There’s something inherently sexy about massage between couples.

My husband Denis and I have been massaging each other for ten years now – giving a romantic massage is something we do as a treat for the other, or when we feel like our marriage needs some extra loving.

It works so well for us that we’ve created this entire company around teaching other couples how to massage each other. Because we believe every relationship deserves a little bit of massage.

I’m not a trained massage therapist, but Denis is. He is accustomed to getting professional massages from highly trained practitioners – but I’ll let you in on a little secret: Even though I’m an amateur, he still loves the massages he gets from me.

That’s because I have an advantage over the experts.

Denis taught me everything I know when it comes to massage, and over the past decade I’ve made sure I get plenty of practice honing my skills. Massage is beautifully simple when you know where to rub and how to do it. And scientifically speaking, it does amazing things for your relationship.

Here are five reasons you should consider massaging your sweetie tonight:

1. Giving your partner a massage is one of the most romantic things you will ever do

If your relationship is begging for some romance, a massage is the perfect remedy. Candles, dim lighting, soft music, massage oil, exposed flesh, bodies close together… Offering your partner a back rub is a giving, selfless act that will make them melt with gratitude and seriously ups the romantic ante in your love life.

The way we set up our massages at home makes them even more sexy than you can imagine – instead of lying down on the bed or at arm’s length on a massage table, we use what we call The Melt Set Up (Den’s invention), which gets you much closer to your partner during your massage.

The Melt Set Up is massage done seated, and it was inspired by that scene in Ghost where Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore are getting hot and heavy with the pottery. It’s seriously sexy, and we recommend it for every couple who wants a romantic massage experience.

2. Massage radically builds your trust

Trust is a crucial part of any romantic relationship, and one of those things you can never have too much of. Trust requires ongoing work, and one of the best ways to achieve it is through massage and gentle touch, which has been proven to supercharge the trusting bond between couples.

Every massage has that one point where your partner’s body simply gives in. If you’re tuned in enough, you’ll notice it happen as if you’ve flicked a light switch. That moment where they fall into deep relaxation and melt under the rhythmical motion of your hands is the moment you’ve gained their complete trust.

It’s a powerful moment to share. Becoming putty in your partner’s hands and likewise, having them surrender to you in the same unquestioning way, is a beautiful, comforting experience that has far-reaching benefits through your entire relationship.

3. Massage creates effortless intimacy

The massage you get from your partner and the massage you get from a professional massage therapist should be two very different things. As lovers, you can take full advantage of the intimacy a massage can create between two people.

Intimacy is about being emotionally close to another person, and – despite popular belief – it is not an automatic occurrence in a relationship.

Intimacy needs to be carefully and continuously cultivated between romantic partners. Intimacy is about being vulnerable and still feeling safe. It’s formed in private moments, through shared experiences.

One of the most important ways to nurture this intimate connection is to spend time alone together as a couple, concentrating on each other. This could be in any number of ways, though massage is an extremely effective way to achieve it.

When you massage, you are focusing your absolute attention (right down to your hands) on each other in a private space, alone together. Intimacy begets intimacy – try it and watch your connection to your partner skyrocket.

4. Giving a massage inspires positivity and goodwill

While you’re massaging your partner, there’s no time (or inclination) to discuss day-to-day routines like children, work problems or the mortgage and there’s no opportunity for distractions such as the phone, checking emails or thinking about the chores you have to do.

When you begin massaging, it feels so good that you don’t want to leave and enter the real world again.

When you’re in that space, it’s soft, and romantic, it’s calm and peaceful. Your energy is aligned with your partner’s – you are attuned to one another. This energetic connection and gratitude for each other doesn’t dissipate right away; it flows through the rest your interactions inspiring positivity in your day.

More than 25,000 couples have learned to massage using our beautiful video tutorials. Click here to sign up for Melt now – backed by our 60 Day Moneyback Guarantee.

‘Just massage? You just teach massage?’

Yes, that’s what Den and I do.

I know, it seems improbable that two people can make a living off teaching massage to couples, but that’s our full time work now. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.

But we don’t think of it as ‘just massage’ (as a lot of people like to call it).

For us, it actually stretches much farther than that. It means so much more.

Denis and I have worked with couples, in all different capacities, for most of our collective careers now.

Before Melt, we conducted live massage seminars every month as a side business for eight years.

We created a website full of date ideas and relationship advice for couples. I had a national relationships and dating column in a newspaper for three years. We have both written and researched pages and pages of content on the subjects of love and relationships over the years.

Being a couple ourselves (for a decade now!), and knowing the sheer intensity of what goes into sustaining a happy, healthy relationship, we have long been drawn to the idea of helping couples do this.

Den and I are not high-level academics. We don’t have PhDs in psychology and we aren’t science-based research experts.

So, we use the talents we have not to help create groundbreaking studies or counsel marriages back from the brink of divorce, but to help decipher some of the better information out there and – here’s the part that is really important to us – use that research to come up with some practical, helpful tools couples could actually put to use in their everyday lives, to help them take advantage of and put into practice relationship findings from some of the greatest minds in the field of love.

Take $30 Date Night, our date ideas website. It was originally based on research from Arthur P. Aron of the University of Stonybrook in New York.

Aron found that novelty plays an important part in satisfaction levels of couples, and he recommended a regular date night doing new things each time to keep the flames alive.

We thought that sounded like a great idea, so we rallied. We came up with a huge collection of hundreds of date ideas – easy, fun, novel, cheap dates that couples could access when they wanted a boost for their relationship. Practical stuff. Useful stuff.

It worked for us, so we wanted to share it. We put it on the Internet. And we were rapt when we saw it working for other people too.

$30 Date Night provided a small, practical but not to be underestimated solution for an everyday relationship issue – How to get closer. How to stay connected. How to make time for one another in a busy world.

We look at Melt much in the same way, an extension of the same work.

There are scores of studies about the benefits of cuddling for couples, of non-sexual touch and it’s importance in relationships, of how massage between couples can boost trust and intimacy, of how gentle touch with no direct eye contact can help open channels of communication and of how some of the happiest, most long-lasting couples make back rubs a part of their regular routine.

Not to mention the proven health benefits of massage that have been long known in the medical and wellness community.

So it’s not “just massage” that we offer couples. We believe it runs way deeper than that. Massage offers a path to deeper intimacy, stronger trust and a more satisfying relationship.

Being able to massage your partner is a kind, generous act that speaks to every Love Language and shows how much you care.

Den and I see our chance at being able to offer that to couples as one of our most important projects to date. Backed by research. And it’s making a difference – a real difference – to people’s lives all over the globe, one couple at a time.

And that’s way more than “just a massage”.