Zen Massage® an up-and-coming provider of a high quality massage at affordable prices without binding contracts or expensive memberships, has named Larson Advertising and Media Associates to lead its Brand Development and Retail Marketing.

Zen Massage Franchising, Inc. CEO Randall Scribner said, “I’ve been aware for some time of Keith Larson’s marketing experience with McDonald’s Corporation through his radio show and always thought, ‘when we’re ready for that kind of help, I’m going to give him a call.’”

Larson said, “I know something about what it takes to succeed in the franchising arena and Randall has brought the Zen Massage® system to a point where it is really ready to take off.  They offer consumers a distinct difference.  I’m thrilled for the chance to help them develop that difference into a Killer Brand and help them grow.”

Zen Massage Franchising, Inc., based in Harrisburg, NC, currently has 12 locations in Florida, Georgia, Kansas, and Tennessee, in addition to North and South Carolina.

Larson Advertising and Media Associates (LAMA) was formed by long-time WBT personality Keith Larson in 2011 to help mid-sized businesses develop Killer Brands and become Sharper Retailers.  Prior to returning to radio in 2000, Larson spent more than twelve years with McDonald’s Corporation and as Senior Vice-President with Moroch and Associates, one of McDonald’s largest advertising agencies.  LAMA recently launched a re-branding campaign for Window Nation, the 16^th largest replacement window-door-siding retailer in the country.  Some of the TV and print ads can be seen on Larson Advertising and Media Associates Facebook page.

Contact Keith Larson at (704) 280-2500 or email klarson@larsonadvertising.com

Contact Randall Scribner at (877) 427-1320 or visit www.ZenMassageUSA.com

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Smells of aroma therapy and the multi-flavor tea station greet customers when they

walk in Zen Massage® locations at Camp Creek Village in Atlanta or Summit Point in

nearby Fayetteville, Georgia. “Its tranquil, relaxing and quiet, just perfect for a spa

service. You are prepared for a total wellness experience,” says Steven LaBroi, co-owner

with his mother Mary.

“One of our most popular treatments is our hot stone massage because its an

opportunity for a deeper heat treatment,” LaBroi says. “The body recovers naturally from

the muscles being manipulated, but if you heat the muscles up, the toxins can flow out

easier.”

“We’ve been working with this concept for awhile.” LaBroi says customers that come to

Zen for the low-cost, high quality Swedish massage might miss out on the benefits of

deep tissue combined with hot stones. This combination helps people reach their

wellness goals faster, he says.

Both LaBroi’s Zen locations have estheticians on staff, so customers can come out

looking as good as they feel. They feature Dermalogica® products with their skin care as

well as waxing.

But today’s massage customer is different from those of a decade ago, LaBroi says.

“One of the reasons we went into this business was the paradigm shift in spa services,

with the lower cost making it available for all people to take part in the therapy. It wasn’t

just a luxury item anymore.” He also says massage became more of a wellness

component when people started taking more ownership in their fitness, also embracing

yoga and acupuncture. “We looked at the paradigm shift and realized this was a great

opportunity for a franchise. We have customers that come every week. People are

changing, taking disposable income they used to spend on a drink at the bar and

spending it in a positive way to deal with stress.”

Also, he says people are thinking about health and wellness now more than ever.

“Many are under insured, so they’re doing other things to cure these issues. We

provide a resource that’s affordable.”

So to LaBroi, Zen Massage® makes sense for the future. And he shares his secret for

success at his two locations: Customer Service. “Our business is customer service, and

if we don’t have customer service people don’t come back. That’s what i like.”

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Goldstein knows because she’s often behind the desk at her Olathe, Kansas location.  She’s a hands-on owner, behind the desk 4 to 5 days a week, and networking the others.

“I think it’s a huge secret to my success. I go to the local Chambers of Commerce, the coffees, the luncheons, just getting out and building relationships with people and letting them know I’m there.”

