Features
Are chair massages worth the time and money?
By Sophie Gaulkin ’17
November 10, 2016
Tags features
by Molly Geisinger ’19
FeaturesCo-editor
In the flood of daily emails Hamilton students receive every day, it can be unfortunately easy to miss the hidden gems that the College has to offer. One of these such gems is Chair Massage Tuesday, a staple in student wellness. Despite its weekly presence on our campus, much is unknown about the activity. What exactly is a chair massage?
Contrary to popular belief, Chair Massage Tuesday is not a Brookstone-esque experience of rows of chair massager machines. This chair is motionless, and the experience is personal. Located from 10:00 a.m. to 3:20 p.m. in the Blood Fitness Center Conference Room (why there is even a conference room in the fitness center, besides this feature, I guess, is beyond me), licensed massage therapist Erich Warmuth and his chair contraption are available for massages ranging from a minimum of 10 minutes to a maximum of 20.
After trying it once, it’s clear that Chair Massage Tuesday should be Chair Massage Every Day. For those who have missed the emails, for $1 per minute, students and members of the Hamilton community can “boost energy, alertness and productivity” with a chair massage. Especially at this time in the semester, this quirky Hamilton offering is an invaluable de-stresser.
According to David Thompson, director of the Blood Fitness Center and Campus Wellness, Chair Massage Tuesday is “a quick way to relax tense neck and shoulder muscles and rejuvenate the mind and body.” But it does so much more than that—participants should expect a massage that focuses on more than just the neck and shoulders, but also the entire back, arms, hands, head and legs. Pleasant conversation is also included.
Unsurprisingly, chair massages are often found in stressful locations such as airports, conventions and corporate settings. Among other purported health benefits, which include lowering anxiety, blood pressure, muscle pains, headaches and stress and elevating the immune system, sleep quality, circulation and flexibility, this type of massage is meant to be a quick and convenient alternative to a more intense, full-body massage, which is much less time- and cost-efficient. For busy, stressed out students, faculty and community members alike, even taking 10 minutes before class to treat yourself in this way marks a rare occurrence in which a quick fix really does exist, despite its sounding too good to be true.
There is a slight downside. The Fitness Center conference room in which one would get a chair massage is filled with other students doing homework. In the pursuit of relaxing, students should brace themselves for being the one person in the room getting rubbed by a stranger, watched by other students who are trying to focus. This could be a plus side. For some, maybe experiencing the stress of everyone else while in the comfort of a massage chair only adds to the relaxing effect. But for others, it might seem a little bizarre—imagine what it might be like to get a chair massage in the KJ atrium amidst your working peers. I would recommend bringing a friend along with you for moral support during the awkwardness. Luckily, the face pad provides an excellent visual barrier to allow maximum focus on the massage itself.
In any case, releasing the tension we carry in our muscles certainly makes a difference. To succeed academically as the semester comes to a close, most students rely on healthy habits like going to the gym or eating balanced meals. But these two de-stressers lack an important feature that the chair massage provides: human touch.
Interested individuals should be on the look out for the next email about Chair Massage Tuesday to register for a time slot.