Royal Bamboo Massage

WHAM BAM About 35,000 people are training for this year’s Bank of America Chicago Marathon, and I think all of them should schedule a Royal Bamboo Massage at the Four Seasons Hotel spa. The treatment includes so much leg massage that it’s practically a must for every runner. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Before the service even begins, the practitioner, Julie, gives me the choice of three aromas (citrus, eucalyptus or lavender) to be placed on the floor below my head during the massage. I opt for eucalyptus. Once I’m situated under the sheets on the massage table, Julie uses her hands and elbows to feel for knots and tightness and relieve the tension in my back, neck and legs. Before she moves on to a new area of my body, though, she reaches for bamboo tubes (roughly the circumference of a roll of wrapping paper) and uses them to work out the kinks. At the beginning of the treatment, Julie warns me that a lot of pressure is applied during this massage, and she’s right. But that doesn’t stop me from drifting off to sleep toward the end—especially as she rolls the bamboo up and down the back of my thighs and calves. By the time the massage is over, I’m feeling completely relaxed and so limber that I stick around the hotel and run four miles on one of the treadmills in the fitness area. If I were running the marathon, I’d definitely schedule this massage again as a reward for going the distance. 55 minutes, $145; 80 minutes, $195.

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