How To Choose How Long Your Massage Should Be - The Clinic Health Group (2024)

By: Holly Greene, RMT

When booking a massage, one of the things to consider is the length of the treatment. At The Clinic, we currently provide 30-min, 45-min, 60-min, 75-min, 90-min, and 120 min massage treatments.

But how do you know which length will suit your needs best? Here is a general guideline to help you decide:

QUICK REFERENCE:

First Treatment: 60-min, 75-min

Focused Treatment: 30-min, 45-min

General Relaxation Treatment: 30-min, 45-min, 60-min

Full Body Complete Relaxation: 75-min,90-min

Focused Treatment with added General Relaxation: 75-min, 90-min

Deep Tissue/Sports Full Body Treatment: 120-min

One way to help you choose the length of your massage therapy appointment is to determine what you want the focus of the treatment to be. For example, if you are getting a massage for the first time at our clinic, a 60-min or a 75-min appointment would be appropriate. This will allow enough time for your RMT to complete an initial assessment and get to know your body in order to give you an effective treatment. It will also give you enough time to become comfortable with your RMT. Following the first session, the therapist may then suggest shorter or longer treatments, based on your specific needs.

For many people, the goal of a massage treatment is either general relaxation (ex: for stress-relief) or specific pain relief (acute or chronic). The more time-consuming of the two is specific pain relief. If you are looking for some specific work on top of general relaxation, this can usually be accomplished in 60-min, but time spent on some areas will be compromised. For example, if you would like specific work on your lower back, then maybe the therapist will have less time to work on your neck and shoulders in that session. So if you really want specific work AND full body relaxation, it may be worth considering a 90-min session. General relaxation can be achieved in a 60-min session, but if you just want general relaxation in half of the body (front/back or upper/lower) then a 45-min appointment can also work.

Remember that these are only suggestions, and at the end of the day, you are the decision-maker. You may have other factors to consider. Maybe you have schedule limitations and you can only come in for 45-min treatments on your lunch breaks… Maybe a 60-min massage every two weeks is better for your financial situation than a 45-min session every week. Maybe you know that you are not comfortable on the massage table for more than 30 minutes. All these things are important to keep in mind and all of them can also be discussed with your RMT to help you choose the right appointment times going forward.

Below are some descriptions of what can be accomplished (and what cannot) in the different appointment times available.

THE 30-MIN MASSAGE