I lay in my sweatpants and loose T-shirt on a red and gold embroidered futon, eyes closed, my mind floating away in the dimly lighted room. The therapist pressed my overworked gluteal muscles with the heel of her hand and stretched my right leg over the left. Slowly, my back muscles gave up their clench. Eighty minutes later, I felt lighter. And taller.
Part massage, part yoga (with no effort of my own), Thai massage was turning out to be an excellent après-ski treatment.
For skiers and snowboarders with tired legs and cold feet, a plain old sports massage seems the obvious choice. But destination spas now offer so many treatments that requesting a simple massage is like ordering a hamburger at L'Espalier.
Yet a spa treatment menu can be daunting. Will a seaweed wrap do anything for an aching back? And what are those hot stones all about? Some treatments sound like marinade recipes, where the body is rubbed in sea salt and steeped in honey and herbs. Spa directors and therapists at three spas in Vermont say that some treatments are better than a sports massage for getting you back on the slopes feeling refreshed.
Thai massage combines compression and acupressure with deep yoga-like stretching and is both relaxing and energizing.
"It's a much more dynamic style of massage," says Jenn Morey, a therapist at the Spa at Topnotch in Stowe. "Speaking as a snowboarder coming off the mountain after a long day, Thai massage is perfectly suited because you're getting increased circulation, and the stretching resets muscle length and improves flexibility."
She recommends an herbal fusion body wrap before Thai massage. It warms the body, improves circulation, and is "the perfect prelude to receive Thai massage."
For a more passive, pampered experience, Morey recommends Saucha, a three-step treatment involving exfoliation, a warm body wrap, and massage. It starts with a salt massage "to remove tired winter skin." Then the recipient is wrapped in herb-infused linen sheets. The blend of herbs relaxes the nervous system and serves as an anti-inflammatory to prepare the body for massage, says Morey. The treatment concludes with a 30-, 50-, or 80-minute massage.
Jesse George, spa director at Stoweflake Mountain Resort, also in Stowe, recommends the
"There are lots of antioxidants in coffee that are absorbed through the skin," he explains. "It draws out the toxins and is immune boosting."
The treatment starts with a full-body coffee scrub exfoliation, followed by a warm mud wrap with water retention properties that, in theory, reduces cellulite, says George. The last phase is a coffee-infused oil massage.