Many people who come for a massage to help with their aches and pains or injuries believe that massage needs to be painful to be effective. But does the ‘no pain, no gain’ or ‘grit your teeth and bear it because it’s good for you’ philosophy apply here?
When we massage someone, we touch their skin, and the skin is full of nerve endings. These nerve endings sense a variety of stimuli, including pressure, stretch, heat, cold and danger. This means that during a massage, we are giving a lot of input to the nervous system, and this can feel good or feel bad.
The pressure that feels good calms the nervous system and creates a feeling of safety. It helps us to relax and our muscles to soften. If the pressure is too intense, this can create in us a need to protect ourselves from this ‘danger’, and we become tenser. The intensity that we are ideally aiming for is really about what feels good to the one receiving it. If the depth of pressure is satisfying, if it feels ‘right’, then that helps us to relax. For some people, gentle pressure is frustrating, and for others, it is soothing. For some, very deep pressure is painful and uncomfortable, and to others, it feels like exactly what they need.
The belief that massage should hurt may come from the idea that massage can alter the structure of our tissues – that it can ‘break down scar tissue or ‘release adhesions’. But we can’t actually alter the make-up of muscles, tendons or fascia with our hands. Our bodies are not really that malleable. Fascia is an extremely tough material, and it requires forces far greater than can be applied with our hands to create any change in its length.
Our bodies are adaptable over time. If we lift weights regularly, our muscles will get stronger and bigger. If we run regularly, our cardiovascular system will respond, and tendons, bones and ligaments become tougher to cope better with the forces going through them. But this happens slowly, over time and with regular stimulus. The changes that occur during a massage session are most likely due to its multifaceted interactions with the nervous system.
In summary, the important thing is that the pressure feels right to you and enables that softening and relaxation that we are looking for. Going beyond that and making the experience more painful than you enjoy won’t necessarily lead to better results.
Don’t grin and bear it – let your therapist know if it doesn’t feel right!
By Charlotte Softly, Massage Therapist. Check Charlotte’s availability here.