Life as a therapist is physically demanding, says Narelle Blinman, director of education at CIDESCO, and more can be done to protect therapists health by doing simple exercises.

In an exclusive Thought Leader column for Spa Opportunities, Blinman details how important learning – and implementing – regular warm-up and cool-down exercises is.

The importance of warm-up exercises for therapists’ health & safety by Narelle Blinman

Life as a beauty therapist is physically demanding. Long periods of standing, bending and stretching combined with intense use of the hands can take its toll on therapists’ health – affecting both them and their employers.

While most beauty and spa businesses regulate the number of massage treatments their therapists perform each day, more can be done to protect therapists’ health by ensuring that regular warm-up and cool-down exercises are included in their training.

As health and safety regulations vary from one country to another and therapists are increasingly working longer in their careers, this issue is more important today than ever before.

Working as a beauty or spa therapist is physically very demanding. Just as athletes prepare their body for sport, therapists should warm up their own muscles prior to commencing work each day and cool down at the end of the day to prevent workplace injury. This should be taught as part of their training, but the onus is on therapists to ensure they continue to do these exercises throughout their career.

CIDESCO works with physiotherapists to ensure therapists are taught how to strengthen and protect their hands and bodies to ensure a long and healthy career.

Recommended exercises which are included in CIDESCO’s Beauty and Spa Therapy Diploma training cover maintaining posture; abdominal and back strengthening; full body stretches with a focus on the hamstrings, calf muscles, back and neck; circling and rolling exercises of the shoulders and neck; and specific hand, finger and wrist strengthening exercises.

Therapists must ensure that they are trained in these exercises, but also that they continue to practise these exercises throughout their career, both at the beginning of the day to warm up, and at the end of the day to cool down.