Goldstein’s been with Zen Massage^® for four years now, just opening her newest location six weeks ago. “It was a natural progression.  We were turning so many clients away, we either needed to expand or start up a second location.”

Beverly says there’s not a typical Zen client at either location.  She’s had a 4 year old in, as well as a 90 year old.  “The Swedish massage is still the most popular, but people are branching out.  We do a lot of pregnancy massages and deep tissue is always really popular.”

“We treat a boy with autism.  I think it relaxes him and gets him focused.  It benefits him greatly,” adding massage benefits are physical as well as mental.

“Of course, stress is mental. It’s just like working out. It does release endorphins. You go in happy and come out happier.”

Goldstein is certainly happy with her second career.  “I knew that if I was going to go back to work later in life, I wanted to do something I love. And on a typical day, I do love my job.”

“It’s just a fun, rewarding, positive environment to be around.” 

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How Massage Heals Sore Muscles By NICHOLAS BAKALAR

Barbara P. Fernandez for The New York Times Researchers are learning how massage soothes aching muscles. A massage after vigorous exercise unquestionably feels good, and it seems to reduce pain and help muscles recover. Many people — both athletes and health professionals – have long contended it eases inflammation, improves blood flow and reduces muscle tightness. But until now no one has understood why massage has this apparently beneficial effect. Now researchers have found what happens to muscles when a masseur goes to work on them. Their experiment required having people exercise to exhaustion and undergo five incisions in their legs in order to obtain muscle tissue for analysis. Despite the hurdles, the scientists still managed to find 11 brave young male volunteers. The study was published in the Feb. 1 issue of Science Translational Medicine. On a first visit, they biopsied one leg of each subject at rest. At a second session, they had them vigorously exercise on a stationary bicycle for more than an hour until they could go no further. Then they massaged one thigh of each subject for 10 minutes, leaving the other to recover on its own. Immediately after the massage, they biopsied the thigh muscle in each leg again. After allowing another two-and-a-half hours of rest, they did a third biopsy to track the process of muscle injury and repair. Vigorous exercise causes tiny tears in muscle fibers, leading to an immune reaction — inflammation — as the body gets to work repairing the injured cells. So the researchers screened the tissue from the massaged and unmassaged legs to compare their repair processes, and find out what difference massage would make. They found that massage reduced the production of compounds called cytokines, which play a critical role in inflammation. Massage also stimulated mitochondria, the tiny powerhouses inside cells that convert glucose into the energy essential for cell function and repair. “The bottom line is that there appears to be a suppression of pathways in inflammation and an increase in mitochondrial biogenesis,” helping the muscle adapt to the demands of increased exercise, said the senior author, Dr. Mark A. Tarnopolsky. Dr. Tarnopolsky, a professor of pediatrics and medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, said that massage works quite differently from Nsaids and other anti-inflammatory drugs, which reduce inflammation and pain but may actually retard healing. Many people, for instance, pop an aspirin or Aleve at the first sign of muscle soreness. “There’s some theoretical concern that there is a maladaptive response in the long run if you’re constantly suppressing inflammation with drugs,” he said. “With massage, you can have your cake and eat it too—massage can suppress inflammation and actually enhance cell recovery.” “This is important research, because it is the first to show that massage can reduce pro-inflammatory cytokines which may be involved in pain,” said Tiffany Field, director of the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami Medical School. She was not involved in the study. “We have known from many studies that pain can be reduced by massage based on self-report, but this is the first demonstration that the pain-related pro-inflammatory cytokines can be reduced.” she said. Getting a massage from a professional masseur is obviously more expensive than taking an aspirin. But, as Dr. Field points out, massage techniques can be taught. “People within families can learn to massage each other,” she said. “If you can teach parents to massage kids, couples to massage each other. This can be cost effective.” Dr. Tarnopolsky suggests that, in the long run, a professional massage may even be a better bargain than a pill. “If someone says “This is free and it might make you feel better, but it may slow down your recovery, do you still want it?” he asked. “Or would you rather spend the 50 bucks for a post-exercise massage that also might enhance your recovery?”

