Amanda Virrey
Foot Zone Spa Review
When a friend recommended me to try out Foot Zone Spa, I had a strong impression of the usual foot spa done thoroughly by a well-trained therapist in a pleasing atmosphere that is touched with zen.
Hoping that the spa offers a full body massage that matches the extra special foot spa that I had imagined, I went to its new location along Jupiter Street in Makati for a restoring mid-day break from the city’s bustling pace.
Inside the elevator of the Sunshine Place Building, where Foot Zone sits on the third floor, there was a poster of a foot reflexology chart by Foot Zone. This gave me another impression that the spa follows traditional Chinese reflexology, which employs hand techniques into the body’s pressure points to balance the energy within.
With my curiosity rising, I entered the spa and received a warm welcome from its lovely receptionist. I was then asked to fill up a sheet to inform the spa on my physical history, especially my current situation. I put a check on muscle soreness, hoping that the massage would relieve my body from it.
The receptionist then led me to a hallway with several wood-enclosed massage rooms on both sides. I was led to one of the rooms, which like the rest, exudes a modern professional feel with two leather lounge chairs, a table with a lamp in between, a split A/C, an wall-built LCD monitor, and a lovely instrumental music streaming through the speakers.
With the lounge chairs completing the foot spa impression that I had, I sat on it and surrendered to the expertise of my assigned massage therapist named Julie.
While Julie placed my feet into a wooden bucket with warm iced tea water, I sipped a welcoming drink made with cogon roots and brown sugar.
As my feet soaked, Julie started massaging my head. It was done with hard consistent strokes from the forehead to the back of my nape, giving my head a much-needed shaking.
She then removed my feet from the water and gently pounded on my legs and feet with her knuckles to awaken the blood flow. She then massaged my feet first with her firm fingers and then my legs.
With my permission, she used ventosa (warmed glass cup) on my left sole to clear the clogged air there.
From my lower limbs, she moved to my upper limbs and back, massaging them in the same sequence as my legs, in quite a thorough and invigorating way, to the point of losing my senses to deeper relaxation.
As I wallowed in my deep relaxed state, Julie asked me to lie on my front for what had seemed to me would be a full-back massage. Suddenly, the chair was transformed into a massage bed with a hole to fit my head into.
Just as I had thought and hoped, I received a hard and thorough full body massage with a complete set of stretching at the end.
Later, while I stayed on the chair for my post-massage rest, I was told that the technique that Julie applied on me was from Xiamen, which is known for using the knuckles and fingers, and that she and the other therapists went through an in-depth training with Xiamen Master John.
Grateful for the massage, I welcomed the odd realigning manifestations in my body and anticipated the fulfilling restoration that came after.
Foot Zone Spa is located on the 3rd Floor of the Sunshine Place Building along Jupiter Street, near the corner of Paseo de Roxas.
