About this site
Better Massage is the name of my emailed newsletter, and its articles are archived on this site. The bulk of the content will focus on these four topics: tips on being better at receiving massage; what to expect from massage as a therapy; insights into human anatomy & physiology as it pertains to massage; and profiles of other massage and bodywork practitioners. There will always be a handful of public posts, but the remainder of the content is for subscribers only. If you subscribe today (it's free), you'll get just one or two emails monthly highlighting new members-only content, plus the option to comment on posts.
This site is born of my frustration with not having enough time to educate my clients, which I consider an aspect of my job as a massage therapist, no matter where I work. Therapists, you're welcome to respectfully disagree with me in the comments, which distinguishes and advertises yourself as a therapist.
We celebrate veteran massage therapists here! Their profiles show newer therapists what a long career in massage therapy can look like, and bring an audience to the therapists' offerings, many of whom teach continuing education courses or practice additional modalities.
The domain name for this website was inspired by "The 10,000-Hour Rule" in Malcolm Gladwell's 2008 Outliers, which I read back then. Gladwell relays that "researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: ten thousand hours." I'd already been counting my massages since graduation, mostly for the practical purpose of estimating my paychecks. So I continued to count, intrigued by the chapter's discussion of innate talent, practice, and opportunity together yielding expertise in the complex tasks of one's occupation. This website serves in part to reveal that massage is indeed a complex task. Gladwell asserts that it takes about ten years to put in ten thousand hours of hard practice, presumably if one works at it full-time, and for his purposes he regards those who work it at part-time as having less opportunity.
But "full-time" for massage therapists is 20 hours a week, as historically recommended by our profession, though our employers push us to work around 30 in order to receive benefits. An old-school therapist, I've always stuck to my guns on this, which is why I'm well beyond ten years of practice but haven't reached 10,000 massages yet. By the more public launch of this site in late January 2024, I'd given 8,700 massages.
In keeping my official count I don't distinguish 80-minute massages from 50-minute massages, and I don't count anything less than 50-minutes long. For the last decade alone about half of my massages have been 80 minutes in duration, so I estimate that I have reached 10,000 hours of massage.
Thank you for being part of massage therapists' expression of expertise – we couldn't have done it without you!
Eventually, as the subscriber community grows, I may offer a paid subscription with premium offerings as well, such as Zoom calls of therapists, teachers, or leaders presenting info to others on the call. Your participation makes this site possible, and I thank you in advance for spreading the word.
Community Guidelines
Join a community of kindred spirits: other massage clients and therapists, maybe even a yogi or esthetician, who share the same interests, or who also view therapeutic bodywork as health care. Our Community Guidelines require being respectful and constructive when commenting on my posts, guest posts, or in response to others' comments. Also, when sharing expertise, please use your real, full name and credentials.
Click the floating 'Subscribe' button or find it on the homepage. Thank you!
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