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My Elite Massage, LLC

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Friendswood, TX
My Elite Massage, LLC

Whether you are in pain or just need to unwind and de-stress, My Elite Massage is here to help.

Located inside Mélange Gallery of Salons, My Elite Massage, LLC specializes in customized massage therapy to relieve stress, aches, pains, strains, and other joint and muscle problems. Kevin Smith is a certified orthopedic massage therapist who integrates traditional (Swedish), orthopedic, reflexology, cupping, and other modalities as needed to address your unique needs and help you feel better. Kevin has taken hundreds of hours in continuing education and daily commits to further honing his craft to deliver effective, pain-free massage and bodywork. He is pleased to offer a discount for the military, seniors, first responders, and teachers. Book your appointment today to unwind and watch your stress and pain just melt away.

12/18/2025

Kitchen Warrior Wounds: The Reality of Holiday Cooking Pain
Holiday cooking means hours on your feet—prepping ingredients, stirring pots, checking the oven, plating dishes. It also probably means that by the time dinner's ready, your lower back is aching and your feet are throbbing.
Research by Nelson-Wong & Callaghan, "Prolonged standing as a precursor for the development of low back discomfort" (Human Movement Science, 2008), documented that 40% of healthy adults with no history of back problems developed lower back pain within just 2 hours of standing. A more recent study by Lemos et al., "Thirty Minutes Identified as the Threshold for Development of Pain in Low Back and Feet Regions" (Medicine, 2022), found that 30 minutes is the critical threshold—after this point, both lower back pain and ankle-feet pain intensity increase significantly during prolonged standing tasks.
When you stand in one place for extended periods (particularly in bent positions like leaning over a counter or pot), your hip and trunk stabilizing muscles fatigue and begin co-contracting abnormally to maintain your upright posture. This creates sustained compression on your lumbar spine and reduces blood flow to the lower back muscles. Your body attempts to compensate by shifting weight and making small postural adjustments, but when you're focused on detailed cooking tasks, those natural movement variations decrease, leading to static loading that accumulates into pain.
There is help. Orthopedic massage addresses the muscular fatigue and tissue restrictions that develop from prolonged standing. By releasing tension in the hip stabilizers, lower back muscles, and the connective tissue around your spine and pelvis, treatment restores proper movement patterns and allows fatigued muscles to recover. Don't let your holiday cooking leave you hobbling to the dinner table.
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12/17/2025

More Than Just a Blue Christmas: Depression's Physical Toll
The holidays amplify what many already experience during winter months—a heaviness that goes beyond temporary sadness. While not everyone with winter depression has diagnosed seasonal affective disorder (SAD affects about 5% of the population in temperate climes), the physical indicators of depression are remarkably consistent. Depression changes your body at the tissue level.
Michalak et al. in "Myofascial Tissue and Depression" (Cognitive Therapy and Research, 2021) found that patients with major depressive disorder had significantly stiffer myofascial tissue in their neck and upper back compared to never-depressed individuals. Even more compelling, when manual therapy reduced this tissue stiffness, patients showed measurable improvements in both their psychological symptoms and negative thinking patterns. The physical changes weren't just a result of depression—they were actively sustaining it.
Depression’s continual low mood and stress hormones create chronic muscle tension that, over time, restricts the fascia surrounding those muscles. This tissue restriction amplifies pain signals to your brain, reduces mobility, and contributes to the heavy, achy feeling many people with depression describe. It's a feedback loop where mental distress creates physical restriction, which reinforces the depression.
Fortunately, massage therapy has demonstrated effectiveness in treating depression symptoms. A meta-analysis by Hou et al., "Treatment effects of massage therapy in depressed people" (Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 2010), reviewing 17 randomized controlled trials, found massage significantly reduced depressive symptoms with results similar to psychotherapy. Orthopedic massage can streamline this process due to its assessment-based, pain free approach in releasing fascial restrictions, restoring tissue mobility, and breaking the body-mind cycle that maintains depression. If that heaviness feels familiar this Christmas season, treating your body's tension may be just as important as treating your mood.
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12/16/2025

