Leg massages can eliminate soreness from the groups of muscles you stress out during exercising or walking. In addition, strong pressures lower muscle strains or any sorts of discomfort. Moreover, using the correct method during leg massages also induces better circulation throughout your body.
However, many skeptics don’t actually support the idea of leg massages. Thus, they may sometimes ask, “are leg massages safe?” Worry not, for we have a complete guideline on whether you should be afraid of getting one for yourself. Let’s begin, shall we?
Are Leg Massages Safe?
Massaging your legs can be a very comfortable and soothing experience. In addition, they also have a lot of health benefits. However, the success of the method varies on how much pressure you’re giving. Thus, there are certain limiting factors. Read on to find out what they are.
Sensory Injuries
Applying a vast amount of pressure can cause severe sensory injuries to your body. Generally, leg massages are a very gentle and calm experience. However, it can be harrowing sometimes. Moreover, having a masseur who doesn’t have a lot of experience will only increase your pain.
A session that takes a huge toll on the body instead of reducing stress can decrease your pain tolerance. Therefore, you will be much more sensitive to feelings such as pain. Additionally, the effect is more significant in people that already suffer from chronic pain. Moreover, these types of injuries stick along for a very long time.
Muscle Soreness
You might feel a lot of pain during the course and maybe pretty sore the day after. Many physicians and doctors suggest that you should carefully choose the intensity of your massage. This is because your muscles react to the massage as if it went through an intense cardio workout.
The muscles in your body aren’t adapted to being tampered with. Thus, they respond with soreness. However, it should take you around a day or two to recover from it. Therefore, we suggest you lower the intensity of the massage if it takes more time than that.
Fatigue And Malaise
An intense massage session can drain all your energy. Therefore, you might feel very tired and sore the very next day. This is because the strong pressure may over-energize your nervous system. You can get rid of this tiredness by drinking lots of water and by merely relaxing.
Heavy pressure can also cause light poisoning due to the proteins becoming free from the sore muscles. People commonly know this as the ‘muscle crush’ injury. Usually, it has a mild effect on the body. Thus, this causes you to slightly lose your orientation and feel a bit oozy.
Benefits Of Leg Massage
Leg massage is one of the medicinal forms of healing. There are a lot of benefits of massage. Moreover, people have been practicing and honing their skills for centuries. Pressing certain points on the legs can treat sore muscles. Thus, massaging one’s legs can have many health benefits, such as reducing stress, discomfort, and diseases.
Relaxes Your Entire Body:
Massaging is generally a good form of decreasing pain. Therefore, leg massage relaxes leg muscles as you press specific leg areas, which relieves them of stress. Moreover, it also helps relax your entire body. Thus, the signs of worry and tension are no longer present. Additionally, leg massages are so easy that even you can give yourself one at home.
Improves Posture:
An incorrect posture can cause your hip flexors and lower back extensors to shorten. Thus, this can cause knees, hips, and back pain. Leg massages can help improve your posture and fix your alignment. Reports from a study show that people have a much straighter back after weeks of leg and lower back massages.
Helps Fight Depression:
Leg massages no longer only help to decrease stiffness and discomfort. It is also a successful way to help a person battle depression as well! Reflexology is a type of leg massage that is effective against depression. This type of massages causes the release of some specific hormones.
Moreover, specific pressure points on your legs link with the emotions of a human being. Thus, it can help provide consolation and aid people to regain control of their lives. This particular massage can work like magic if one can do it correctly.
How To Give A Good Leg Massage
Knowing the correct method of giving a leg massage makes it more enjoyable and efficient. Moreover, it also reduces the risks of post-massage injuries and pain. We are no experts; however, we did try to provide you with the instructions on how to give a good leg massage.
To begin with, we suggest knowing about the basic human anatomy first. There are bones around the body that you should be aware of. Additionally, you also need to know about the connective tissues you can pull, knead, or compress. Start the massage by gently pressing around the areas that have bones or are sensitive.
Gently start stroking the foot upwards. This increases blood circulation, which can reduce tension and stiffness. We suggest that you keep the person’s foot in between your hands. Rub the foot with your hands. Apply a few light strokes on the person’s foot along with the toes and ankle once you finish doing that.
You will slowly start to feel that circulation is increasing. Thus, you can now increase the massage’s severity. You can now either move your hands fast and lightly or slow and powerfully. However, never move your fingers fast and strongly.
Move up the legs towards the calves and the thighs. You should apply long, tender strokes using a loose grip when you come to these parts. These groups of muscles are usually very soft when they are relaxed. Thus, concentrate more on the lower part of the leg.
Move up and down from the ankles to the knees a few times by using your thumbs to knead the sides of the leg. Use your palms instead of your thumbs when you reach the thighs. Apply more pressure on the center of the upper side of the thighs and the gluteal sides.
Frequently Asked Questions
Our article gives you a complete guideline on whether leg massages are safe or not. However, it doesn’t quite offer any solutions to the questions that we receive through emails and comments every day. Thus, we have decided to answer some of them below-
Do leg massagers help circulation?
-During leg massages, you can reduce muscle pain and injuries by applying heavy pressure. Additionally, this can also trigger your neural system, which improves your overall circulation around the body. Thus, leg massagers do help with circulation.
Can leg massage cause blood clots?
-The masseur makes a lot of intense stretching during the massage, which can damage blood vessels and cause blood clots. These blood clots are present on your veins’ walls, which come loose and pass around the body.
Are leg massages good for lymphedema?
-Lymphatic massage, which is mainly a process of using gentle and soft pressure, can help remove the unwanted fluid from the injured area. This can reduce the swelling and therefore help reduce lymphedema.
Do foot massages help with neuropathy?
-Foot massages are a fantastic way of reducing the stress that symptoms of neuropathy cause. However, hiring a foot masseur can be quite costly. Thus, purchasing a foot massaging tool can be a cost-efficient way of treating your foot.
Is vibration good for your feet?
–It has been clinically proven that vibration on your feet improves circulation and bone density. Thus, it improves your overall health. Increasing circulation means your body can repair itself faster. Vibration on your feet also improves your leg fluidity.
Wrapping It Up
Well then, it seems like we have finally come to an end. We are glad that we could explain to you the pros and cons of getting a leg massage. Thus, the next time a skeptic comes up to you and asks, “are leg massages safe?” You will confidently know what to say. Good luck!