I need a neck, shoulder and upper back massage really bad. I noticed this after sitting in massage chair waiting for Rick's prescriptions to be filled at Walgreens. It took about 15 minutes to wait but in that small amount of time, I could feel the heat and rolling circular motion of the chair massage work its way to loosen me up.
My friend's husband is in school to be a massage therapist. He has to practice on volunteers so I have signed up for massage. I think I prefer man hands on me for two reasons 1) they are meaty and can grab-manipulate tight muscles better than little petite hands and 2)Mom has Man- hands so I never really was "touched" by woman.
I have had only one massage my whole life and it was given to me as a gift from ex-husband for Valentine's Day 1995. It was good for a year and he left me in Jan 96' so had to use the massage before it expired. That was my personal way of getting over him.