- I don’t need to discuss my medical history with my therapists.
- There’s no need to drink water after a massage.
It’s especially important to hydrate post-massage.
The therapist is working to break up the adhesions that have formed in the unhealthy tissue, allowing increased blood flow, increased movement, and to restore the muscle to a more healthy state. What happens when you open up these areas is that the metabolic waste that had been trapped due to lack of blood flow is now released and on its way out through the lymphatic system. Nutrients and oxygen are being delivered to the muscle at a faster rate, and this all uses water from your blood stream, which may give you a feeling of dehydration, or thirst. Similar to why you need more water when working out, your muscles are using more oxygen, and water is necessary for this exchange so it gets used up faster.So, it is true you should drink water after massage in order to re-hydrate because your body is using water at a faster rate, but the key is to be drinking enough water EVERYDAY, whether you get a massage or not. Water is vital for every function that occurs in the body, and necessary to maintain healthy, hydrated muscle tissue.
- It’s got to hurt to be effective.
“Nothing can be further from the truth,” Versagi says about the no pain, no gain philosophy. “If I’m hurting a client, I consider that assault.”
Of course, you need to distinguish between pain and discomfort. “You may experience discomfort, but you should never be in pain,” she says of such treatments as deep-tissue massage.
If your therapist is inflicting pain, say so immediately. “A lot of clients assume a therapist knows when it hurts, but you need to say something,
A good therapist will check in often until an appropriate pressure is achieved.
Deep tissue work can be intense, and in some instances painful depending on how much tissue damage exists. But it should not be so painful and uncomfortable that the client tenses up and tries to pull away from the hands of the therapist. A good pressure is one under which the client is able to breathe and relax without having to cringe or tense any muscles. A painful massage can actually be counterproductive and have the opposite results from what both client and therapist were seeking.
- A sign of a good massage is next-day soreness.
Soreness is no indication of how good a massage is.
- One massage should do it.
It may take more than one treatment. Some conditions have been in the making for years and it can take some time to get them worked out. Once the condition is understood, your therapist can usually give you an idea what that issue may require, in the form of a treatment plan. Then again, sometimes one treatment is just enough!What does massage do?
