QC Wellness, Long Beach CA

Great service, great outcome. I scheduled a Combo massage in the hopes it would help with a chronic issue I have with my shoulder and neck. I feel much better now.

Last night I visited QC Wellness for a massage. I like that they are open later because I can get a massage and get my muscles loosened up and then lay on the heat and go to sleep which allows my body to relax and heal as much as possible. I have been to QC Wellness a few times over the past few years and the massages have been decent especially for the price.

That all changed last night when I met Albert. First off I paid by credit card and I forgot to put a tip on there and he told me not to worry about it vs hassling me over the tip which is something that happens at a lot of these massage places. Not so much here but I am sure you know what I mean.

I hopped under the sheet and I told Albert that my sciatic nerve was my biggest problem, followed by my lower back pain and then I have chronic pain in my neck which has me on long term disability. Albert listened to what I was asking and he dug right into the sciatic nerve. Not to hard or soft but he found it quick and attacked it. He would dig a knuckle or something in there and let it sit for about a minute. This is how you break up the scar tissue and tight muscles. You do not have to be constantly moving your hands if you are a therapist to achieve the result of making the customer happy.

Anyway, while this is happening I was having a good conversation with Albert. Very personable guy and to be honest the majority of the massages that I do, have non english speaking people and I just sit there in pain and let the therapist work and give them zero feedback because they cant understand me. Attn all massage places, just get people in there that speak english you will do so much better with return customers!

We had a good conversation about the events of the day which was about the terrorist attacks in Belgium. I am a Desert Storm Veteran and I was trained to kill terrorists. That was 25 years ago and my desire to wipe them off the face of the earth has only increased. Albert shared with me that he had a friend that was in Iraq and was readjusting after having to do some tough work over there. I say all this because this is literally the best real connection that you can have with me. I love my country and I put on the uniform for it. I love anybody that has done the same and I support my fellow veterans and active duty of course. In 10 short minutes, Albert got me talking and opening up and I got to trust him 100% just because of this alone.

So after the sciatic nerve was worked on for a good period of time, he went up to my lower back. As he is doing this I am giving him exact feedback about the pressure and pain level that I am in. He can adjust on a dime but he cannot do his best work if he doesn't know how he is doing. I have some scar tissue in my lower back, he explained what might be the cause (he is not a doctor, doesn't give medical advice) but he does know the human body and how the parts are connected. He spent a good amount of time on my lower back and made that feel better.

Then he moved up to my neck and did a wonderful job loosening that up. While he was doing this and since he had me talking I was able to learn a lot about the different layers of muscles in my neck, shoulders and upper back. After about 10 minutes I got on my back and he grabbed a towel and started to stretch out my neck with a towel. I have been told to do this hundreds of times but I need a massage table and I need my wife to learn how to do it. I think this might have been the first time a therapist actually did this during a massage. After the stretching he went to work on my scaling muscles which are pretty shot and Albert hit some spots that sent like a tingling sensation down to my knee one time and to my arm another. I have Carpal Tunnel and a damaged Ulnar Nerve and I know I have nerve problems. It is nice to see that my nerves are still alive and some of them still work:) Albert was amazing and I wish there were more therapists out there like him!

Ask for Angel. She is great and right around the corner.