More Than Muscle: How Massage Helps Both Mind and Body

How often do you ask someone how they're doing, and they say, "Oh, you know, I’m fine!”, even though they’ve had tight shoulders or a dull ache in their lower back all week, or that end-of-day tension headache?

My massage lecturer (from many moons ago) used a phrase for this: being "vertically ill." It means you're upright, out of bed, and getting through your day, but you're certainly not feeling 100%. Over time, carrying this constant discomfort starts to feel like our baseline, or norm. We start telling ourselves, "It's normal for me to have a stiff neck," or "It's normal for my lower back to ache after work.”

Common? Absolutely. But normal? It doesn't have to be.

Massage isn't just a physical fix for when something isn’t “normal” anymore. It’s a chance to step out of autopilot mode, listen to what your body is screaming at you, and give your whole system a chance to pause, breathe, and reset. Here's a peek at what's actually happening under the skin when you're on the massage table.

Unwinding Soft Tissue & Getting Blood Flowing

On the surface, we're working directly with your soft tissues, muscles, and fascia, which is that web of connective tissue that wraps around every muscle and organ. When muscles stay tight for too long, blood flow gets restricted, leaving the muscle starved of fresh oxygen and creating those painful, tight “knots.” During a massage session, different massage techniques are used, each with its own way of relaxing the muscles and helping to separate the fibres. 

This has the effect of increasing circulation, waste removal, and necessary fluid exchange within the body systems.

The techniques, including focused pressure, help to:

• Open up blood vessels (vasodilation): Massage creates friction and pressure that encourages your blood vessels to open, which allows fresh, oxygen-rich blood to get to tired muscle cells (reactive hyperemia), helping them repair and soften.

• Smooth out connective tissue (myofascial release): When exposed to stress or repetitive movement, fascia can lose its flexibility and become stuck or bound up. The gentle warmth and pressure of massage help to release these tissue adhesions, restoring elasticity so your body can move freely without restriction.

• Stimulates the lymphatic system, which is your body's internal drainage system - which is  a complex process in itself. It moves fluid around and clears out cellular waste, but unlike your blood, it doesn't have a central pump like the heart. It relies on muscle movement, breathing, and physical touch to keep things moving. Massage acts like a gentle manual pump, encouraging lymph fluid toward the main drainage points in the neck, armpits, and groin so your body can process waste efficiently.

(This is why we always remind you to drink plenty of water after a session! Staying hydrated keeps your internal fluids thin and mobile, giving your kidneys what they need to filter and flush out those mobilised fluids.)

Massage and Your Nerves

The human nervous system is incredibly complex, but here is a simple look at how massage can help calm our nerves. 

So, how does physical pressure on a muscle actually soothe a stressed brain? Well, it comes down to you giving your system a chance to pause.

Massage helps to: 

• Calm your sensory receptors: Within the tissue are nerve receptors, and by stimulating these nerve receptors, the tissue is able to loosen, thereby reducing pain.

• Flip the switch to rest: Tissue tension can keep your body stuck in a high-stress mode. Massage helps to release that tension, stimulating the parasympathetic “rest and digest” mode, which is why, often, your stomach may grumble during a massage session.

• Tackle stress symptoms: By easing physical and emotional strain, massage can help manage everyday issues such as headaches, poor sleep and sluggish digestion as well as high blood pressure*.

• Reset your baseline: Massage reduces the “noisy” stressful signals with which the brain is bombarded and replaces these with calming input, leaving you with a general feeling of well-being post-treatment.

*This does not replace any advice or medication given by your doctor, medical specialist or other medical practitioner.

How You Might Feel Afterwards

Post-massage reactions are entirely normal, but here is a simple breakdown of what’s happening as your body resets!

Have you ever left a massage feeling wonderfully relaxed, only to experience a mix of physical sensations after a massage? This is your body adjusting and cleaning house.

It’s very common to feel slightly tender, maybe a bit bruised, or even slightly "flu-ish" or lightheaded - generally a little “yuck" - after a session.

• The tenderness or "bruised" feeling is due to working on tight, knotted muscle fibres causing temporary inflammation as the tissue releases its grip and begins to repair itself.

• The "flu-ish" or heavy feeling usually comes down to your lymphatic system. Since massage helps move built-up, stagnant fluid through your system, your body works to filter and clear out those newly mobilised fluids and cellular waste, leaving you feeling briefly sluggish or run down.

These symptoms are temporary and usually pass within a day or two, and drinking plenty of water helps your kidneys clear everything out much faster! **

Having said all of that, not everyone feels the “lymphatic” or bruised effects. Many simply feel the benefits kick in relatively soon after a massage.

• Fresh oxygen and nutrients: Releasing tight muscles allows blood to circulate freely again, delivering a fresh wave of oxygen and nutrients straight to your brain and vital organs.

• Mental clarity and energy: With your brain well-oxygenated and your nervous system reset, brain fog clears away, mood lifts, and everyday movement feels lighter and much less work.

The idea is to enjoy the relaxed feeling after a massage - especially the energised feeling - so please don’t burn it up by spring cleaning or running a marathon!

**If flu-like symptoms persist longer than 3 days, it may be as a result of actual flu.

Tuning Back In

It's so easy to go through life ignoring little aches or tight spots until our body has to yell at us to get our attention. A massage session gives you a quiet space to slow down, listen to what your body is telling you, and give an overworked system a well-deserved break. 

You don't have to wait until you're completely exhausted, locked up, or "vertically ill" to give your body the care it deserves.

If a massage feels like a good idea, you’re welcome to book in - or just drop me a line or give me a call to chat about how best I can help.

In the next post we’ll look at answering the question: “Which massage modality do I need? Sports, deep tissue, Swedish? Or maybe Reflexology?”