Dawn Adkins from the Denver center offers deep tissue, Swedish massage and incorporates shiatsu into her sessions. Recently her work with therapeutic stone massage has been gaining attention. As the temperature gets colder, this is a great technique to experience during the chilly winter months.
    Adkins says she fell in love with stone massage while she was still at Boulder College of Massage Therapy, where she graduated in 2002. Therapeutic stone work uses hot and cold stones as tools to massage the body. Hot stones can bring more circulation to an area thereby helping to flush it. Cold stones are used to decrease circulation to an area, helping to reduce inflammation and excrete waste out of the tissue. The process yields many of the same benefits as Swedish or deep-tissue massage, but with less pressure.
    Adkins says there are many benefits to using hot stones in massage.
    “The heat helps to penetrate the muscle and the rock is a great tool to address trigger points and tight tissue. The tissue is so much easier to work after it has been worked with the hot stones,” she says.
    One particular example where Adkins finds hot stones useful is for those individuals who have tight IT bands. Adkins uses hot stones to release tension from an area like this, which is hard to stretch.
    “The stones soften the tissue so deeper work can be done without it being painful,” she says.
    Dirk McCuistion, founder of MassageSpecialists, says he’s impressed with the physical benefits of stone massage work.
    “We’ve resisted having treatments at MassageSpecialists that we thought were spa-related for many years because we feel like our clinics need to stay true to what works in the therapeutic realm. People come to us to get something done rather than be pampered,” he says. “Dawn has shown me the benefits of stone massage and using stones as tools to incorporate the therapeutic effects of the body’s response to temperature as well as pressure.”
    Before working at the Denver center, Adkins was a massage therapist in Steamboat Springs. She worked on many skiers and snowboarders, and advocates the benefits of hot stone massage on this population. A skier herself, Adkins knows that many skiers experience pain and stiffness at the beginning of the season due to lack of conditioning. Hot stones are perfect for dealing with this type of muscular soreness. The addition of using a tool that’s heated means that the problem can be addressed quicker.
    When she’s not heating up her stones or providing therapeutic work at the Denver center, Adkins likes to go on hikes and long walks with her Catahoula hound, Gracie.
    Click here to schedule a massage with Dawn Adkins. (This service is currently only at our Denver center.)