How often should you have a massage? What the research says

There is no single right answer, but there is some useful research. Here is what trials of how often, and for how long, found, and what that means when you book.

3 min read

How often should you have a massage? It is one of the questions people ask most, and the honest answer is that it depends on why you are booking. The research that looks at this directly has mostly been done with people who have long-lasting neck or back pain, so it cannot tell us what is right for everyone. It is still worth knowing what it found.

What a trial of different doses found

In a US trial published in 2014, 228 adults whose neck pain had lasted at least three months were randomly given a four-week course of massage or placed on a waiting list. The massage came in five different patterns: 30-minute sessions two or three times a week, or 60-minute sessions once, twice or three times a week.

  • 30-minute sessions were no better than waiting, however often they were given.
  • 60-minute sessions two or three times a week did better than waiting. People having two hour-long sessions a week were more than three times as likely, and people having three a week about five times as likely, to have a meaningful improvement in how well their neck worked. For pain, they were between two and three times as likely to improve.
  • One hour-long session a week did not clearly beat waiting.

That is a lot of massage. The trial was designed to find the best dose for people with ongoing neck pain, not to say how often anyone should book. It does suggest that, for that problem, longer sessions in a concentrated run mattered more than a quick top-up.

What happened after the course

The same trial went on. People who had had the four-week course were randomly offered either a “booster” of six more weekly hour-long massages or nothing further. At 12 weeks, those who had the booster were doing better in how well their neck worked. By 26 weeks the difference was no longer clear, and the booster only seemed to help people who had started with 60-minute sessions.

Weekly sessions for low back pain

In a 2011 trial, 400 adults with long-term low back pain had a one-hour massage once a week for ten weeks, in either a relaxation style or a firmer, more focused style. Others carried on with their usual care. After ten weeks, both massage groups were doing better than the usual care group. A year on, the benefit of relaxation massage for everyday function was still there but small, and the benefit for symptoms had faded.

What this means for you

  • There is no research-backed number for the average person. These trials studied people with long-lasting pain, not people who book to unwind or because they are run down.
  • If you are booking for a particular ache, a longer appointment and a short run of regular sessions may give you the best chance of noticing a difference. The benefit may fade once the sessions stop.
  • If you are booking to relax, the right pattern is the one that suits your diary and your budget. Nothing in this research says otherwise.
  • Long-lasting pain deserves a proper look first. See your GP or a physiotherapist if it is severe, getting worse, follows an injury, or comes with numbness, weakness or pins and needles.
  • Tell your therapist what you are hoping for, and ask what they would suggest.

More on what the research says about pain is in Massage for neck, shoulder and back pain: what the evidence says.

Sources

  • Sherman KJ and colleagues. Five-week outcomes from a dosing trial of therapeutic massage for chronic neck pain. Annals of Family Medicine, 2014;12(2):112-120.
  • Cook AJ and colleagues. Randomized clinical trial assessing whether additional massage treatments for chronic neck pain improve 12- and 26-week outcomes. The Spine Journal, 2015;15(10):2206-2215.
  • Cherkin DC and colleagues. A comparison of the effects of 2 types of massage and usual care on chronic low back pain. Annals of Internal Medicine, 2011;155(1):1-9.

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