Trading Life: Get A Massage (No, Not That Kind!)

As traders, we sit. A lot. We hunch over our keyboards, slouch, stretch our necks in weird positions and sit on bad chairs.  Young traders under 30 don’t care.  But if you’re middle-aged like me, you feel the strain in your body day in and day out.  And the slow destruction caused by this lifestyle will eventually manifest itself into a major health crisis. Unless you do something about it now.

Even exercising on a regular basis will not completely mitigate the ill-effects of all-day sitting nor will stretching every couple of hours.  So, a long time ago I introduced regular massage therapy into my weekly routine.  I don’t view it as a luxury but as a necessity. Its as important as a good breakfast, perhaps even more important.

But there is nothing relaxing about the type of massage I’m talking about.  You don’t need a “relaxation” massage – you need something called “Trigger Point Therapy”.  This is the kind of massage that will hurt.  The therapist will find all those knots and muscle weak points and knead them mercilessly to bring your body back into alignment.

If you’ve never done this you’ll find that you will need to have this done 2-3 times a week for the first month.  After that you can go to a once per week session.  But make sure each session is at least 90 minutes.  A 60 minute session isn’t going to be enough.

Trust me on this – the investment is going to be worth it.  No career is worth destroying your health for.  Luckily there is an easy way to mitigate our slouching, bad chair, bad monitor positioning habits!

Just get the massage!

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