A Massage In The Fall & Winter Is The Cold Weather Cure
Winter puts the human body and more importantly, the immune system, under a lot of stress. If your body doesn’t respond well, you can end up dealing with health problems and sickness such as cold or flu. Even more serious health complications can develop if you don’t take care of your body or your immune system. But massage therapy can help you to feel your best when the weather gets colder.
Massage therapy is beneficial during the fall and winter months because it assists the body to remain healthy and functioning properly. If you live in an especially cold area like ours in New England, this can be very important.
With the cold weather months comes flu, cold, sore throat, and low energy levels’ s well as a common issue many people suffer called “winter blues” or seasonal affective disorder (SAD).
As much as winter is anticipated for the holidays and winter activities, we can also start to feel restless because the days are cold and nights are so long. It makes you understand why ancient peoples decided to hold celebrations during the winter to give people something to look forward to.
How Can Massage Therapy Help?
Physical activity will certainly help your overall health and wellness during the colder months. There are several benefits of massage during the fall and winter. You can see a significant decrease in:
• Stress
• Depression
• Injuries
• Joint pain
• Muscle pain and stiffness
When you get a regular massage, it helps your body and strengthens your immune system to fight against the negative effects of the drop in • temperature. You get the advantages of a relaxed mind and a relaxed body.
According to research into massage, winter is the best time for you to start enjoying a massage, if you don’t already.
Massages help to:
• Improve blood circulation
• Improve muscle function
During the winter our bodies can become weaker and more prone to infections. So it is important to stay active and a regular massage can help to keep our bodies flexible, strong, and stress-free.
Massage can also help with depression and seasonal depression, which has been proven to get worse during the winter. Massage helps to relax muscles, calm breathing & help the body naturally decrease the production of cortisol while increasing serotonin. Keeping you happy, healthy and less stressed.
Why is Massage Therapy Important During Fall and Winter?
During the winter, because lower temperatures cause your blood vessels to constrict, you may start to experience poor blood circulation and higher blood pressure. Massage therapy in colder months helps circulate fresh, oxygenated blood throughout your body, assisting to break up congested areas and get the muscles the nutrients they need to stay strong. Massage warms up your muscles and improves blood circulation in this way.
Additionally, low temperatures during the winter can also cause blood vessels to contract, causing blood pressure to rise and leading to aches and pains. Massage loosens and stimulates muscle tissues to expand blood vessels constricted by the colder weather, allowing blood to flow more easily.
While colder temperatures during fall and winter don’t cause colds and flu, because they are viruses it’s easier to get sick when the temps drop because you’re inside more and in regular close contact with others more often. Also, exercise can decrease, and viruses do tend to live longer in colder temperatures.
The low temperatures mean it’s time to stay inside and turn up the heat, meaning spending most of your day in the dry, indoor heat. This can increase the likelihood of catching a cold or the flu because the viruses tend to like low humidity.
Essentially, because it’s the time of staying inside, often with a bunch of other people, and the holidays, which regularly get us to go into busy stores where we’re constantly bombarded with fellow shoppers and their germs, we are more likely to get sick during the colder months.
Getting a regular massage can assist you to stave off colds because it increases your immune system’s effectiveness. Massage can stimulate your white blood cells to fight infections throughout your body and by reducing cortisol levels (the stress hormone) your body can more easily defend itself.
It’s important to remain active during these cold months even though we are stuck inside more often. You can stay fit and active by doing indoor workouts and by getting a massage regularly. It will help to stretch your muscles and keep your joints working properly too.
Massage can also help to speed up your recovery.
Dry, cold air can really do a number on our skin because it draws the moisture right out of it. Your skin can be especially dry and flaky during the winter. Massage can help keep your skin moisturized because it assists to improve skin elasticity by inciting collagen production.
Because massage is helping the skin to stay flexible and elastic, it can help keep it supple during the driest time of the year.
Seasonal Affective Disorder, preexisting mental health conditions, and the general feeling of lethargy during the fall and winter months is very common but massage therapy can help improve mental health.
It relaxes you and reduces your stress and anxiety levels. By encouraging the body to release endorphins and serotonin, increasing your feelings of happiness, and lowering cortisol levels, massage can help you to deal with stress and the symptoms associated with SAD, depression, and anxiety.