You want to get regular massages but you’re not sure how often your body needs it, if it matters what the occasion is, and whether or not it's affordable to do so as regularly as you’d like. Life gets busy and other things can get in the way, like doctor's appointments, school plays, and weekend family time.

The truth is massage should be treated as important as other things in your life that you do regularly because it’s a matter of maintaining good health. In some cases, massages are being used to help with pain from something that has happened to you or a condition you live with, which means it's improving your quality of life otherwise. Take a look at these tips to help you decide how often you should be getting a massage.

Self-care and preventative health

Every adult should have some self-care routines in their life every week and ways that they are taking care of themselves through preventative wellness. That could be your 3x a week exercise class, your healthy grocery shopping trip, or your walks after dinner each night.

If you do something more often, your body is going to show you that it’s benefitting more so than if you were just doing something occasionally. You might be more flexible and strong from the decisions you make every week and you could see benefits from getting a massage regularly too. While getting a massage once per month will be helpful to you, going more regularly than that will show you better results and a healthier body.

Treating conditions

If you are going for more than preventative care or general wellness, you may have a specific schedule to set up with your massage therapist. Conditions like back pain, neck pain, or pregnancy are different than just going without a condition that needs treatment.

If you are seeking massage for back pain, you’ll likely benefit from a deep tissue massage several days in a row for a short session. If you were to come in for neck pain, you might find that going a few times per week for an hour session with be beneficial.

For pregnant women, you’ll want a lighter massage and a very short session. You’ll find that just once a week will be all you need to reduce the stress of the physical symptoms you’re experiencing. 

If you are not pregnant and experiencing anxiety or stress, you’ll likely want to get an hour-long massage twice per month will calm this problem.

Types of massage

Another factor to consider is the type of massage when it comes to a timeline. If you were getting deep tissue massage, the intensity and the reach of getting to the deeper layers of muscle may mean you should only go daily for a short time or you should only go a few times per month.

A scalp massage will lower your blood pressure so you should only do these for short sessions no more than a couple of times per week.

Full-body massage or Swedish massage are the types that are meant to relax you and reduce stress levels. You could easily do this a few times per month or occasionally throughout the year.

If you were going for a lymphatic drainage massage to drain lymph nodes affected by medical conditions, you’ll likely go often at first and then ease into twice a week sessions.

While massage can be seen as a way to prevent a problem from happening or to help soothe a current problem more efficiently, each person’s massage schedule will vary depending on their specific needs. These are a few potential schedules you could follow to help you determine how often you should get a massage, but discuss this further with your massage therapist to set up the right schedule for you.