My massage journey begins a few years ago when I began to pursue an online personal training career and certification though PTA Global. I learned quite a lot about the human body in the few months it took me to become certified. I gained a baseline knowledge for the body systems, muscles, bones, organs and how everything worked together. This is where my curiosity seed was planted.
Fast forward to a year later. I sprained my back moving a box. Ridiculous, I know. Always lift with your legs! This back sprain led me to physical therapy and then to a massage therapist afterwards. Being a massage newbie at 21 years old I didn’t know what to expect. I’d never had a massage or anything of the sort. I was completely blindsided by what happened after the fact. I went in for my massage filled out my insurance paperwork and sat in the delightful smelling waiting room. I selected a targeted area relaxation massage for my back. I wasn’t ready for a deep tissue, which sounded too intimidating and probably painful given my state at the time. Afterwards I felt reasonably relaxed and went home and when I sat on the couch, I immediately just had an emotional breakdown. I sat there and cried and wondered what the heck was wrong with me. I called my best girlfriend who regularly had massages and her only words were “Man you are detoxing hard. You should get another one in a week or two.” So now I’m feeling a little lost. Is this normal? Is something wrong with me? I went back a few weeks later for another and again after that. No more emotional breakdowns so far.
That incident prompted me to do a little research on massage, what it does for the human body and mind, and becoming a massage therapist. As I continued my slow research process, I landed a part-time job at a hunter jumper horse show barn who had an equine massage therapist employed as well. This massage therapist did horse and rider massage. Of course, I bombarded her with questions and further continued my research and eventually decided to actually talk to someone about this. It turns out there’s a really good massage therapy program at the community college in my hometown. I set up and appointment with the program director Alan. I told Alan all this and we spoke about how and if this would be a good fit for me. I had been in the food industry for a decent amount of time and had just switched to something else. I knew I loved helping people and I wanted a bit slower of a pace than running around like a crazy person in a restaurant and making drinks like a crazy person on the weekends. I loved being with other humans, but my personality was a little to laid back for the restaurant life. After speaking with Alan, I decided to wait a year and save up as much money as possible for the program and see if I still wanted to do it in a year. A year rolled around rather quickly, and I happily enrolled in the massage program full-time. I’m loving it so far.
Most interesting things I’ve learned in massage school
I am actually only on my first term which consists of an anatomy pre-requisite and a basic math and writing credit. The most interesting thing so far has been my anatomy and physiology class. I chose to take the clinical-level class instead of the one geared towards massage students. Both classes go over the needed information, but clinical anatomy goes over all sorts of other things about the human body and how it all works together as one being. It also includes medical terminology and the metric system. I thought that this class would help me more in the long run if I chose to branch out to physical therapy as well. I wasn’t really prepared for the difficulty level of this class, but it makes me want to put in more effort understand and keep up with everyone else.
Human bodies are absolutely amazing that’s the bottom line here. We have already explored a human cadaver and it was awesome to see how things are actually laid out in the body; how all the muscles are connected and the entire internal framework right down to the pericardial sac around the heart. Down to a molecular and cellular level human bodies do so many things on a daily basis that we don’t think about. It blows my mind.
I have always been fascinated by the human body specifically muscles and bones. We are currently studying the cellular makeup of muscles and will begin our bones section in a few weeks. I do have a kinesiology background due to my personal training certification and that has been a huge help with the body systems. It has also been awesome to build the knowledge bridge between my personal training certification and what I have learned so far. My anatomy and physiology instructor has been able to answer almost all of my “why” questions that I was unable to ask during my personal training certification classes.
Advice for future massage therapy students
My best advice to people interested in a career in massage therapy is research on your own time. Coming from someone who already has one Associate’s degree is, do not jump into anything prematurely like I did. I didn’t do my research on my first career choice and as much fun as bartending and cooking was, it didn’t provide a stable income or allow room for physical and mental health. Don’t be afraid to take a semester or a year to do your own research. Talk to people in the field and save money for this and then jump into it.
After high school I really feel like college is shoved down young peoples’ throats. You don’t have to go to college right after high school. It’s okay to take time to learn on your own and when you have decided, reach out to the program coordinator or even a professor and sit down with them and chat. That was such a key element for me.
If you finally decide to go into a massage program, then set aside time to talk to someone about what you are learning. I talk to my boyfriend about all the cool things I’m learning in anatomy class, and the challenging things. I find that it really helps me know what I am understanding and what I am not. “If you cannot simply explain something, then you just don’t know it well enough.” My anatomy professor Jack told us that on day one and this is where my idea came to talk to my boyfriend about it. He has no knowledge of anatomy and physiology so when I explain things to him. I need to have a pretty good handle or its going to make no sense. Also, don’t ever be afraid to ask questions or visit your massage instructor doing their office hours.
Starting massage school is always so much fun and so exciting because you make friends and meet all these people, but it is so important to set aside study time. My anatomy class required 9+ hours of study time a week and that’s no joke. Time management is a very import skill to have developed by the time you reach college. It is important to remember that you as the student are completely responsible for the amount of information you retain. That is harder for some people than others, and that’s okay. That is where study time slides into the picture. Massage is a fun thing to learn about and I’ve been enjoying it quite a lot, but school comes with responsibilities. Student’s number one priority needs to be to balance personal life and school life accordingly, and once we figure this out, there is nothing in the way of success.
