The promise
To release tightness and enhance relaxation through a combination of Thai and Swedish massage.
The experience
Yet another miniscule massage therapist with a wide grin and astonishingly powerful hands greeted us and escorted us to the massage room.
We admit, our posture is terrible. We hunch over our desk at work, we walk slouched and often arch our backs over our books and phone when looking down. We lie down on the massage bed, and instantly feel more relaxed. After checking our pressure-preference, our therapist got down to business.
It begins with our feet – working the muscles in them, poking into our arches, firmly proceeding up our legs and onto our back. She starts without oil, which feel a little strange but it works for us. This is like a warm-up.
She then introduces some oil, working it into each limb – pushing handfuls of flesh around before she climbs on top of us, kneading strong palms into our lumpy back.
The beauty of Thai massage is that this therapy, when done correctly, can remedy aching joints while Swedish also has healing properties. Our therapist stretches our limbs over and moves them around, loosening up tight shoulders and legs. This combined with the smooth stroking traits of Swedish massage make for a balance of pain and gain.
As we turned onto our back, our arms are pulled over our body, opening our shoulder-blades and lengthening out our back, gently stretching our neck. It feels amazing. Next, she works our hands and forearms, which are surprisingly tense from working on a keyboard all week, spreading our palms and using her thumbs to move outwards makes us groan.
We felt it was all coming to an end far too quickly – it can’t have been an hour already. It seemed our blissful relaxation had stolen some of our time.
This has to be our new favourite style of massage, the right amount of therapeutic, relaxation and reparation benefits.
The results
Immediately after the massage, we felt a little sore though far looser and more fluid than before. Our body felt rejuvenated and restored, and we felt about 20cm taller.
Pros
This massage gave us better posture afterwards, our back was straight and the muscles seemed to be free to operate more healthily and loosely. The Thai massage has gotten our blood pumping and we feel energized, while the Swedish component has stimulated yet soothed our weary body.
Cons
A little tenderness was evident after the massage, obviously the therapist had worked some sore spots out, though after a good night’s sleep we were happy and felt better for it.
5/5
Combination Massage is Dhs275 for 50 minutes. Crowne Plaza Abu Dhabi, Hamdan Street (02 616 6166).
