The ‘classic Loop’ massage is our signature treatment, in so far as when I started Loop this was the only massage on offer!

It’s still my favourite, and it’s our clients favourite too.

At its heart the treatment is based around holistic massage techniques, with deep tissue elements added in, then, and this is what makes it the favourite - the team adds their personal spin. There are no massage robots at Loop, each member of the team brings with them a wealth of knowledge, a toolbox of different massage styles all of which influence our overall work. It also helps that each of us has the passion of a massage fanatic. At Loop you’ll find someone who suits you, and how you like to be massaged. You can read about all of us and our different styles on the about page.

It’s a bespoke treatment so your therapist will talk you through what’s going on with your body on the day. We do favour spending a little bit of time on every muscle because, as I always say - ‘no muscle is an island’; your lower back might ache, which we’ll spend time tending to but that means we need to give your hamstrings some love too, there’s a connection between everything. Plus, I honestly believe if we focus a whole hour on just one area the other muscles will be grumpy for being left out.

Many clients have asked, why is called the ‘Classic Loop’ - Perhaps we should call our different types of treatment beautiful names that help evoke wonderful experiences, like ‘awaken’ or ‘rest’. Truth is I sometimes get a bit jealous of others out there that do. But when I started Loop I wanted all the treatments to be bespoke, affordable and accessible. I felt that massage and the holistic world in general can feel intimidating and ‘not for you’-ish. Rather than inventing an abstract set of names I started Loop with an ‘exactly what it says on the tin’ sort of feel. Over the years I’ve thought to change it but honestly haven’t found a better way forward with it yet. So here we are, same simple name, same wonderful treatment, the ‘Classic Loop Massage’

We offer the Classic Loop as a 60 min or a 90 min massage treatment. We look forward to welcoming you in soon.

---

February is the month of love, whether we want it to be or not. Sometime, somewhere the powers that be (or possibly card companies) shoved in an extra holiday to keep the masses going in the barren months between Christmas and spring. Or it sure does feel that way sometimes.

Even if we don’t subscribe to Valentine’s Day, it does make a person think about matters of the heart or the heart itself, for that matter. The heart is a muscle, which I don’t consider often enough. Not only is it a muscle, it’s one of the most hard working muscles there is, squeezing and contracting to make sure the vital fluids of the body get to where they need to go. It’s the reason why exercise is useful, all muscles need maintenance. 

Obviously it isn’t one we can directly massage, well, unless the heart is failing. Actually failing not figuratively, although anyone who has ever suffered through a broken heart knows the two pretty much feel interchangeable.  A broken heart is what led me to massage. I remember being told to treat heart break like an illness, advice I often pass on. That means, being kind to yourself and very gentle. Making sure you sleep enough, drink plenty of water, eat nutritious meals and indulge in some much needed TLC (my TLC was massage). Someone even told me that a broken heart could be helped along with a Vitamin E supplement, I’m not sure if I’ve believed them but I dutifully took it. I think when you’re that heart broken you are willing to try most things. 

Massage is what I found the most useful. Time to myself, being smooshed back into my body when I was used to feeling I was floating untethered from the earth. Many of my thoughts at the time were cruel and incredibly negative towards myself, booking a massage was an act of rebellion. It was a way of allowing someone to be kind towards my body when I couldn’t be. Hopefully, you aren’t reading this through a heart broken haze. If you are, take care of yourself, even if that has to be by pretending you are doing it on behalf of someone else. 

But back to the heart as a muscle, did you know that massage can help the heart perform it’s duties more effectively or at least help support it in its work? A number of research studies reveal that Massage Therapy releases contracted muscles, reduces heart rate, lowers blood pressure and increases blood circulation - all of which eases strain on the heart. 

So February might be the month for Love, so lets make it self love - in all it’s guises, what ever it means to you. Massage and Heart Openers is the way I’d go but each to their own.

Let’s get something straight. There is no right way to have a massage.