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“We have been in business at our other store for three years, and now have 16,000 clients. We’re literally busting at the seams and turning people away,” said franchise owner Beverly Goldstein.

She says opening a second location just made sense. “We had lots of requests for a second location in the Overland Park area. It’s really a nice area of Kansas City, a great, great place to raise a family.”

The new Overland Park Zen Massage® opened September 26, and Goldstein says they’re already busy at both locations. “The most appealing thing about a Zen Massage®  franchise is that it is definitely affordable, and we don’t have any contracts or membership fees. “Our philosophy is very simple and this is the franchise’s philosophy. We believe everyone deserves a spa quality massage at an affordable price.”

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While massage may have developed a reputation as a decadent treat for people who love pampering, new studies are showing it has a wide variety of tangible health benefits.

Research over the past couple of years has found that massage therapy boosts immune function in women with breast cancer, improves symptoms in children with asthma, and increases grip strength in patients with carpal tunnel syndrome. Giving massages to the littlest patients, premature babies, helped in the crucial task of gaining weight.

Is massage just for pampering or does it have true biological effects? A recent study showed muscles rebounded better if massaged after exercising to exhaustion. Andrea Petersen on Lunch Break has details on Lunch Break.

The benefits go beyond feelings of relaxation and wellness that people may recognize after a massage. The American College of Physicians and the American Pain Society now include massage as one of their recommendations for treating low back pain, according to guidelines published in 2007.

New research is also starting to reveal just what happens in the body after a massage. While there have long been theories about how massage works—from releasing toxins to improving circulation—those have been fairly nebulous, with little hard evidence. Now, one study, for example, found that a single, 45-minute massage led to a small reduction in the level of cortisol, a stress hormone, in the blood, a decrease in cytokine proteins related to inflammation and allergic reactions, and a boost in white blood cells that fight infection.

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There’s been a surge of scientific interest in massage. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health, is currently spending $2.7 million on massage research, up from $1.5 million in 2002. The Massage Therapy Foundation, a nonprofit organization that funds massage research, held its first scientific conference in 2005. The third conference will be in Boston next year.

The research is being driven, in part, by massage therapy’s popularity. About 8.3% of American adults used massage in 2007, up from 5% in 2002, according to a National Health Statistics report that surveyed 23,393 adults in 2007 and 31,044 adults in 2002, the latest such data available. Massage was expected to be a $10 billion to $11 billion industry in 2011 in the U.S., according to estimates by the American Massage Therapy Association, a nonprofit professional organization.

“There is emerging evidence that [massage] can make contributions in treating things like pain, where conventional medicine doesn’t have all the answers,” said Jack Killen, NCCAM’s deputy director.

The massage therapy field hopes that the growing body of research will lead to greater insurance coverage for its treatments. Washington is the only state that requires insurers to cover massage therapy.

Aurora PhotosAbout 8.3% of American adults used massage in 2007, up from 5% in 2002, according to a National Health Statistics report.

Elsewhere, private insurers generally provide very limited coverage for massage. WellPoint, WLP +0.27%for example, doesn’t include massage as a standard benefit in most of its plans, but employers can purchase alternative medicine coverage as an add on, said spokeswoman Kristin E. Binns. Aetna AET +2.28%doesn’t cover massage therapy as a standard benefit but offers members discounts on massage visits with practitioners who are part of an affiliated network of alternative medicine providers. Providers such as chiropractors or physical therapists, whose visits are often covered, sometimes use massage as part of their treatment.

Massage therapists charge an average of about $59 for a one-hour session, according to the American Massage Therapy Association. Treatments at posh urban spas, however, can easily cost at least three times that amount.

Most of the research is being done on Swedish massage, the most widely-available type of massage in the U.S. It is a full-body massage, often using oil or lotion, that includes a variety of strokes, including “effleurage” (gliding movements over the skin), “petrissage” (kneading pressure) and “tapotement” (rhythmic tapping).