When Holiday Stress Gets Under Your Skin (Literally)
Holiday stress isn't just in your head—it literally changes your body at the tissue level. The fascia, a continuous web of connective tissue that surrounds every muscle, organ, and structure in your body, responds directly to psychological stress by becoming stiffer and less mobile.
A comprehensive review by Barsotti et al., "Impact of stress, immunity, and signals from endocrine and nervous system on fascia" (Frontiers in Bioscience, 2021), documented that stress hormones directly affect the fibroblasts (the cells that build connective tissue) and myofibroblasts (specialized cells that can contract and create tension) within fascia, causing it to become less pliable and more restricted. This creates a feedback loop—stiff fascia sends danger signals to your brain, which it interprets as more stress, which creates more tension. The fascia's ability to transmit forces throughout your body means restrictions in one area can create pain and dysfunction elsewhere.
The connection between stress and physical tissue changes is measurable. When fascia becomes densified—due to dehydration and sustained muscle contraction—it loses its gliding properties. This restricts movement, reduces your ability to maintain proper posture, and perpetuates the stress response that started the cycle.
Fortunately, orthopedic massage directly addresses stress-related fascial restrictions. By releasing tension in the myofascial tissues and restoring normal tissue mobility, treatment breaks the stress-tension-pain cycle. The result is improved tissue elasticity, reduced stiffness, and relief from the physical burden your body has been carrying. Give yourself permission to address holiday stress where it gets your attention—in your tissues.
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12/15/2025

Holiday Cold and Its Gift of Stiff Joints
It's 34° outside this morning, and joints that felt fine yesterday are suddenly stiff and achy. You're not imagining it—cold weather really does affect how your body moves and feels.
The connection between cold weather and joint stiffness has puzzled researchers for decades. A 2023 systematic review of 14 studies found that lower temperatures, higher humidity, and changes in barometric pressure are all associated with increased joint pain in people with osteoarthritis (Wang et al., "Associations between weather conditions and osteoarthritis pain," Annals of Medicine, 2023). As temperature drops, pain increases.
Here's what's actually happening. When temperatures drop, your body prioritizes keeping your core warm. Blood vessels in your arms and legs constrict, reducing blood flow to your extremities. This decreased circulation means less oxygen and nutrients reaching the muscles and connective tissues around your joints, creating stiffness. Your muscles also tighten in response to cold as a protective mechanism, and this increased muscle tension pulls on joints, amplifying discomfort.
Cold may also affect the synovial fluid inside your joints—the natural lubricant that allows smooth movement. Although research is limited, it's widely believed that cold increases the fluid's thickness, making joint movement feel stiffer. Additionally, when barometric pressure drops, the same review found positive correlation with pain intensity. The leading theory suggests that lower pressure may allow tissues around joints to expand slightly, potentially irritating nerves.
Orthopedic massage combats cold-weather stiffness by addressing these mechanical issues directly. By releasing restrictions in the soft tissues around your joints and restoring normal tissue mobility, treatment improves local circulation and reduces the muscle tension that compounds joint stiffness. The hands-on work warms tissues, increases blood flow, and helps maintain the flexibility that cold weather tries to steal.
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12/14/2025

“Sometimes the long work of love is simply to sit in the broken places and to wait and hope, and no matter what, no matter how much it hurts, to never stop loving.” – Andrew Peterson, The Wingfeather Saga

12/13/2025

Massage Maintenance: The Gift of Staying Ahead of Pain
Most people think about massage when something hurts—and December offers plenty of reasons: shopping marathons, decorating overhead, hours in the kitchen, hosting parties. Massage is an obvious choice for handling these unusual holiday demands. But the greatest value of orthopedic massage isn't treating seasonal problems after they develop—it's preventing year-round issues from developing in the first place.
Your body accumulates physical stress every day. Hours at a desk create postural adaptations. Repetitive work movements create limited movement patterns, weekend activities load tissues beyond their usual demands, and more. Small restrictions in mobility and tissue flexibility compound over time. What starts as minor tightness becomes chronic tension, then compensation patterns, then pain, and eventually injury.
Regular maintenance massage prevents many of these problems. Research on injury prevention shows that massage reduces the inflammatory response in early-stage tissue stress, potentially preventing the development of chronic musculoskeletal disorders (Barbe et al., research on repetitive strain injuries, 2021).
Preventive maintenance works because orthopedic massage restores and maintains proper tissue mobility and joint function. By releasing restrictions in the soft tissue around your joints before they create pain or limit movement, maintenance treatment keeps your musculoskeletal system working at its optimum levels. Think of it as routine maintenance for your body—like changing your car's oil before the engine fails, not after.
This December, consider giving yourself or someone you care about the gift that keeps giving: regular orthopedic massage maintenance. It's an investment in staying active, pain-free, and resilient against the physical demands life throws at you. Discover for yourself what it means to stay ahead of pain rather than always chasing it.
Memberships & Gift Cards available.
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12/12/2025

