I cannot wait to go back to the Talega Day Spa.

I’d been there once before about a year ago, but after this interview with Minh Luong, massage therapist and spa coordinator for the Talega Day Spa, I am a ready to espouse the benefits of massage with the fervor of a religious fanatic.

Sure, the sauna, steam room and multi-faucet shower are a pampering bonus, but with the massage, you can actually feel the tension leave your body.

Watch Minh in the three videos above work magic on my back and head and get the secrets on how and why it works.

And that’s exactly what Minh wants. To him, massages are about maintaining wellness, not offering a luxury.

“My clients don’t come for a fluff massage; they come because they want to feel better. Unless they get that ‘good hurt,’ they don’t feel they’ve gotten their money’s worth,” he said.

Types of Massages

Massages are like martial arts in that many countries have their own styles. Different countries have special martial-arts disciplines: the Japanese have karate, Chinese have kung fu, Koreans have tae kwon do, and Thais have muay thai, Minh explained.

With massage, Japanese have shiatsu, the Chinese have tui na, Thais have thai massages, and Europeans have Swedish massages, Minh said.

A typical Swedish massage uses light to medium pressure to improve blood flow and circulation. A thai massage is traditionally performed with the patient on the floor, fully clothed, and incorporates more stretching. It allows the massage therapist to use his or her knees and feet in addition to the hands, which creates varying degrees of pressure and the massage therapist can be more creative, Minh said.

Shiatsu and tui na both follow the meridian lines, which are paths of energy that flow through our bodies, to find and expel the bad energy in our bodies (such as tension and stress).

In fact, the same pressure points used in tui na to promote healing are the same points kung fu masters use to inflict pain, Minh explained; it’s the person’s intention that matters.

The beauty of American massages is that they tend to offer all these different styles separately or blend the techniques to create a unique massage. Oftentimes Eastern and Western methods of massage have different names for the same spot. Whereas Western massages are based in anatomical terms, Eastern massage is based on names and numbers for pressure points.

In Eastern medicine these pressure points have been used in healing techniques (think massages, acupuncture) for centuries. And in many parts of Europe and Asia, massage is more accepted as a form of healing, Minh said.

In most of the West, these techniques have only recently begun to be studied and accepted as valuable complementary forms of medicine.

Another example of the differences in Western and Eastern medicine is the Chinese practice of qigong, which uses a spoon, quarter or other agent and firmly runs it along the part of the body that’s experiencing pain—for example, the back. The parts that are most inflamed or tense will immediately become extremely red and will also feel instantly better, Minh said, showing me recent qigong work he had performed on his own back within the last couple days.

Someone looking at this effect from an Eastern background would say that bad chi (energy) was released, and that’s why the person feels better. Someone from a Western scientific background would attribute the recovery to pent-up muscle tension being released.

While Eastern and Western medicines complement each other, much like the yin and yang, sometimes one method is better than another. 

“I know people who have had to get surgery, and I could have helped them,” Minh said.

He told the story of a guy he knew who had numbness down his arm. The man went to his doctor, who recommended surgery. So the man had the operation, and even after the surgery, he still had the same numbness in his arm.

Unfortunately, this is all too familiar to Minh.

More than likely, he said, inflamed and/or tight muscles were pressing and pinching upon a nerve that runs from the neck, through the shoulder and down the arm, known as the brachial plexus nerve. When that happens, tingling or numbness often is experienced, he said.

How Massages Can Improve Your Health

Massages have numerous health benefits. Here are just some of the many, according to Minh:

• Reduces stress
• Eliminates headaches
• Eliminates migraines
• Increases range of motion
• Increases flexibility
• Improves the immune system by moving lymph to lymph nodes
• Decreases dependency on painkillers by naturally relieving pain
• Improves circulation
• Reduces pain associated with fibromyalgia

For a full list of services and massages provided at Talega Day Spa, visit their Web site.