Boosting Health Benefits with a Yoga-Massage Tandem Practice

Yoga and massage are two of the best holistic practices to incorporate into your overall wellness routine. Individually, they both provide undeniable health benefits, but, when done in tandem, the process can amplify the health benefits of its partner. The main difference is in which activity comes first - the yoga or the massage. Logically, if you go to yoga after a Swedish massage, your yoga session will be enhanced. If your hot stone massage is scheduled to follow a sun salutation session, the massage will have deeper, more sustained benefits. Read on to understand how yoga and massage form the perfect circle of personal development and self-love on the path toward mind-body health!

Health Benefits for the Body

Massage—>Yoga: All types of massage increase blood flow to the muscles, a process which lengthens the muscles’ outer layer to allow for deeper asana stretches. This muscle “pre-stretching” allows the yogi to maintain tricky poses for longer and in better form as the awareness of one’s form is heightened post-massage. Importantly, please note that you should be very present after your massage, listening to your body by going deep in your poses if feeling energized or pulling back to respond compassionately if your massage has left you feeling sore. A gentler massage technique is typically recommended if you are going from a massage into a yoga practice.

Yoga—>Massage: Massage greatly reduces lactic acid buildup that occurs in the body naturally after exercise. This speeds up recovery time. Having a massage after yoga or yogic stretching can also be greatly beneficial if your therapist is targeting deeper facia. If you’re healing from an injury, It’s likely that your therapist knows exactly what muscles are strained. It’s just that he or she isn’t typically able to access them. When you’re coming from a relaxing yoga class, your muscles are soft and reactive, nearly begging to be kneaded and adjusted by capable hands.

Health Benefits for the Mind

Massage—>Yoga: The natural focus-inducing benefits of massage boost cognitive awareness during yoga so that the practitioner can have more control over their poses in the moment, as well as of the flow’s overall direction. The ability to approach the mat from a calmed, mindful place, rather than having to coax it out over the course of the yoga session, leaves a yogi with more time and space to fill with presence, awareness, and flow.

Yoga—>Massage: Although it may seem hard to believe, this approach can offer even greater mental/emotional/spiritual benefits than its aforementioned alternative! Through yoga, the body’s serotonin levels are boosted, and cortisol decreases. Those who have had massage in the past can attest to it being a calming experience, but the warm, gentle, knowing touch of a massage practitioner directly following a zen-filled yoga class is a profoundly relaxing experience.

The combination of yoga and massage can be used in myriad creative, yet intentional, ways, depending on your own history and health goals. You might really want to increase your flexibility on the mat. In that case, having a hot stone massage just before class can lengthen and activate the muscles needed for proper yogic form. Or maybe, your goal is to release the incessant tension in your neck and shoulders and you know emotions play a role. Our best advice is to get a supportive and nurturing Swedish aromatherapy massage right after yoga’s calming, centering properties have put you in the mental place to receive emotional healing. If you think a wellness routine which incorporates the yoga-massage practice into its repertoire is something worth looking into, we’d love to be your valuable resource!

Holistic Massotherapy and Wellness has partnered with Daybreak Yoga to offer a Gold Yogi membership—4 yoga classes and one 60-minute massage—for only $88/month! Other memberships, plus a treasure trove of information about yoga, massage, and more, can be found on our website. We look forward to hearing from you soon and helping you achieve greater health and happiness!