Research Findings

• A full-body massage boosted immune function and lowered heart rate and blood pressure in women with breast cancer undergoing radiation treatment, a 2009 study of 30 participants found.
• Children given 20-minute massages by their parents every night for five weeks plus standard asthma treatment had significantly improved lung function compared with those in standard care, a 2011 study of 60 children found.
• A 10-minute massage upped mitochondria production, and reduced proteins associated with inflammation in muscles that had been exercised to exhaustion, a small study last month found.

Another common type of massage, so-called deep tissue, tends to be more targeted to problem muscles and includes techniques such as acupressure, trigger-point work (which focuses on little knots of muscle) and “deep transverse friction” where the therapist moves back and forth over muscle fibers to break up scar tissue.

Massage is already widely used to treat osteoarthritis, for which other treatments have concerning side effects. A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine in 2006 showed that full-body Swedish massage greatly improved symptoms of osteoarthritis of the knee. Patients who had massages twice weekly for four weeks and once a week for an additional four weeks had less pain and stiffness and better range of motion than those who didn’t get massages. They were also able to walk a 50-foot path more quickly.

“If [massage] works then it should become part of the conventionally recommended interventions for this condition and if it doesn’t work we should let [patients] know so they don’t waste their time and money,” says Adam Perlman, the lead author of the study and the executive director of Duke Integrative Medicine in Durham, N.C.

Scientists are also studying massage in healthy people.

In a small study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine last month, a 10-minute massage promoted muscle recovery after exercise. In the study, 11 young men exercised to exhaustion and then received a massage in one leg. Muscle biopsies were taken in both quad muscles before exercise, after the massage and 2½ hours later.

The short massage boosted the production of mitochondria, the energy factory of the cell, among other effects. “We’ve shown this is something that has a biological effect,” says Mark Tarnopolsky, a co-author of the study and a professor of pediatrics and medicine at McMaster University Medical Center in Hamilton, Ontario.

A 2010 study with 53 participants comparing the effects of one 45-minute Swedish massage to light touch, found that people who got a massage had a large decrease in arginine-vasopressin, a hormone that normally increases with stress and aggressive behavior, and slightly lower levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, in their blood after the session. There was also a decrease in cytokine proteins related to inflammation and allergic reactions.

Mark Hyman Rapaport, the lead author of the study and the chairman of psychiatry and behavioral science at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, says he began studying massage because, “My wife liked massages and I wasn’t quite sure why. I thought of it as an extravagance, a luxury for only people who are very rich and who pamper themselves.” Now, Dr. Rapaport says he gets a massage at least once a month. His group is now studying massage as a treatment for generalized anxiety disorder.

 

Knead to Know Tips

• How can you make sure you get a good massage? Most states regulate massage and require therapists to be licensed. This usually requires a minimum number of hours of training and an exam. There is also national certification. Members of the American Massage Therapy Association must have 500 hours of training.

• Ask how many massages a therapist gives a day—and make sure you’re not the 10th or even the seventh. ‘It takes a lot of physical exertion to deliver a therapeutic massage,’ says Ken Morris, spa director at Canyon Ranch, a health resort in Tucson, Ariz. Canyon Ranch limits its therapists to six massages in a day.

Write to Andrea Petersen at andrea.petersen@wsj.com

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By Mayo Clinic staff

 A soothing massage can help you unwind, but that’s not all. Explore the possible health benefits and risks of massage therapy, plus what to expect.

Massage is no longer available only through luxury spas and upscale health clubs. Today, massage therapy is offered in businesses, clinics, hospitals and even airports. If you’ve never tried massage, learn about the possible health benefits of massage and what to expect during a massage therapy session.

What is massage?

Massage is a general term for pressing, rubbing and manipulating your skin, muscles, tendons and ligaments. Massage therapists typically use their hands and fingers for massage but may also use their forearms, elbows and even feet. Massage may range from light stroking to deep pressure techniques.