When the Party’s Over but Your Back Keeps Picking Up the Tab
It’s party time! Hosting a Christmas or any party means hours on your feet—prepping food in the kitchen, greeting guests at the door, refilling drinks, clearing plates, making conversation while standing, and more. It’s also likely to mean that by the time the last guest leaves, your lower back is aching and your legs feel like concrete.
Prolonged standing creates specific mechanical stress on your body. Research published in Rehabilitation Nursing found prolonged standing is associated with lower back pain, leg pain, cardiovascular problems, and physical fatigue (Dick et al., "Evidence of Health Risks Associated with Prolonged Standing at Work and Intervention Effectiveness," PMC, 2015). A 2008 study showed that 71% of previously pain-free participants developed lower back discomfort during just 2 hours of standing (Nelson-Wong & Callaghan, "Prolonged standing as a precursor for the development of low back discomfort," PubMed, 2008).
The biomechanics are straightforward. When you stand still for long periods, your postural muscles—particularly the gluteus medius (hip stabilizer) and lower back extensors—must maintain constant low-level activation to keep you upright. For most of us who have not practiced using these muscles regularly, this sustained contraction without rest leads to muscle fatigue. Blood pools in your lower legs due to gravity, causing swelling and discomfort. Your spine’s discs experience continuous compression without the pressure relief that comes from changing positions.
Fortunately, this accumulated tension and restricted movement patterns that develop from prolonged standing is something orthopedic massage directly addresses. By releasing restrictions in the soft tissues around your lumbar and thoracic spine, pelvis, and hips, treatment restores proper joint mechanics and allows fatigued muscles to return to their normal resting length. Discover for yourself how much orthopedic massage can reduce your standing-related lower back pain and restore your normal mobility.
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12/11/2025

When Holiday Stress Goes to Your Head
The holidays bring joy, connection, and celebration. And sometimes they also bring a dull, persistent headache that won't quit. Tension headaches peak during the holidays. They are the most common type of primary headache, and stress is the number one trigger. Financial pressure, family dynamics, travel logistics, work deadlines—December compounds stress faster than any other month, and your muscles are keeping score. Research shows 88% of people with chronic tension headaches report stress as their main headache trigger (Holroyd et al., "Psychosocial Correlates and Impact of Chronic Tension Headaches," PMC, 2000). A 2014 population study tracking over 5,000 participants found clear evidence for a direct relationship between stress intensity and headache frequency—the more stressed you are, the more frequent your headaches become (Schramm et al., "The association between stress and headache," PubMed, 2014).
The connection isn't just psychological. Stress creates measurable physical changes in your body. When you're stressed, your neck and head muscles tighten up. The suboccipital muscles—four small muscles at the base of your skull—become chronically tense. These muscles control fine head movements and maintain head position, and when they stay tight for extended periods, they contribute directly to headache pain.
Orthopedic massage targeting the suboccipital region addresses the mechanical dysfunction creating your headaches. A 2014 randomized controlled trial of 84 patients found that manual therapy treatment focusing on the suboccipital area produced statistically significant improvements in headache pain intensity, frequency, and disability (Espi-Lopez et al., "Treatment of tension headache with articulatory and suboccipital soft tissue therapy," PubMed, 2014). By releasing restrictions in the soft tissues around the base of the skull and upper neck joints, treatment restores proper movement and reduces the muscle tension driving your headaches.
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12/10/2025

When Holiday Shopping Becomes a Pain in the Neck
Hours at the computer hunting deals online, then hours hunched over the coffee table wrapping presents. By now, there’s a good chance your neck is stiff, painful, and you can barely turn your head to check your blind spot while driving.
A 2019 systematic review found adults with neck pain demonstrate significantly more forward head positioning compared to pain-free adults, and the more pronounced the forward head posture, the greater the pain intensity and disability (Mahmoud et al., "The Relationship Between Forward Head Posture and Neck Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis," Current Reviews in Musculoskeletal Medicine, 2019).
When your head shifts forward while looking down at packages or staring at a screen, the muscles at the back of your neck must work much harder. For every inch your head moves forward, you add approximately 10 lb. of force these muscles must support. Hours of online shopping followed by marathon gift-wrapping sessions create sustained tension that leads to fatigue and pain.
The muscles become overworked from holding your head in these awkward positions for hours. The upper trapezius, levator scapulae, and suboccipital muscles (the muscles at the back of your neck and top of your shoulders) develop chronic tension patterns that create the headaches and neck stiffness plaguing you through the holidays.
A 2022 analysis of 12 studies found that manual soft tissue therapy effectively reduces neck pain intensity (Effect of Manual Soft Tissue Therapy on Pain in Patients with Chronic Neck Pain, ScienceDirect, 2022). Orthopedic massage addresses what's actually causing the problem—the tight, restricted soft tissues around your neck and shoulder joints that prevent normal movement. By releasing restrictions in the fascia, muscles, tendons, and ligaments around these joints, treatment allows your muscles to return to their proper resting length and your joints to move the way they should.
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12/07/2025

