Josh Shear

Those who know me, know I'm very active. It's not just the twice a week tennis, the occasional bowling league, the cycling around town, the summer softball league, and my preference for walking to places when possible.

I'm also active in CNYSPaRC, 40 Below and other things as they come up.

Often that stuff comes with lugging a laptop or two around with me, or sometimes books to tide me over while I'm between, say, a meeting and a hockey game.

All that activity came to a head in early February, when in the middle of a tennis match, my neck said, "we need to talk."

So I've been limiting my activity for a while, and finally, I decided to take a leap and do something I've never done before: get a professional massage.

Melissa Heavener at Armory Massage had signed up for a Twitter account and connected with some folks in the Syracuse area, and so I had at least a little peek into her personality and the information she was imparting to people, and her rates seemed reasonable enough (hey, you go find me some licensed professionals who charge $65 an hour for their time), so I got in touch.

I made a 30-minute appointment, though Melissa spent a fair bit longer than that with me, if you include a medical history, taking pre-massage questions, and a bit of after-care discussion and chatter.

I went in with very little in terms of expectations. My entire "experience" with professional massage had come from "Friends" and Rush Hour 2, not exactly, um, yeah, you see where I'm going with that.

After going over some medical history (definitely nothing invasive), she explained to me that the injury was probably the result of a bunch of things coming to a head, rather than an in-the-moment action.

Weight-wise, she said, "your head's like a bowling ball on a broomstick, and every bit you move your head forward, you double the weight."

Ouch. Think about that as you're setting up your computer monitor.

She then went on to explain that most neck injuries start at the pelvis. And if you look at my activities – from swinging a tennis racket or bat, to bowling, to swiveling one way or another to use a mouse – pretty much everything starts with motion at the pelvis and then works its way up.

She then went through an example of how the body transitions to new normals. If you're one of those people who typically speaks with the phone resting on your shoulder and your head bent far onto it, eventually, it hurts, and you start resting it in a different position, which then becomes normal. Sooner or later, you're walking around with your shoulders four inches higher than they used to be, and you're trying to figure out why you're sore.

Her explanation as to what she does, basically, was try to undo all the re-positioning harm people had done to their bodies, by working backward through the alterations, trying to get people back to their original positions.

So, we hit the table, and Melissa did what she does.

I was definitely able to feel the change as she started working on my left arm. She stopped to ask if I noticed anything, and I could tell that my right shoulder was higher than my left. It was also clear to me that she found some unevenness in my hips, though I couldn't for the life of me identify it.

Things I now know are normal after a massage, and that you should expect if you're going in for your first go: go hydrated. You're going to leave dehydrated, as the massage gets your fluids flowing, and your organs start working double-quick. You may get sore; it'd been a little over a month since I'd had a good workout, so I definitely felt a workout-type muscle soreness the next day. There was also some grogginess; Melissa had warned me of this, too.

I'm also more conscious of my posture, but it takes some effort, and it's not something I'm doing automatically yet.

The answer is yes, I'll be back.

And now, a little about Melissa and the business...

Melissa has been a licensed massage therapist since 2001 (here's what that takes in New York), and had her own business in Buffalo.

She moved to Washington, D.C., and worked for someone else, before returning upstate. She began working at Armory Massage, and then started to take it over in December of 2007.

The business is growing: after an interview yesterday, she took on a fourth therapist.

Since the office is (likely by the nature of the relaxation part of the work) very quiet-inducing, and as a social person, Melissa is starting to use Twitter and Facebook, and is looking to start doing demos (if you've got an office, give her a call) and to get involved a little more in the community and do some social networking.

I'm putting her business in the "downtown Syracuse business I'll be patronizing regularly" column.

Also, if you missed it, here's the Armory Massage Web site.

Photos used by kind permission of Melissa Heavener / Armory Massage