Massage - Korean Style

The hotel we are staying at was offering free massages for women. WooHoo! I love a good massage! I've had many and couldn't wait to de-stress and relax. My husband went off to dinner with co-workers as I went off to my massage.

First, they had me change into one of their t-shirts and shorts. Ok, I've always had a massage where it requires getting down to your birthday suit. She then had me lay face down on a table. There was a hole in the table for my face. I started to relax and then WHAM!!!!!!!!!! She started beating on me and I mean beating. She took her elbow and pressed it down my entire spinal cord, HARD! She pinched me hard all over. She took my legs and tried to bend them until my ankle touched my back. She took my arms and pulled them as she was putting force, holding my back down. Then she tried, or at least it felt like it, to pull my arms out of the sockets. I was trying not to groan but the pain was incredible.

Then she had me turn over and proceeded to do the same thing. At one time, she was straddling me and pressing with all her weight across my entire body. My head didn't even escape, she took her fingers and pressed so hard all over my head, it was worse than any headache I've ever had.

It finally ended. The longest hour of my life. I found out later from a Korean that what I had was a deep tissue massage. It is what massage is all about in Korea. Pain is good for your health. The massage supposedly releases toxins from my muscles and you need to drink a lot of water afterward to flush out the toxins.

Actually, about an hour afterwards, I felt better than I had in years. I really felt vitalized! Would I do it again, not right now. The pain is still too fresh in my mind.