There are many different types of massage, including these common types:

• Swedish massage. This is a gentle form of massage that uses long strokes, kneading, deep circular movements, vibration and tapping to help relax and energize you.
• Deep-tissue massage. This massage technique uses slower, more forceful strokes to target the deeper layers of muscle and connective tissue, commonly to help with muscle damage from injuries.
• Sports massage. This is similar to Swedish massage but is geared toward people involved in sport activities to help prevent or treat injuries.
• Trigger point massage. This massage focuses on trigger points, or sensitive areas of tight muscle fibers that can form in your muscles after injuries or overuse.

Benefits of massage

Massage is generally considered part of complementary and alternative medicine. It’s increasingly being offered along with standard treatment for a wide range of medical conditions and situations.

While more research is needed to confirm the benefits of massage, some studies have found massage helpful for:

• Stress relief
• Managing anxiety and depression
• Pain
• Stiffness
• Blood pressure control
• Infant growth
• Sports-related injuries
• Boosting immunity
• Cancer treatment

Beyond the benefits for specific conditions or diseases, some people enjoy massage because it often involves caring, comfort, a sense of empowerment and creating deep connections with their massage therapist.

Despite its benefits, massage isn’t meant as a replacement for regular medical care. Let your doctor know you’re trying massage and be sure to follow any standard treatment plans you have.

Risks of massage

Massage is generally safe as long as it’s done by a trained massage therapist. But massage isn’t appropriate for everyone. Discuss massage with your doctor first in cases of:

• Unexplained pain or other symptoms
• Burns or open wounds
• Cancer
• Blood clots
• Fractures
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Severe osteoporosis
• Pregnancy

Some forms of massage can leave you feeling a bit sore the next day. But massage shouldn’t be painful or uncomfortable. If any part of your massage doesn’t feel right or is painful, speak up right away. Most serious problems come from too much pressure during massage.

In rare circumstances, massage can cause:

• Internal bleeding
• Nerve damage
• Temporary paralysis
• Allergic reactions to massage oils or lotions

What you can expect during a massage

You don’t need any special preparation for massage. Before a massage therapy session starts, your massage therapist should ask you about any symptoms, your medical history and what you’re hoping to get out of massage. Your massage therapist should explain the kind of massage and techniques he or she will use.

In a typical massage therapy session, you undress or wear loosefitting clothing. Undress only to the point that you’re comfortable. You generally lie on a table and cover yourself with a sheet. You can also have a massage while sitting in a chair, fully clothed. Your massage therapist should perform an evaluation through touch to locate painful or tense areas and to determine how much pressure to apply.

If you want, your massage therapist may use oil or lotion to reduce friction on your skin. Tell your massage therapist if you might be allergic to any ingredients.

A massage session may last from 15 to 90 minutes, depending on the type of massage and how much time you have. No matter what kind of massage you choose, you should feel calm and relaxed during and after your massage. Pain that’s more significant than momentary discomfort could indicate that something’s wrong. If a massage therapist is pushing too hard, ask for lighter pressure. Occasionally you may have a sensitive spot in a muscle that feels like a knot. It’s likely to be uncomfortable while your massage therapist works it out. But if it becomes painful, speak up.

Finding a massage therapist

Massage can be performed by several types of health care professionals, such as a physical therapist, occupational therapist or massage therapist. Ask your doctor or someone else you trust for a recommendation. Most states regulate massage therapists through licensing, registration or certification requirements.

Don’t be afraid to ask a potential massage therapist such questions as:

• Are you licensed, certified or registered?
• What is your training and experience?
• How many massage therapy sessions do you think I’ll need?
• What’s the cost, and is it covered by health insurance?

Use massage as another health care tool

Brush aside any thoughts that massage is only a feel-good way to indulge or pamper yourself. To the contrary, massage can be a powerful tool to help you take charge of your health and well-being, whether you have a specific health condition or are just looking for another stress reliever. You can even learn how to do self-massage or to engage in massage with a partner.

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