Automated massage business offers low-cost relaxation
Photo by RALPH BARTHOLDT
Brent O’Donnell’s big mastiff sits quietly under the reception desk at Relax and Recover Coeur d’Alene, a massage therapy business located on one of the city’s more hectic intersections at the corner of Government Way and Neider Avenue.
As traffic zips by outside from shoppers heading to Costco, Safeway and Black Sheep, the music inside the massage and therapy shop is soothing as a string quartet.
The 150-pound mastiff under the reception desk soaks it in.
“We did three miles on Tubbs this morning,” O’Donnell says. “He’s tired.”
The dog, named Durban for the town in South Africa where mastiffs are used to protect ranch stock from big cats, is part of the furnishings at Relax and Recover, a business started in January that uses hands-off massage machines and sells a variety of CBD products used as anti-inflammatories and relaxants.
O’Donnell, who works from home for a San Diego-based finance company, said that after moving to Coeur d’Alene four years ago, he wanted to provide a service to the community. A friend of a friend manufactured automated massage tables, and O’Donnell thought he would use the contact to give Coeur d’Alene residents a unique experience.
“For $15 they can stay for an hour, or an hour and a half,” he said. “All these things complement each other.”
Four automated massage tables line a wall under rows of visual art pieces and zen column lights that temper the atmosphere and give the room a calm feel. The covered windows provide some privacy from the outside where the traffic buzzes and Durban — the big mastiff — contentedly naps nearby.
There is also a big cushioned table called a Legacy 500 Intersegmental Traction Table. The table is used to stretch out vertebrae tightened from sitting for a long time, or because of stress or trauma, he said.
“It’ll crack your back,” he said.
Many of his customers come from a gym directly to the business, which is open Monday through Friday from 9 to 5:30 p.m. They come to get a deep tissue massage, loosen and relax tight muscles and push the lactic acid out of their systems, O’Donnell said.
“I have a lot of guys come in after going to the gym, or after Cross Fit,” he said. “It gets their flexibility back.”
In addition to the four massage tables that use heated carbon and rollers to relax and massage clients, and the vertebrae-calming Legacy 500, the business offers shoulder and neck massages and a foam rolling machine.
Relax and Recover also has a massage therapist on board for customers who want the hands-on treatment.
“I wanted to open a center that provided a massage to people who couldn’t afford it, or whose insurance didn’t cover it,” O’Donnell said. “I wanted to interact with the community and just get to know people.”
Information: https://rnrcda.com
