PRESSURE IS RELATIVE

Photo courtesy of ABMP

Communication is key!  

~Lisa Rogers
Certified Massage Therapist, Holistic Health Practitioner

The best massage sessions involve communication with your therapist.  Every single body feels things differently and many different things can contribute to the amount of pressure your body requires.

Depth is relative!

 I sometimes book “Massage Parties.”  At these “parties” one person host’s a party and invites some friends who all receive a massage at a discounted rate.  At one of these parties I arrived and passed out an intake form to each of them.  When I collected them, each one stated that they preferred a “deep pressure” massage.  One by one, the “deep pressure” clients got on the table, and one by one I adjusted my pressure from extremely light to very deep.  The point here is that while you may love deep tissue on your upper back, it may feel horrible on your lower back.  Deep tissue on your quadriceps may feel heavenly, while you may prefer lighter pressure on the calf muscles, and all of this may be different than your friend who enjoys deep tissue. 

Go ahead, I can take it! 

The amount of pressure you prefer has nothing to do with how strong you are.  I have worked on 250 Lb. body builders who did not like the same pressure as a 110 Lb. woman.  It is important to understand that tight over worked muscles may be “guarding” and therefore do not want to be touched. On muscles in this state, a medium level of pressure can feel like Hercules is working on you.  It could also be true that that a tight guarding muscle is craving deep tissue or trigger point work.  The right side of your body may require more or less pressure than the other side and it may require more or less than it did last week.  Be sure to let your therapist know what you are feeling today. 

No pain, no gain does not apply in Massage Therapy!

You may have been led to believe that massage needs to hurt in order to be effective.  This is one of the many reasons that some people refuse to try massage, they are afraid to get hurt.  Believe me, as a Therapist, I do not ever want to hurt you.  You have asked me to spend an hour (or more) to relax you or to help assist and accelerate the healing of your body and mind.  Pain is not on my list of ways to accomplish that.   This is why it is so important that you inform your therapist if there is any pain.

Adrenaline should be reserved for when the bear attacks

Although it is true that the average person will never need to run from a bear, that is what our adrenaline system is really made for. We know it as fight or flight and pain is a definite trigger. When adrenaline is released our body comes out of its healing state to allow all energy to be focused on its new task, saving our life. If you feel pain during the massage, speak up! Holding out too long may end up triggering a release of adrenaline which may negate many of the positive effects of the massage. 

Simple Ways of Expression

Discuss the use of a pain scale with your therapist.  In my practice, I use a scale of 1-10 where 1 is basically applying lotion and 10 is the worst pain imaginable.  For example, in a basic Swedish relaxation massage, we attempt to stay between 1 and 5.  When working on a deeper level, as with injuries and or chronic pain, we may employ trigger point, deep tissue and sports massage techniques in which we stay between 4 and 7. Keep in mind that a 6 or a 7 is that hurt so good feeling while and 8 would make you feel like you need to get off the table.  Once a pain scale has been discussed, you can simply call out a number.  If you say, “2” your therapist will know to apply more pressure.  If you say, “5” your therapist will know that they are approaching their limit, but can still go deeper. Calling out a 7 during a masage, will let them know they are in that “hurts so good zone, and an 8 would signal them to back off.   During a relaxing circulatory massage you can use less verbal cues and some of them may be involuntary.  It is common for a client to hold their breath or tense up when it gets too intense.  Most often your therapist will notice this and can modify the pressure or the stroke accordingly.  These are great ways of communicating without having to come out of the trance you are in.

Different Strokes

There are many different forms of massage.  Most therapeutic sessions will involve several modalities from Swedish to deep tissue and probably some trigger point.  Throughout many of these sessions the therapist may check in once or twice on their pressure and that may be all that is needed.  But, you may have a new injury which needs to be handled differently, and old injury or chronic pain which may take several sessions and much deeper work.  These are the types of sessions where you probably shouldn’t expect to fall asleep.  During very deep work you may need to be in constant communication with your therapist as this is a very interactive process. This requires you to work with your therapist to achieve maximum results.

Review

Open communication with your therapist will help ensure you have the best massage possible.  Remember that although your therapist is not a mind reader, they should be focused on your treatment and can often times read your body language to see that they are applying the right amount of pressure.  If you ever feel that you would like more or less pressure be sure to find some way to communicate that.  Your therapist won’t take it as a complaint; it won’t hurt their feelings, it will only allow them to do what they are there to do, assist in relaxation or facilitate healing.