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Former Israeli soldier Lee Balch with his massage hardware |
Shmeisse massage: it’s like a ‘car wash from heaven!’
Jamie Welham tries out the increasingly popular historic Jewish shmeisse ‘beat’massage following in the relaxed footsteps of doctors and Olympic rowing champions
HEALTH clubs and spas have long been championed as basecamps for the battle against aching muscles and creaking bones. In the grand surroundings of Porchester Spa in Bayswater, a new massage treatment has been added to the therapeutic arsenal, and it’s more than likely you wont have heard of it.
It is called shmeissing, and while it sounds like a form of medieval torture, the historic Jewish technique has been dubbed the “Rolls-Royce” of massage for its health-giving properties.
A shmeisse, literally translated from the Yiddish meaning “beat”, although in practice it is a much tamer brush, involves being lathered in soap and rubbed with a rafia brush all the time laying de-robed on a towel-covered bench in a steam room ratcheted up to 55c. It is completed with a heart-stopping plunge into a cold bath. It sounds brutal, but I can attest it really isn’t.
The man in charge, Lee Balch, the only licensed shmeisser in the UK is known as “the hands” by his clients. Weighing 22-stone, the former Israeli soldier is a beast of a man. He claims lesser men would crumble through the strain he puts himself under in performing the massage. The treatment offers a holistic approach to preventative health care, leaving the shmeissee limber, refreshed and energised, with other long-term health benefits said to include deep detoxification, improved circulation and even a boost to your thryroxin levels.
“The shmeisse opens the pores and brings all the blood to the surface, getting rid of all your toxins,” Mr Balch told me when I tried out the treatment. “It can prevent arthritis in later life and a lot of sportsmen swear by it.
“Harley Street doctors come and see me, so there must be something to it. It was brought over to London by eastern European Jews as a cheap way of getting clean, and is now recognised as a way of treating bad backs and other sporting injuries.”
Among his disciples are former Olympic rower James Cracknell, who compared the experience to a “heavenly car wash”, one-time heavyweight boxing champion of the world Lennox Lewis, and former Arsenal goal-machine Ian Wright. It might all sound a bit rippling muscles and macho man, but women can also get involved at the spa ladies day on Sunday afternoons.
“Unfortunately, people tend to overplay the beat aspect of it and think you have to be a muscle-man to have a shmeisse,” says Mr Balch. “That’s not true. Lot’s of women come to the spa, and we tailor the treatment to the person. I find that women often have tougher bodies, and feel some of the benefits even more than the men.”
The exquisite Turkish baths, an Edwardian palace of marble, steam and water, is run by Nuffield, the largest health charity in Britain, on behalf of Westminster Council. It also offers a selection of other more conventional spa and massage treatments.
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