Why I Became a Remedial Massage Therapist (Sato Ashida)
We are delighted to now offer POGO Physio clients access to first class professional remedial and sport massage with our newest POGO Physio team member Remedial Massage Therapist Satoshi Ashida.
We recently asked Sato to introduce himself by telling us why he became a remedial massage therapist, This is his story.
Sato’s Story
Looking back to my life, I have always liked to get involved in sports both playing and watching. I used to play indoor volleyball for my university team, although I was never a good player. I knew I was probably too short or too skinny for a volleyball player, but I quite enjoyed being a team member at all time.
In team sports, every single team member has got their own roles. Being a good player is not the only way to be a part of it. What I found myself in the team was to play a role as more like a support crew, which I also enjoyed to be. I believe my natural passion of supporting like-minded people had developed throughout this era of my life.
After I graduated from university, I started working as a full-time worker as most people do in Japan. The super hectic life began. That meant all I had been doing was working, working and more working. Hence I hadn’t got much time to play sports in my early twenties due to that busy life as you could imagine, I still loved watching sports.
It was in 2000, the 3rd year of my full-time craziness, that the Olympic games in Sydney was held and I watched it on TV thought:
“ Wow, how awesome it would be if I would be able to live in the beautiful country”.
Then, I looked into some options and it didn’t take long that I made up my mind to give it a go and see a different part of the world to Australia.
It was very fortunate that I had offered a full-time job here on the Gold Coast after a year break. I had started a new life here and it gradually settled down. When I turned to 30, I wanted to do something special. So, I put myself in to the annual Gold Coast Airport Marathon, which I was also involved in for work as a Japanese travel agent.
I managed to finish the first marathon (first ever race) in the time of 3:53:28 with having had no idea in terms of training, and then I realised my inner passion for running was activated and grown quickly. Ever since, I took park in as many local races as possible and every time I raced I improved my personal best time to a certain point.
However, that didn’t last long. The more I became serious about my running, the more I got problems on my body. I always felt discomfort or niggles and aches here and there, and even worse I sometimes got injured that kept me out of running. I was pretty sure that by the time I felt that way, I had already been addicted to running as I had never ever wanted to give up to achieve my ultimate goal as a distance runner that is to run a marathon in under 2:40:00 (which has not yet been achieved, but getting closer!).
Sato on his way to a 2:42 during the 2015 Gold Coast Airport Marathon. A long way from humble running beginnings.
One day, I had heard that there was a terrific massage therapist near my home from one of my friends when I lived in Sydney. Although I had occasionally had some massages before, I booked myself in a session to try his treatment. He had not only got hands of gold but extremely knowledgeable, and he knew almost all the issues I had at that time. I tried to schedule a session regularly at least once a month sometimes once in fortnight depending on my race schedule. I definitely felt better and was able to push myself much harder each time I had a treatment.
I no longer see him but it was definitely him that gave me an inspiration that how massage therapy worked and how important to maintain the body and even how great if I could be like him to inspire and to help others achieve their goals.
Now, I am back here on the Gold Coast as a fully qualified remedial massage therapist myself. As well as trying to achieve my running goal to run sub 2:40 marathon, my goal as a remedial massage therapist is to help like-minded people achieve their physical goals, and also in long-term, it would be great if I could be able to get involved in Tokyo Olympics in 2020 for both my beloved countries.
For information about the pricing of my remedial and sports massage service please click HERE. My massages are health fund rebatable through all funds (for those with remedial massage therapy included in their extras).
I look forward to meeting you and assisting you with your health and fitness goals.
