This question seems like such a simple one. It’s a question I receive often in my practice, and I wish there was a straightforward scientifically backed answer. While emerging research on massage therapy may offer some helpful guidance, the lacunas in massage science are still many. The guidelines in this post are based primarily upon my professional opinion as a massage therapist of with over eleven years of experience.
Massage frequency will depend on a various factors including your budget, your schedule, and your current health needs.
Like other holistic lifestyle factors such as diet, exercise, and sleep hygiene, recent research and collective wisdom in the massage therapy field indicate that the effects of massage therapy are likely cumulative (Stenbäck, et al., 2024). Consistency over time promotes beneficial results. I’ve seen this again and again with my clients and experienced it with my own experience receiving massage.
Like other holistic wellness care that requires working with a professional (e.g. mental health care, physical therapy, chiropractic care, personal training, working with a nutritionist, etc.), more than one session is often necessary to receive the most benefit. Not only are the results cumulative, developing a therapeutic relationship with a new provider takes time. The most effective massage practitioners will use your feedback from previous sessions to tailor the experience to your needs and preferences. Unless you have a lot of massage therapy experience, it may also take you at least a couple of sessions to learn what feels best in your body to be able to communicate that to your massage practitioner.
If massage is a new part of your wellness routine, plan to get more than one massage. It may take time to to adjust to a new experience and to train your body to receive massage therapy for optimal benefit. People absolutely gain skill at receiving massage over time. This is not dissimilar from training your mind to meditate or training your muscles when starting a new exercise routine. Consciously relaxing while experiencing sensations that are potentially unfamiliar or intense may feel very foreign at first. If you have prior training in adjacent modalities (e.g. yoga, certain styles of meditation) this may help you transition to receiving massage with ease more quickly. Establishing trust between yourself and your massage provider and gaining familiarity with a new space may also require a bit of an adjustment period when working with a new provider.
For all these reasons, I recommend that folks plan to receive massage more than once and at regular intervals with the same provider to gain the most benefit from the experience. This is especially true if massage is a new part of your wellness care routines, or you are working with a new massage provider.
Receiving massage infrequently may not result in cumulative benefits. Like working out infrequently and consequently not being able to gain strength or endurance, receiving massage too infrequently could result in feeling like you are ‘starting over’ each time. Not only do people gain skill in receiving massage, massage results in changes in the state of the tissue (e.g. muscle, fascial) that can be maintained and even built upon from session to session.
No matter how often you choose to receive massage, the goal in every case should be to feel better. The frequency should be determined primarily by what makes you feel the best. Learning what feels good in your body and how long you feel the benefits are maintained can help you decide how frequently to schedule. Ultimately, we also need to feel good financially so it will likely also be a balancing act with what feels good in your body and what feels realistic with your schedule and your budget.
My Frequency Rule of Thumb
Number of Sessions: As a starting place, I would plan to receive massage more than once (ideally 3-5 times) from the same massage provider at a regular interval. While it is certainly possible that you may also benefit from the first (or a single session), this gives you a chance to start to feel cumulative effects and to get a sense of whether massage is helpful for your goals.
Making Progress Schedule: Plan to receive massage once every 1-3 weeks for at least 3-5 sessions if you want to build upon previous sessions and make progress on an issue.
Regular Maintenance Schedule: Plan on getting a massage once every 4-8 weeks (unless you desire to and can afford to come in more frequently).
Longest Interval for Cumulative Benefits: This will be different for everyone depending on other lifestyle and health factors. More than 8 weeks between sessions is probably too long if you are interested in cumulative benefits. Closer to every 4-6 weeks is probably a better estimate for most people.
Most Common at My Practice
Once a week, or every other week.
This is the most common massage frequency for folks with chronic issues who find great benefit from massage therapy and are utilizing massage as a primary therapeutic modality to improve mobility, relieve pain, reduce stress, and improve sleep. Yes, insomnia is one of the most common reasons people come in for massage! Whether primary or as a side effect of chronic pain, lots of folks find massage helpful to get some sleep (both on the table and off).
At least once a month.
This is most common for people who may be in a fair-to-good place with their health but want to have a robust maintenance routine in place. This frequency is also common for people who have chronic pain or chronic illness and use massage therapy in conjunction with other healing modalities to help manage or reduce symptoms.
Once every 4-8 weeks.
This is great for folks who just want a regular ‘check-in’ with themselves and their body, and/or as a part of their regular maintenance routine for otherwise healthy folks. Planned relaxation.
As needed/as able.
Folks who have health concerns that flare up occasionally. This cuts both ways, causing some folks to be unable to receive massage during certain symptomatic periods or while receiving other types of treatment and others to seek out massage during flare-ups to help calm symptoms. Often this looks like a vacillation between the 3 frequency camps above, changing frequency as needed.
Using myself as an example of this, I try to receive a massage every 4-8 weeks unless something is ‘up’ for me. If what is ‘up’ can be alleviated by massage, I try to get massage more often until the issue is resolved or trending better.
Certain times of life have also seen medical issues that had me receiving massage less often than every 4-8 weeks while healing. Once the acute healing phase passes, I resume my regular 4-8 weeks pace.
Regardless of your goals for massage therapy, I hope that these guidelines help you as you consider you adding massage therapy to your health and wellness journey!
Reference
Stenbäck, V., Lehtonen, I., Mäkelä, K. A., Raza, G. S., Ylinen, V., Valtonen, R., Hamari, T., Walkowiak, J., Tulppo, M., & Herzig, K.-H. (2024). Effect of single session of Swedish massage on circulating levels of interleukin-6 and insulin-like growth factor 1. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 25(17), 9135. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms25179135