Or rather no right way to receive a massage, I’ve lost track of the number of bodies I’ve laid hands on and this is what I’m learning.

Many people worry that they will ‘fail’ at having a massage, which I’m not even sure is possible. Unless you’ve been frog-marched here against your will and been forced on to the table (which would be weird and I’m pretty sure, illegal) if you find yourself with an appointment at Loop, I’m assuming that you want a massage or you’re at least curious and that’s a very good first step.

I think what people mean by ‘failing’ is not feeling able to relax, in a loose tally of why that might be and why it’s not a failure because at the end of the day if you’re showing up for yourself, you cannot fail.

It feels weird giving over control of your body to another human. That’s a natural and pretty healthy instinct, some people can relax into that more quickly than others. Some days it will feel easier to do than others. I hope over time you will build up a relationship with your therapist and it won’t feel quite so alien. Every now and then it’s an amazing nurturing experience to just let someone else take the burden of care for a little while.

You can’t turn off your mind. Well, that’s hardly a surprise, given the amount of stimulus we face for the majority of our day. Yet for some reason, we treat it as such a massive failure. Sometimes it’s lovely to just count your breaths and have a relatively blank mind for a bit but, you know what even if you spend the whole appointment think, think, thinking it’s not a disaster. Maybe you’ve not afforded yourself the time a space to think about a pressing subject, maybe you’ll think about it for this hour but when you leave you’ll be able to give your focus to something else. Worse case scenario your muscles are still benefiting from the time being spent stretched and soothed.

You are worried what your therapist is thinking about your body. I don’t think I can say this plainly enough - while we asses bodies, WE ARE NOT JUDGING YOUR BODY. We are very focused on your muscles and what we can do to them. It honestly makes me sad when people say they’ve put off having a massage due to shame. Everyone has body hang ups, I now spend the majority of my days in skintight Lycra, if you had told me this 4 years ago, I’d have laughed in your face. I also get nervous in yoga classes, no body cares about anyone else in yoga classes but I’m still intimidated. Like I said, everyone has their hang ups.  Women, please stop apologising for not shaving your legs. We really don’t care and you know what? A man has never apologised for the same thing so lets just put this on to rest shall we.

What if I fall asleep and ‘waste’ the massage? I like that I have one of the only jobs in the world where falling asleep is a huge compliment. It means we’ve soothed your parasympathetic nervous system and can get to work on the sympathetic one. Also, the hardest muscles to relax is your mind, so if you’re asleep we can get to work on your other muscles to greater effect. Never apologise for falling asleep. Snoring is also totally cool.

What if I fart, my tummy rumbles, my throat makes a weird noise, I cry, yelp or in some other way make a sound like a human? Well, what if your massage therapist does? Guess what, we are humans and that’s all totally ok, when we relax our whole body lets go a little, and that's fine.

You know what? At the end of the day massage might not be the right way for you to relax so if you’ve tried and it’s just not you’re jam. That’s totally cool too.

---

Opening your own business is scary and exciting and a whole mix of emotions.

There’s no getting around it, there’s been a lot of change in my life of late and I’m not always the best with change. Instead of writing an essay on how scary it is, in a world which feels pretty scary these days. I thought I’d remind myself why I’m doing it.

A while ago, I was in a bad way. I bottled a lot of things up and was a pretty mixed up chick. Long story short, I very nearly imploded and wound up on the door step of a therapist in a terrible state. I spent an hour sobbing and incoherently trying to explain just how awful I was feeling. I remember thinking that this was probably why interpretive dance was invented because words just didn’t express how bad I felt.  At the end of the hour, my therapist said ‘you haven’t grieved, you are depressed, but don’t worry we can work through it. What you really need to do now is be kind to yourself. Go and get a massage.’

I walked out into a perfectly ordinary May day, this tear streaked, shell-shocked husk of a human. Entirely unsure as to how to proceed for the next few days, until my next appointment.  I was willing to try anything to make myself feel even half a scrap better but I wasn’t sure that it would help. To be frank, I thought it would be a waste of time , money too but I booked myself in for a massage as instructed.  I lay down on that massage table, the first time, just to see what would happen really. An experiment.

