Mud!!!

So I've waited about 1.5 years to go to the fancy spa downtown. I actually had about 5-6 hours to myself, without the kid for a change, and I was so looking forward to it! I had decided to do a full body massage (about 80 mins) and something else I'd never tried before.

Looking at the spa's website, I had no clue as to what I wanted to do, largely because the website was poorly laid out and the content didn't make a lick of sense to me. I decided on a mud bath because the person at the other end of the phone suggested it.

Entering the room, I saw a very large tub on one side filled with water. I got to pick between two scents: chocolate mud and pine mud. I chose chocolate because I didn't want to leave smelling like a tree! The spa lady told me to carefully sit myself in it, and of course, in true Irene fashion, I slipped while sitting down, but managed to catch myself myself.

Sitting in the tub was interesting. There were several rows of, what I will call "disco lights". Jets of water sprayed at me from my shoulders to my toes. The spa lady explained that the treatment was designed to stimulate my circulation and my lymphatic system, so I might feel warmer as the treatment progressed. Once the treatment started, the mud was dumped into the water, and the jets rotated being turned on, from my toes up to my neck. I figured it was to encourage my blood to flow to my heart. The disco lights alternated from a combination of yellow, green, blue, and red. I think it was to help you relax, but I don't see how that works. I just kept looking up expecting to see a disco ball.

I started getting overheated near the end of it, and even halfway, I was feeling quite warm. I told the spa lady this, and mentioned I wasn't sure if I wanted to do it again. She mentioned the next time I could ask for the water to be cooler, or to shorten the time I was in the water. I'm not certain that I would want to do another hydrotherapy treatment. While I see the detoxification potentials, it wasn't exactly relaxing. The jets, at best, was no better than a Swedish massage (which does squat to release the knots in my muscle). The foot bar that I was resting my feet on was a tad too far away for my feet to rest properly on and to prop my body up. I had to tense my body a bit to make certain I didn't feel like I was drowning.

All in all, it was an interesting experience, but I'm not certain if I'd do it again.