Encouragement Sunday
"Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it's Christmas." — Dale Evans (actress and singer)

12/05/2025

Shopping Marathon Endurance: Foot, Leg, and Back Care
Spend three hours navigating crowded stores, standing in checkout lines, carrying bags, and by the time you get home, your feet are screaming, your calves are tight, and your lower back won't straighten.
Holiday shopping combines multiple physical stressors: prolonged standing with minimal movement, repetitive short walking sequences, carrying uneven loads, and standing on hard surfaces. Research in Rehabilitation Nursing (Dick et al., 2015) found that prolonged standing is associated with lower back and leg pain, cardiovascular problems, fatigue, and discomfort.
The biomechanics create predictable problems. A study of retail workers (Messing et al., 2001) found that plantar pain-pressure threshold declined 23% over a work shift compared to 5% in seated workers. When you stand for extended periods, blood pools in your legs and feet due to gravity. This venous pooling causes swelling, pain, and muscle fatigue. Hard retail floors provide no shock absorption, increasing stress on your feet, knees, hips, and spine with every step.
The repetitive nature makes it worse. Most shopping involves short walking sequences—one or two steps between displays—interspersed with standing. This pattern provides insufficient movement to maintain circulation but enough loading to fatigue muscles. Carrying shopping bags creates asymmetric loading, forcing your spine into compensatory positions that strain muscles on one side while overworking stabilizers on the other.
Your feet bear the entire burden. The arches fatigue from sustained weight-bearing, the ligaments strain from repetitive impact lowering the arch, and intrinsic foot muscles exhaust from constantly adjusting balance on uneven surfaces.
Orthopedic massage addresses the accumulated damage. Treatment helps restore function to the 66 joints in your feet, releases fascial restrictions in feet and calves, and restores normal muscle activation in your lower back. Post-shopping sessions prevent short-term strain from becoming a long-term dysfunction.
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12/04/2025

Travel Survival: Car and Plane Posture for Holiday Trips
Holiday travel blends the worst postural stresses: prolonged sitting, limited ability to change position, and vibration (in cars). A systematic review in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders (2022) found that sitting for more than half a workday, combined with whole-body vibration and awkward postures, increases the risk of lower back pain fourfold. That's exactly what happens during extended driving.
The problem isn't just the sitting—it's the cumulative load. Research published in Biomechanics (Kett et al., The Effect of Sitting Posture and Postural Activity on Low Back Muscle Stiffness, 2021) showed that 4.5 hours of sitting significantly increases low-back muscle stiffness. Your muscles fatigue, lose their ability to support your spine properly, and develop painful trigger points. In cars, the 4-6 Hz vibration resonates with your lower spine, exciting motor nerves that cause involuntary muscle contraction and hastening fatigue.
Air travel adds other issues. Cramped seats force your spine into sustained flexion. Limited legroom impedes circulation, adding to muscle stiffness. The dry cabin air causes dehydration, which reduces disc hydration and joint lubrication, and makes your spine less resilient to these stressors.
Orthopedic massage before and after travel addresses accumulated restrictions. Pre-travel treatment prepares your tissues by releasing existing tension and improving tissue mobility. Post-travel sessions break up newly formed restrictions, restores normal muscle activation, and prevents new strains from becoming chronic dysfunction.
Some simple strategies can help: adjust your seat for lumbar support and make regular small adjustments to its position so your joints aren’t in exactly the same angles for the whole trip. Take breaks every 2 hours to walk and stretch, stay hydrated, and avoid sleeping in awkward positions. When you're facing holiday travel, professional treatment makes a huge difference.
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Address

400 W Parkwood Avenue, 104-11B
Friendswood, TX
77546

Opening Hours

Monday	11am - 7pm
Tuesday	9am - 1pm
Wednesday	11am - 7pm
Thursday	9am - 1pm
Friday	1:30pm - 5pm
Saturday	9am - 5pm

Telephone

+13464095753

Website

https://www.myelitemassagetx.com/

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