Now, I’m not going to sit here and tell you that it changed my life (well I guess, eventually it kind of did, but that’s for another time). I didn’t have a massage and somehow, via the medium of whale music, figure out all my junk (I’ve gotta say I am unconvinced that whales should make music or that listening to it would help you solve anything) But there was something freeing about letting go of it all for just a little while. What I know now about muscles and tissues I wonder just what my body felt like to the therapist that first time - so much tension. It felt like she unlocked this vice, that tight little ball inside me. I can’t say it never came back, that one massage and I was cured yet, simply being kind to myself and allowing someone else to be kind to me as well, it was a huge relief. It allowed me some time out.

One of the main reasons why I decided to study massage was because I wanted to be able to help some one as I was once helped.

Top 5 things I love about getting a Massage:

1. The time and space it gives you to just breathe and reboot.

2. How free your muscles feel afterwards, like you’ve been uncurled and ironed out.

3. The sleep you sleep after a good massage, it’s so refreshing.

4. My self-esteem improves after a massage, don’t know why I think it’s just being kind to myself.

5. Entirely superficial but my skin always feels so great after a massage, and it is the largest organ we have.

---

It seems best that the first Blog post on the newly launched 'Loop Massage' website should introduce ourselves and explain the name. 

Back before Loop Massage, there was plain Polly Meech, Massage Therapist and my ‘branding’, for want of a better word, were some beautiful vintage Knots images; reef knots, clove hitch, bowline - you get the idea. “Knots? Why knots?” Some of you may cry (I know this because some people did already), well, it’s because of the knots or adhesions which can often be found in our the muscles - you know the kinks you get, those clicky things that massage therapists are always working on. In a sea of lotus blossoms and hand prints, it was a fresh take on things and it made me smile, so that was that.

When my little Cargo studio became a twinkle in my eye, I decided a new name was needed for this new venture and the new chapter in my life. Now, as I'm sure you're aware, there’s a lot to think about when starting a new business. Of all the things I probably should have focused on - budget, viability etc, what I chose to do instead was fixate on a name. It may sound silly but until I named this new project it really didn't seem real, which IS silly because I had a very real lease in front of me.

Having no pets or children, it’s been a while since I’ve named something, I thought it would be easy, and possibly fun. I was wrong, it's nerve wracking and anxiety inducing.  Whatsapp groups were formed, friends and family consulted - without falling into cliche or in some cases, down right smuttiness,  naming a massage studio is HARD, even with a hive mind. 

I honestly don’t know when 'Loop' popped into my head, but when it did, it stuck. I liked that Loops are kind of the opposite of knots, that we had come full circle. That through massage we let go of the knots. Plus, I love saying the word Loop, and as it's a name I'll probably be using more than my own name now, I thought I’d better pick something I love to say.  

I took it to the WhatsApp group and in all honesty while some people loved it, a few didn’t, which is the same with any name or anything, I guess. Apart from baby animals, we can all get behind the love of baby animals right? 

While still mulling 'Loop' over and thinking of alternatives to appease the haters, I was doing an at-home Yoga practice, trying to chill out about what to name the business. Yoga with Adrienne is a favourite of mine for at-home practice and she has this habit of, at some point during the class, reminding you to  "loop those shoulders back", she's from Texas and I guess it's short hand to tell you to to relax, to sit up straight, and to prepare. I've adopted the phrase as my own personal "chin-up" mantra, but until that moment hadn't linked my loving of the word to this 'relax, you've got this' phrase. After that revelation it just stuck, and here we are. Come hell or high water, we Loop our shoulders back and relax.

So those first vintage knots have been transformed into a loop of rope, which also rather nicely ties into our harbourside setting…

If you want to know a little more about me head to the ‘About' page here

---