Phila Massages’s Membership Program Is Awesome

Alright, I’ll admit it: Y’all pooped me out on Saturday at Be Well Boot Camp. I came home that afternoon and pretty much hibernated until Monday morning, when I only deigned to rouse myself for an 11 a.m. massage at Phila Massages. If you haven’t been, the place specializes in deep-tissue sports massages—which is exactly what I needed after going all out at Holly Waters’s Wonder Trek class at Boot Camp. Suffice it to say, I was hobbling around like an A+ champ for two whole days.

The massage itself was awesome: a combo of deep, muscle-kneading movements and stretching to help work out the knots in my shoulders and quads. But what I thought was most interesting—and, in a word, awesome—was Phila Massages’s membership program, which launched last summer. It’s designed to help alleviate at least some of the financial burden of a regular massage regimen for people like me. To wit: I have ridiculously tight shoulders and neck, but I don’t feel like I can do more than one or two massages a year without going bankrupt. For me, massages are more of an occasional treat than a regular health-maintenence activity.

Which is why the membership program is so ingenious. You pay $19.99 a month or a one-time payment of $199 for the year (paying up front saves you about $40), and you get up to 50 percent off your massage treatments, along with other perks. If I had signed up for a membership before my 60-minute massage, the $100 fee would have been halved to 50 bucks. Even with the $19.99 fee for the month, my fifth grade adding skills tell me I still would have ended up paying less as a member than non-member. If only I’d known.

To be sure, the massage-membership idea isn’t unique to Phila Massages. Other local spas and practices (like this one and this one) offer membership deals with built-in discounts, too, but the Phila Massages program is the best value I’ve seen. And besides, we gave them a Best of Be Well award last year, so I know they’re solid.

Of course, like a gym membership, signing up for the program means you’ll have $19.99 automatically deducted from your account each month, with a $40 penalty for canceling your membership before the one-year mark. So it only makes sense if you’re committed to getting regular massages. But think about it: Even if you only get one massage a month, you’re still getting a good deal.

Get more info about the member perks here.

Photo: Shutterstock