A Time for Taming Teachers’ Tension
- 9 hours ago
- 3 min read
School is back in session, and that brings with it many familiar sights and sounds: laughter in the hallways, questions posed and answered in classrooms, backpacks everywhere, and in Texas, anyway, the hope that eventually the summer heat will give way to something resembling fall.
For teachers, administrators and school staff, it also means getting back to a job that can be surprisingly demanding on the body.
Teachers may spend eight or nine hours a day on their feet. They're standing at the front of classrooms, leaning over desks, sitting at computers, looking down while grading papers and carrying everything they need from one place to another. Add the mental demands of teaching, deadlines, meetings, interpersonal conflicts and managing a classroom full of different personalities, and tension can accumulate pretty quickly.
Yes, Teachers Sometimes Name Their Knots
As a massage therapist who has worked with many teachers over the years, I've noticed something funny. I can often predict where I'll find tension before I ever put my hands on someone's back.
The neck and shoulders are frequent offenders. So are the muscles between the shoulder blades and throughout the lower back.
And occasionally, those knots even have names.
I've had teachers jokingly name a particularly stubborn area of tension after a student who has been challenging them that year. The names may change from one school year to the next, but apparently the knots know how to enroll on time.
I suppose that's one of those little inside jokes teachers sometimes share with their massage therapist.
Where Physical and Mental Tension Meet
Not every ache or knot comes from a single cause. Spending hours standing can leave the legs, hips and lower back fatigued. Working at a desk or looking down for extended periods can contribute to tension through the neck, shoulders and upper back. Stress can add another layer, as many people unconsciously tighten their shoulders, jaw or other muscles when they're under pressure.
Massage therapy can help address that accumulated muscular tension while also giving the nervous system an opportunity to settle down.
Depending on the individual, a therapeutic massage session may help:
Reduce muscular tension and soreness
Improve flexibility and range of motion
Ease tightness through the neck, shoulders and back
Promote relaxation
Reduce feelings of stress
Support better rest and recovery
And sometimes, an hour in which nobody is asking you a question is therapeutic all by itself.
Teachers Spend Their Days Taking Care of Everyone Else
One thing I've learned from working with educators is how much of themselves they give during a school day. Teaching isn't simply presenting information. It requires patience, attention, problem-solving and the ability to shift from one person's needs to another's. Over and over again.
That makes the beginning of the school year a good time to remember that the people taking care of our children need opportunities to take care of themselves, too.
A Back-to-School Thank You from Massage Refresh
Teachers spend their days educating, encouraging, problem-solving and taking care of everyone else. So, as another school year gets underway, Massage Refresh would like to give a little something back to the people who give so much.
Through Labor Day, teachers receive $10 off any massage service at Massage Refresh. Simply use code TEACH at checkout when booking online or purchasing gift cards.
Whether you need 60 minutes to work out the tension that has already settled into your neck and shoulders, a longer session to give your whole body some attention, or simply an hour when nobody raises their hand and needs something from you, consider this your permission to take a little time for yourself.
And if you've already named one of your knots after a particular student...
Don't worry. What's stated in the massage room stays in the massage room.
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