Should It Hurt?

Are you making faces when getting a massage? What a perfect opportunity, your face is squished in a hole in the table and you can go to town with funny faces. I know how it works I get massages to and I do the same thing.

Should a good deep  tissue massage hurt? Inflicting pain on the client is a  long time argument between massage therapists.  In my opinion everyone is different, pain is perceived differently and how people handle on the massage table is different.  As quoted in a New York Times article titled It Hurts, But Is It Worth It  “A really good therapist knows exactly when to pull back”. I think that this is true, being aware of when a client is tensing against your pressure can help you modify your massage. That being said there are many people out there that also don’t show you these signs and therefore asking is the best method.

 With chronic injuries, where scar tissue has formed in the muscle, a deep tissue massage can be geared toward breaking down scar tissue . Some massages focus on creating inflammation to help stimulate the body to heal itself.