If you are trying your best to avoid oily and sweet foods, cancel your date at a fast-food restaurant, wake up early to go to the gym before work, or go jogging in order to sweat more until you become short of breath, or keep track of any other weight loss program, then you may be surprised to hear that a relaxing massage session can also help you carve your desired body out!
Although massage therapy may not be necessarily a direct fat-burner activity, it will definitely have remarkable effects on making your muscles and tissues ready to get rid of more fat as well as making your mind psychologically stay positive along the way. In this article, we will take a look at the benefits of massage therapy in helping you stay fit.
How Can Massage Therapy Help You lose weight
The effects of massage therapy can come in various physical and psychological ways. Any type of massage therapy can improve your overall mind and body health. Almost all effects of massage therapy can help you with a more balanced nutrition and diet plan as well as better body movements. Here we will review a few of them:
- Body relaxation: First and foremost, massage is a pleasing and soothing therapy that can be used while you are mentally or physically worn out. Receiving low calories and increasing body metabolism can easily make you exhausted, and you definitely need a reward for your hard work. Any type of massage can help you to better overcome your mental and physical exhaustion and become more determined to further your fitness plan.
- Lower cortisol Level: A great obstacle on the way of staying fit is the production of the stress hormone called cortisol. This is the reason why you are pushed toward the fridge for many times during the days you feel blue! It increases your appetite and while your body does not biologically need more food, your mind feels a false hunger, encouraging you to eat more. And, it finally results in higher body mass index (BMI) – an index which measures your body fat based on your height and weight. A relaxing massage can significantly reduce the cortisol level of your body.
- Higher endorphin level: Similar to how it fights off cortisol, massage therapy can also promote the production of the happiness hormone, endorphin. Higher endorphin levels can enhance your good mood and also your feelings about yourself. It improves your self-confidence, self-esteem, and overall psychological health. Better feelings can make you feel more satisfied and encouraged with your life plans including weight loss program. Moreover, not always does your body respond positively to your efforts and endeavors to lose weight. In these absolutely natural phases, you have to stay motivated enough and one great way is to treat yourself to a relaxing massage which helps you feel better about yourself and your body.
- Better sleep quality: Poor sleep can increase the production of your hunger hormones and thus your appetite, increase your cravings for fatty and sweet high-calorie foods to avoid insomniac distress, decrease your metabolism, reduce your willingness for more physical activities, and a lot of other adverse effects. An effective massage session can considerably increase your sleep quality by relaxing your mind, decreasing your anxiety and stress, stimulating good feeling hormones such as endorphins, and reducing your physical pain. Better sleep quality can have great effects on your weight loss.
- Losing muscle knots: Massage therapy can manipulate muscle tightness and adhesion, and therefore facilitate blood circulation and body movements around the stiff areas. As a result, massage therapy helps to remove your muscles’ soreness and pain, reduce your muscles’ recovery time, as well as enhancing your physical endurance and range of motion. Moreover, any type of massage, specifically the deep tissue massage, with a little extra pressure can help to break down the fat cells, facilitating the fat burning process.
- Reducing the risk of injury: Massage therapy can help to increase your muscles’ activity level. By helping the connective tissues stretch in a more flexible way, massage therapy supports your muscles so that they can endure a higher level of stress and pressure.
- Better digestive function: Massage aids your digestive system in processing food. It can also help to remove bloating, constipation, and flatulence. All these effects help you for reduction of belly fat and better removal of waste products which can increase fat burning.
- Lymphatic drainage: For a number of various reasons, wastewater and other fluids may be congested under your skin. These toxins which are heavy can add up to your weight as well as making weight loss more difficult due to lower blood flow and oxygen delivery around the blocked area. Massage therapy can help to remove away excess fluids and materials from the muscles and tissues.
- Reducing cellulite: Cellulite is usually caused by the fat collected under your skin, showing itself as dimples. It is an unpleasant but common problem in most people, especially those who have lost weight. Massage therapy can break down fat by heat-inducing frictions and therefore have healing effects in reducing the appearance of cellulite.
What If You Do Not Have Enough Time for a massage
You are too busy to have enough time for an hour of deep tissue massage, then you still have the opportunity to benefit from chair massage. Chair massage is a type of massage during which you sit in a special massage chair rather than lying down on a massage table. On this special chair, your body, arms, and head are completely supported and only your back, neck, and shoulders are exposed to the massage therapist.
Chair massage provides you with a brief but also incredibly effective massage therapy which can relax your body after long hours of physical activity, decrease cortisol and increase endorphin production, improve your sleep quality, and grant you a large number of other advantages. Chair massage is typically applied on your upper back, shoulders, and neck. However, in special types, such as the chair massage for legs and feet, you can also relish in the removal of tightness around your feet and legs, specifically if you have decided to drop weight by walking, running, or any other activities which mostly involve your lower extremity.
If you live in Raleigh North Carolina and looking for a perfect massage spa to lose weight, we can assure you we have the most experienced therapists who can help you to lose weight. you can book your first session online with a great offer at our wake forest massage location which is a perfect place for those seeking a great massage for losing weight.
