Thursday, November 20, 2008

Massage Recliners Save Thousands on Massage Therapy

By James Knolan

With health care costs on the rise, everyone is looking to save money. Health care is looking to automation to help offset expenses. Most industries transition from labor intensive to capital intensive. Now we are seeing the potential of massage therapy transitioning to capital intensive or the use of machines/equipment. With the rise of massage chairs, many massage techniques can be delivered effectively with these chairs. How is money actually saved in this situation?

If you are already receiving massage therapy, then you know that there is a lot of expense involved. You have to make an appointment. You need to drive to and from the office of the massage therapist. You need to take the time from work or other activities. You need to pay per hour of massage therapist time plus their tip. If you go to a massage therapist a few times a month, the bill could be hundreds of dollars per month. This is thousands of dollars per year.

You may already be getting treatment for an ailment that you have. Perhaps you are seeing a chiropractor. The good doctor puts you through a barrage of therapies, adjustments, exercises and more. The chiropractor is helping you to get your situation corrected. But you also need to make changes to keep those conditions from recurring. Many chiropractors use massage therapy to help their patients. If you insurance requires co-pays and other deductables then you may be payings hundreds per year or more.

Now, if you really need massage therapy, then you have options. You can certainly see a massage therapist. A massage therapist is definitely a great way to go, when you can afford both the time and the money. However, massage chairs are another viable alternative. Massage chairs range in price from $599 to $5,999 and offer a terrific range of massage therapies and full body massages.

People like to look at sticker prices and judge massage chairs as expensive. Of course anything that costs over a thousand dollars is expensive. On the other hand, they see seventy five dollars per hour for a masseuse and think that is cheap. But let us dig into the real economics of a masseuse versus a massage chair. If we pay $75 with a gratuity of ten dollars then each hours runs us $85.00. Now a good midrange massage chair runs $3,000. Let us suppose we get a weekly massage. How many weeks until we pay for the massage chair? It will take 35 weeks. The thirty five weeks means we received 35 hours of massage therapy.

When we look at the cost of the masseuse on an hourly basis and we a paying $85 dollars. It would take us 35 hours of masseuse hours to purchase a $3,000 massage chair. If we were to buy a massage chair for this price, how much massage therapy would we get. A massage chair in the midrange level of $3,000 would have a machine life of 1,000 hours. That means the massage chair is rated to last 1,000 hours under the warranty period. How much does it cost for an hour of massage therapy? To calculate this, divide the cost of the chair of $3,000 by the 1,000 hour rating and you are paying $3.00 per hour for massage therapy!

The real economics of the massage recliner is that it is a vastly superior value to traditional massage therapy. Obviously, getting a massage from a masseuse has its advantages beyond just the economics. But massage chairs also have some major advantages of availability and accessibility. Not to mention the overwhelming economic advantage. There certainly is tremendous value over the long run with a massage chair. - 16752

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