Page 128 - BWA FEB 2013

128 | Business World Magazine | February 2013
The therapeutic benefit of massage was dis-
covered more than 5,000 years ago, with ear-
ly forms including India’s “Ayurveda” system,
said to originate from teachings of gods. In
centuries that followed, massage blossomed
through Asia where monks deemed it an im-
portant tool to acquire spiritual balance. By
800 BC, it emerged in western civilization
as athletes of ancient Greece used massage to
maintain physical fortitude. In time, similar
therapies became the rage in Rome, yet were
something solely reserved for the very rich or
elite of that era. In terms of today, massage
continues to generate demand as well as an
expanding industry. For one company, suc-
cess has been achieved by proving you don’t
necessarily have to be a student of the gods,
nor an athlete, nor particularly rich to reap
the rewards from massage.
Long before he became Chief Operating Of-
ficer of Michigan-based LaVida Massage,
Evan Kaltschmidt says he was like so many
other people who relied on massage as part
of his routine wellness regimen. “It helped
me function better and feel better, not just
physically, but mentally and emotionally,”