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How often should you get bodywork?
Frequency is where the research is most consistent, and least flattering to the one-off massage. In the largest dose-response trial to date, results ranked cleanly by visits per week: three beat two, and two beat one. The people who improved most were the ones on the table most often.
A follow-up study asked the next question: what happens afterward? Continued weekly sessions extended the gains at twelve weeks. Without continuation, the benefits had largely faded by twenty-six weeks. Massage behaves less like a repair and more like training: the effects build with consistency and decay without it.
The psychological research points the same way. A meta-analysis in Psychological Bulletin found massage's largest and most reliable effects, reductions in trait anxiety and depression at magnitudes the authors compared to psychotherapy, appear only across a course of treatment. A single session can lower state anxiety, blood pressure, and heart rate in the moment; the durable changes come from the course, not the visit.
What does that mean practically? For most active clients, research suggests a standing rhythm, weekly or biweekly, will outperform occasional sessions booked when something hurts. Heavier training blocks may justify more. The honest framing: bodywork is something you do, not something you get done.
Sources: full citations with DOIs live in the references library.