beneficial for all kinds of athletes. 

Give us a call, check out our offerings or book online here: https://therakneads.com/massage-eldersburg-sykesville-maryland. 

Foam Rolling Is the Answer You’ve Been Looking For

Have you ever gotten a massage and felt loose and limber for a few days, but then that familiar tightness and pain ultimately begins to creep back in? Or maybe each time you get your monthly massage, you feel like you’re making little to no progress from the last session and always starting back at square one. As the months (and your money) pass by, it becomes a frustrating cycle that makes you feel defeated, and like you’re incapable of healing or fixing a problem in your body.

If this sounds like you, know that you are definitely not alone. And regardless of what other massage therapists have told you in the past, we’re here to tell you the truth: a monthly massage on its own is simply not enough to create real, lasting change in your body.

Massage On Its Own Is Not Enough

Don’t get us wrong, therapeutic massage is an incredible therapy with a multitude of benefits (like reduced muscle tension, reduced stress & anxiety, increased joint mobility and so much more)—but if you don’t also put in the work at home, you’re simply not going to see the best possible results.

So, what do we mean by “put in the work at home?” Besides adequate hydration, regular exercise, stretching and finding ways to de-stress, one of the most often overlooked (yet so important!) tools you should be incorporating into your selfcare routine is foam rolling (aka self-myofascial release).

Before we get into what foam rolling is, its numerous benefits and how to do it—let’s talk fascia.

What Is Fascia?

Fascia is connective tissue that weaves around and interpenetrates every single muscle, nerve, blood vessel, organ and bone in the body. It is one continuous structure, somewhat similar to a spider’s web or a sweater. Similarly to when you pull a single thread of a sweater and it begins to bunch up, a restriction in one area of a person’s fascia can create issues in other areas of the body.

Fascia is supposed to be smooth, slippery and it should stretch easily when you move. However, chronic dehydration, a sedentary lifestyle, repetitive movements, physical or emotional trauma, scaring or inflammation can cause fascia to become “sticky” and lose its pliability. Long term fascial restrictions can cause sensitive trigger points to form within muscles, and can even cause muscles to contort and change shape over time.

Self-myofascial Release

To prevent the pain and complications that can come from restricted fascia, self-myofascial release is a form of self-assisted massage that can be a true game-changer when it comes to releasing muscle tension, improving range of motion, correcting posture and increasing neuromuscular efficiency overall.

Self-myofascial release can be done with a foam roller, lacrosse ball, handheld rollers or other assistive devices. Foam rollers can vary in density, surface structure, and some even have vibration or temperature modifications, depending on your goals and preferences.

The main premise behind self-myofascial release, or foam rolling, is that the sustained pressure of your body on the device triggers overactive muscle fibers to release, unknot and realign.

The National Academy of Sports Medicine explains it this way: “Golgi tendon organs, located in the musculotendinous junctions, are stimulated by a change and rate of tension, and when they are stimulated will cause the muscle to relax. When a change in tension is sustained at an adequate intensity and duration, muscle spindle activity is inhibited, causing a decrease in trigger point activity, accompanied by a reduction of pain.”

It's clear that science supports self-myofascial release as an invaluable selfcare tool that can help reduce muscle tension and, in turn, pain—but one thing we’ve noticed, is that when we tell clients to incorporate foam rolling at home, they’re often unsure of exactly how to do it, for how long, how often, and on what body parts.

Learn How To Foam Roll at TheraKneads

This is where our new service, the Foam Rolling Demo, comes in. Join Kayla C., Licensed Massage Therapist & Certified Personal Trainer, as she teaches you how to perform self-myofascial release with a foam roller. Whether you’re looking for foam rolling techniques for certain ailments or you want to learn a full body routine, Kayla has got you covered. You also have the option to add on a customized, therapeutic massage for either 30 or 60 minutes. We will provide all the necessary equipment, so just bring yourself and wear some clothes you can move in.

Gone will be the days where you’re feeling defeated and not making progress toward your goals. Instead, you’ll gain imperative knowledge and become empowered to take your healing into your own hands.

Book your Foam Rolling Demo with Kayla C. here or give us a call at 410-549-7711 if you have any questions.

*Please keep in mind that Kayla C. has a tendency to book up fast—so we recommend setting up any appointments with her well in advance. If you already have a regular massage booked with Kayla C. and would like to change your appointment to also contain the foam rolling demo—just let the front desk know at least one day prior to your appointment and we can happily accommodate.