As a licensed massage therapist with my own business I do a lot of laundry. It’s mostly the sheets that are used during massage appointments. I lug them home, wash, dry, and fold them, and lug them back again. It’s just another part of the job. It’s not a big deal and I don’t mind doing it.
Except for the drying stage.
“Drying is easy” you may be thinking and with the modern convenience of a clothes dryer that should be the case. However my dryer seems to have along with Regular and Delicate a Prison Break setting, which I can’t access to turn off. I put in the sheets one at a time and untwist them from their adventures in the washer. When I check them part way through they are tangled and tied together like somebody is about to used them to make an escape rope. I have to untangle, untwist, and untie them again. I put them back in the dryer with a stern warning that if they keep that up they can’t help me with the massages any more. They don’t listen.
As I was untangling sheets one day I thought of the muscle tightness I see and thought the two were similar. I take care of my sheets and I’m careful when putting them in the washer and dryer. Just the nature of the process makes in inevitable that some of them are going to get tangled up.
You can take care of your muscles but the things you do in life makes it likely that eventually you are going to have some pain, soreness, or stiffness. Even if you take good care of yourself your muscles need some maintenance.
If I didn’t untangle the sheets it would take much, much longer for them to dry. It would cost more that way and wouldn’t be efficient at all. The tangles would get worse and the knots would get tighter and harder to get undone. It would add more wear and tear on both the sheets and the dryer. My sheets like a good challenge and would probably look for new ways to tie themselves together.
If you don’t untangle your muscles they don’t work as well. Yes you can keep functioning but eventually something is going to start hurting. You will be able to do things but not quite as well. Other muscles will also start to hurt as you try to adjust and compensate what you do because of the original pain.
Massage helps you get your muscles untwisted, untied, and untangled. If you feel like you have been through a few cycles in a dryer, massage helps with that too. When you come in for your massage you can relax in knowing the sheets on the table are clean and dry. They have never tried to tie themselves to anybody – even me when I get a massage.
Barry is a licensed massage therapist at Main Street Massage in Hudson Ohio. You can learn more at www.HudsonMassageTherapy.com
