Wellness and Relaxation
If you are looking to enhance your health or want to reduce stress and relax tight muscles, scheduling a Thai massage once a month is a good recommendation. But if you work in a high-stress environment or participate in activities that risk repetitive-motion injuries or postural issues, you might want to consider weekly sessions. Frequent Thai massages will also help to improve your sleep patterns.
Athletic Performance
Thai massage can both enhance performance and reduce the risk of injury for athletes by balancing muscle groups and increasing joint mobility. If you are training for an event and doing intense workouts, you may want to come in once or twice a week. If your are doing less intense training, you can reduce the frequency of your Thai massage to every two weeks or once a month.
Pain Management
If you want a massage for the treatment of a chronic condition such as migraines, neck aches and backaches, the best strategy is to start with more frequent Thai massage sessions, and then slowly decrease the frequency of your visits as your muscles elongate and relax. For overly contracted muscles, you can start with weekly visits for four to six weeks. If you have an acute condition such as a muscle strain or muscle spasms, you might want to consider two shorter Thai massages per week for four to six weeks. Then, with self-care, you can reduce your number of visits to a maintenance schedule that is right for you, typically about once a month.
Injury Recovery
Thai massage can help you recover from an injury or surgery by reducing pain, inhibiting swelling, breaking up scar tissue and increasing the flow of blood and oxygen. But depending on how recent your injury is, or the type of injury you have, Thai massage can aggravate the injury. So it is imperative that you check with your doctor before booking a Thai massage. Once you are given clearance to have a Thai massage, two sessions a week or more may be needed to start, with frequency decreasing as healing and recovery progress.
Remember, these are just suggestions for when to schedule a Thai massage. You are unique, and you need to listen to your body. Try to consider how you felt before your Thai massage, how you feel after, and how long your body holds onto that ‘post-massage’ feeling. The amount of self-care like stretching or stress reduction you do at home will affect how quickly you recover.