DEEP-TISSUE MASSAGE & PAIN
It is interesting to note there are massage therapists, and clients of massage therapists, who adhere to the old adage, "No pain, no gain." Or, in other words, if the client is not writhing in exquisite pain with tears flowing from their eyes the therapy does no good. Actually though, this is not true.
While a little pain may be encountered during therapy, especially if the client suffers from some soft-tissue damage, the pain should never get to the point where the client is tensing up. This is because causing the client to tense up their muscle is contrary to what the goal of therapy should be. The client should be relaxed as much as possible so the therapist using deep-tissue techniques can slowly sink down through the various levels of muscle tissue to get to lower levels where there are problems.
One way of controlling the level of pain during a deep-tissue session is for the client to think of pain on the scale of 1-10 with ‘one’ representing no pain and ‘ten’ representing the most excruciating pain they can imagine. Up to a pain level of 5 or 6 is all right. But, the client should alert the therapist if the pain goes beyond that level so they can back off a little. Or, if the client feels their muscles tensing up because of pain, they should inform the therapist.
Excess pressure can cause bruising that damages the muscle tissue further causing more pain rather than helping it to relax and be pain free. So, be sure to communicate with your therapist if you experience more pain than you feel you should during a session. You will be glad you did because the therapy session will work better to relieve pain and relax muscles.
In conclusion, I once gave a chair massage to a person visiting from another state. Three years later I saw them again for a session. They told me they were so impressed with the deep-tissue techniques I used they went to get a full body deep-tissue session when they got back home. They said they were so disappointed because the therapist there caused so much pain and discomfort that they left feeling more abused than comforted. And, they were in pain for a few days afterwards! Therefore, communicate with your therapist so you can have a wonderfully relaxing and healing deep-tissue massage.
