(Part 2 of a series)
We all have heard we should drink lots of water. Chances are, your massage therapist has told you, ” Be sure to drink lots of water today after your massage”. In fact, it’s one of the most popular pieces of information massage therapists tend to share with clients on their way home. But why? And what are the benefits?
Simply put, staying hydrated it is the easiest and single most health promoting thing you can do for your body. For your muscles, and for your aches and pains.
Hydration is the best things you can do to help avoid headaches, muscle-aches, and a host of other conditions and diseases.
Let’s imagine you have just finished your massage. During your session, we have facilitated change, directly or indirectly each of your bodies systems. Water is essential for those systems to work their best.
In this post, we will be focusing on the muscles.
With regards to your muscles, think of water as the lubricant, and cleaning agent wrapped up into one.
Here’s what the European Hydration Institute has to say on muscles and Joints.
“Water acts as a lubricant for muscles and joints. It helps cushion joints and keeps muscles working properly.
Muscles and joints, in addition to the bones, are necessary for us to stand, sit, move and carry out all daily activities. Approximately 70 to 75 percent of the muscle is made up of water. Maintaining the right water balance is essential for optimum muscle function.”.
Water also helps eliminate the waste products in the muscles. During your massage, we stirred these up, in fact, we facilitated change on a cellular level, and being hydrated increases the effects. Ideally, we want to flush toxins out of your entire system. Out of the muscles, fascia, lymphatic system, skin and bones while cleaning the blood. After working so hard on your “knots”, we don’t want the nasty toxins settling back into your body all over again.
Muscles that are sore, tender and knotted are going the heal, with the help of your talented massage therapist… and our beloved H2O. Most massage therapists in Fort Lauderdale will tell you a dehydrated muscle is not a happy muscle and is likely to cause more pain. We see it daily in our practices. To heal, one simply must be hydrated.
There are additional benefits to ALL systems in the body, and water helps to bring your body into a state of balance, of homeostasis. Cellular function, and waste elimination are a few of the more juicy ones that we will go into in greater detail in a upcoming additions of the planetmassage.com blog.
Coming soon, ” Are you truly hydrated? Tips for simple monitoring for yourself”
A stretching, medical massage, flexibility and soft tissue corrective massage specialist, Marks love of massage and bodywork came quite naturally to him. Raised in South Florida a resident since 1969, some of his first childhood memories revealed a keen interest in health and wellness. Having seen family members struggle with serious, debilitating and often life threatening health issues, Mark dreamed of a better way he knew had to be out there.
