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Almost without fail, during a massage with a new client, I get asked “How often should I come in for massage?” There is no universal answer to that question. Here are most of the factors I take into account when answering:

What brings you in for this visit?

• Acute pain/ new injury: Frequency of treatments is likely around once a week to start and should decrease as symptoms subside
• Persistent Pain Management:Long-term or chronic issues may need more frequent attention for longer periods compared to acute injuries before treatment frequency tapers off as symptoms subside
• Athletic performance enhancement: sport-specific areas of concern can be helped while taking the level of activity into account
• Relaxation: Timing would be more dependent on your preferences and stress triggers

What style of treatment do you prefer? How long do you feel a typical massage helps you for? Different intensities of treatments will have different effects. For example, if you know that your tight neck and back become aggravated about every six weeks, maybe coming in every five weeks would be a good starting point.

What is your workload like and how active are you generally? Your body tension patterns can reflect if you are doing a lot of physical work or if you are sedentary.

Are you wanting to be proactive or reactive to your typical symptoms? If you budget time in the week for doing self-care such as foam rolling, stretches, breathing awareness, etc., you should be able to increase the time between necessary treatments. As Benjamin Franklin once said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

As every situation is unique and massage therapist styles vary, each massage therapist may have different recommendations based on their own observations of how people typically react to their treatments.

Brian Redillas, RMT