If I crack my eyes open, just a tiny bit, I can watch the brunette sink slowly into the hot water, her face crinkling with pleasure as the water slips over the tops of her breasts. Keeping my eyes open, however, seems to be an effort I can’t sustain. Instead, I close them, lean my back against the worn teak planks of the communal hot tub, and let the warm New Mexico breezes bring scents of pine and juniper and just a hint of a mournful Japanese flute. A thought washes over me. They can’t make me go home.spa

I first heard often Thousand Waves, the near-legendary Japanese health spa nestled in the mountains outside of Santa Fe, almost a decade ago. I’d been climbing down around Alamogordo, and my friend, a veteran ski patroller, had suggested we go to Ten Thousand Waves at the end of a hard day on the rocks.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Let’s put it like this,” she said. “If you’ve been a very, very good person, when you die you’ll go to Ten Thousand Waves.”

Wait a minute, you’re thinking. Chicks go to spas. Well, more guys are joining them than ever before–calls from men have increased almost 900 percent in the past four years, reports Spa Finder, a travel-reservation service (see “Find a Spa Near You,” page 31). The reasons for this surge in interest might surprise you.

The first is simple–your hard-trained body needs a break. There’s a reason why world-class athletes take their own massage therapists and body workers on the road with them. The more, and the harder, you train, the more micro-injuries you get. What you call “soreness” is actually an accumulation of small injuries to the muscles. Your joints creak; your muscles knot up in response to the repetitive stress. You feel stiff, achy. Massage therapy, coupled with a nice dose of relaxation, is a balm for the body.

MASSAGE MAINTENANCE

According to the American Massage Therapy Association, massage therapy can go a long way toward reducing the trauma of exercise. “Like a finely tuned sports car, keeping an athlete in top physical form requires regularly scheduled proactive maintenance,” the AMTA says.

In my case, more like a 1956 Chevy truck than a finely tuned sports car. Nonetheless, regular massage, according to the AMTA, can do five things for the active man:

* Lessen the chance of injury, through deep-tissue massage, education on stretching, and event preparation.

* Improve range of motion, strength, and performance times.

* Shorten recovery times between workouts.

* Maximize the supply of nutrients and oxygen to the muscles through increased blood flow.

* Enhance the elimination of metabolic wastes, such as lactic acid, that are by-products of exercise.

And what better place for a massage than a spa? According to the Orlando-based National Travel Monitor, which tracks these kinds of things, more and more business travelers are finding refuge in hotel spas (four in 10 say spa services are a very desirable amenity). And why not? A spa is a cool place to do business. Tired of transactions between holes on the old golf course? Consider closing the deal in a hot tub. This used to be a California-only quirk, but according to a goodly percentage of the spa owners I talked with, a day at the spa can work wonders on both sore muscles and stalled deals.

Spas divide roughly into two categories–destination (or resort) spas and day spas. As a general rule, a destination spa is a place you might travel to and spend a week, sweating off that Christmas goose. A day spa is just that–a place you visit for a day. I say generally because many of the day spas, including Ten Thousand Waves, for instance, offer multiday programs and have housing facilities, and most of the destination spas have single-day, or individual, programs.

CHOOSING A SPA

Unlike, say, politicians’ campaign promises, all spas, day or destination, are not the same. They break down into three types–fitness, pampering, and places you’ll visit as soon as you win Lotto.

Fitness spas are, as you might’ve guessed, oriented toward fitness, usually with a host of exercise programs. Pampering spas want to relax you, with features that often include facials and body wraps in addition to massage. High-end spas want your wallet. If you can afford them, then go for it, but understand they’re mere indulgences. Fitness and pampering spas will serve you just as well.

Ten Thousand Waves leans toward the pampering end, but it has an amazing 116 massage therapists on call, providing 11 different massage styles. And this is in Santa Fe, the massage capital of the Southwest. Ten Thousand Waves picks off the cream of the crop, then trains them in the spa’s very specific, very Japanese manner.

THIS WAY TO NIRVANA

My first massage at Ten Thousand Waves was a Thai massage from James Peckham. Eschewing any bad puns about “Thaiing one on,” I settled down, fully clothed, on a mat on the floor. I’d never had a Thai massage. It was something completely different–no fragrant oils or deep massaging of the muscles. Instead, Peckham focused on compression (pressing on pressure points in the body) and yogalike stretches.