Some things you can do to help maintain you massage longer.

While there always outside influence that can affect our need for massage. For the everyday person with no extenuating circumstances, there are things you can do to help maintain your massage for a longer period of time. Below is a list of some of the things I have come to find are important to address in our everyday lives.

• Posture
• Repetitive Movements
• Awareness
• Stretching
• Stress

Posture

Whether you are looking at your phone, sitting, standing, riding a bike, sleeping, etc. posture it very important. Proper posture requires our head up, chin slightly down, shoulders back, chest forward, feet square on with your hips and knees. Lets start with something basic that every living being needs; sleep. In general there are 2 positions that are ideal for sleeping: on your back and on your left side.  Side note: the right is okay for short periods of time unless you have GERD or trouble keeping digestive juices down, this is because your stomach is upside down when laying on your right. 

Sleep Positions

Laying on your back: your neck needs to have a slight bend, that's it, no pillow. Just a half moon for support. When you sleep with a pillow that pushes your head up higher than it should this causes your cervical vertebrae to be out of alignment. If you need your head higher, you can use a wedge that will lift you at the base of your spine allowing your spine to stay straight.

Side Laying: requires multiple pillows. When we sleep we tend to slump forward causing pressure on our arms and legs, pinching nerves at the neck and other areas.

1. A thin pillow between the legs from the knee to the full foot will keep you hips straight and you feet in line with your knees and hips.
2. A larger pillow for your free arm to keep your shoulder from slumping forward is important. When your posture slumps your muscles get tired because they spend all night trying to pull you back into position. Causing you to wake in the morning aching and sore. 
3. Lower arm. If your lower arm is falling asleep, you need to create space from the hip to the underarm. A thin pillow or blanket that can be adjusted accordingly lifting your upper body slightly, allows more room for your arm that is being smashed. This will allow you to pull your shoulders back keeping the pressure off the nerves in your neck and your muscles from stressing out.  Doing this may cause you to need to raise you head pillow.

If you need to have someone take a picture of your body in bed. If you can draw a straight line up you vertebrae then you have accomplished better posture while sleeping.