How Massage & Fitness Magazine Started

During my second year of massage school in San Diego, Calif., in 2014, I couldn’t find much quality information about pain. I had to look into research and physical therapy forums to find answers and ask questions.

I was pretty frustrated and disappointed that much of what I was learning and hearing in massage circles don’t align with the current understand of pain.

Therapists were still talking about getting rid of toxins with massage, sweating, and drinking water. Educators were teaching (and still teach) massage therapists to break fascia and blame trigger points for pain.

When I was a massage therapist, many clients and patients had told me about these narratives that other massage and physical therapists had told them.

But nobody was teaching or creating content about the actual actual science behind pain. There was hardly anything about the nervous system and hormones and social factors that also influence pain. Everything was about muscles, muscles, and muscles.

So it seemed obvious to me that these myths will continue to trickle down to the public.

Later that year, I decided to create Massage & Fitness Magazine to fill in the void. With the help of several massage educators and allies, we launched our first issue in March 2015.

See our story on Instagram.

Over the years, many leaders in pain research and manual therapy have influenced the publication, including Dr. Bronnie Thompson, Dr. Lorimer Moseley, Paul Ingraham, Diane Jacobs, Dr. Rachel Zoffness, and Dr. Mark Olson.

Massage & Fitness is not affiliated with any massage organizations, special interest groups, product- or modality-driven courses.

We’re pretty much independent and are simply curious about pain, touch, and exercise in relation to manual therapy.

Until the summer 2019, these issues were released on an online magazine platform, and the each issue was available for purchase or subscription only.

Toward the end of 2019, we have decided to make all of our content public and 100% free. We want to give better information online to people worldwide. After all, part of our goal is for people to have resources to good information.

People in pain deserve a more accurate and honest explanation about their problems.

And people who are paying a load of money and spending time to learn how to help their patients better should be provided with up-to-date information.

So let’s try to give and share honest and more accurate information. If you like what you read, don’t hesitate to share it on your website and social media.

Feel free to check out who has been helping us in our authors page.

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