Questions About Massage and My Answers

Asking a different therapist will give you different responses, but here's what I can tell you. I've received a lot of massage and other kinds of bodywork, so my subjective opinions are based on enough experience to give you an educated response.

1. What are the main benefits of massage?

A good massage can do many things. I am speaking here of what you will experience with a serious massage therapist, a person who can listen to your individual needs and has enough understanding of the muscular-skeletal system to effect a desired outcome on your tissue.

There are tons of minimally trained "therapists" who will cycle out of the industry in due time because they are not serious about understanding the human body or continuously improving their skills and expanding their knowledge. I cannot speak to the kind of massage you will get from these individuals other than that you will probably feel you've wasted your money if you employ them (see "How to Find the Right Therapist").

The most obvious "no-brainer" benefits from massage therapy are stress relief and relaxation. This happens because of the design and function of the human nervous system and its relationship to the design and function of the muscular-skeletal system. It is not a mysterious process.

Check out this interactive website hosted by the American Psychological Association. Your Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)-which includes Sympathetic and Parasympathetic divisions- regulates the qualities of your involuntary bodily functions: body temperature, pH, oxygen levels, volume of blood, digestion and absorption of food and water, and excretion of waste products. The main thing to know and understand is that your Sympathetic Nervous System controls "fight or flight" responses to internal and external stimuli, and your Parasympathetic Nervous System controls "rest and digest" responses.

So for example, if you are going to sit for a very difficult exam (literally or metaphorically), your Sympathetic Nervous System sends data to your internal organs to adjust to the demands placed on your body to prepare and sit for your difficult exam. The exam puts great stress on your mind and body, and energy is diverted away from healing, digesting food and absorbing nutrients, and excreting wastes from your body—all those things you must do as an organism to survive. However, after you have completed your very difficult exam, your Sympathetic Nervous System can be inhibited (you decided to fight rather than flee), and your Parasympathetic Nervous System then takes over the job of "rest and digest." Then, little by little your homeostasis or feeling of wellbeing and calm returns to normal, as energy in your body is reverted back to healing, digesting, absorbing, etc.

In essence, stress inhibits your body's Parasympathetic response to the demands of biological functioning, which can be seen every time a person gets sick after feeling worn down and depleted. Consciously allowing your body to shift into its Parasympathetic mode can help you not get worn down and depleted, and hence improve your sense of wellbeing and your overall ability to cope with stress. This also creates an internal environment conducive to a well functioning immune system. If you understand that your Autonomic Nervous System interacts with your endocrine glands (like your thyroid and pituitary glands), your heart rate and blood pressure, and how well your body absorbs nutrients, then you can easily understand how important is the balance between Sympathetic and Parasympathetic states. Basically, your life depends on it!

Aside from helping reduce the negative effects of stress on your body, the feeling of relaxation can help your mental state, and the process of the massage can change how you relate to your body.

If you are feeling anxious or on edge or even down on life, the process of having a person spend an hour or more meeting your individual needs can help to minimize your difficult feelings. I can't say it will necessarily do that, but if you work with the right therapist and you are able to "let go" because the work is just that good, then it is very likely you will feel the benefits of the massage on your psyche as well.

And finally, this last benefit I will acknowledge is one that varies from person to person. Let's say you experience chronic pain in one part of your body, for example, your left hip and low back area. You live with that pain day in and day out. In a sense, it contributes to your overall perception of how you feel about your body. Body=pain=bad body, right? So you go for regular massage, and you start to feel relief from your pain. The muscle tension that was giving you the restricted movement and joint discomfort eases up. Now you are experiencing less pain, which means your body is not such a bad place to live after all.

And not just that. When I get really good deep tissue work, my tight muscles are released to the extent that, as I travel through my daily life, my awareness of some of the patterns of posture and movement that either contributed to or are a manifestation of the pain that defines me has heightened to the extent that I can actually make more conscious decisions about my posture, movements, and other possible treatments (like osteopathic) that will ultimately help to decrease that pain to where I am not chronically suffering. Letting oneself become acutely aware of pain is the first step in letting go of it. So the equation then becomes Body=less/no pain=good body. The effects of increased body awareness through massage therapy can be very valuable, similar to the continuous increase in awareness that happens in regular yoga practice.

2. Why is massage so expensive?

The quality of massage differs from therapist to therapist. The good ones are worth every penny you pay him or her. You are paying for (1) the fact that this person invested a lot of their time and resources to learn to work safely and therapeutically with your individual body; (2) the physical space, equipment, liability insurance, licensing, and employment taxes; and (3) the physical demands put on the therapist. A good massage requires proper body dynamics in a properly cared-for body. The person who allows you to utterly abandon yourself for an hour is working extremely hard to give you that feeling. All the while you are zoned out, he or she is tuning in to you as though you were having a verbal conversation, except that the conversation is happening through touch and not words.

3. Do I have to take off all my clothes? What is the purpose of that?

No, you do not have to. It depends on different factors. If you meet a therapist for the first time, and he or she says you must remove your clothing to receive massage, even when you tell the person you do not feel comfortable doing so, tell them thanks for their time and head for the door.

That said, if you just want work on, say, certain of your body regions, taking off your clothing that covers those regions can be helpful to you in terms of the type and depth of work then available to you, but a well-trained therapist can work through your clothing to give you some benefit nonetheless. Removing your clothing just makes certain work possible. For example, if you don't remove your shirt, it's not possible to perform long, deep strokes on your back (or posterior trunk). So if you like the feeling of someone sinking slowly into your back from the shoulders down to your waist, then removing your shirt would make that possible. As for your pants and undergarments, also optional, but if you want your gluteal muscles massaged, then removing those could again broaden the range of strokes and technique available to you and your therapist.

People get massage all the time with their clothing in tact when receiving chair massage. The same type of work is possible on the table, but your comfort is the most crucial factor in getting a massage. The fact that you are paying for the therapist's time means that you get to call the shots.

4. What's the difference between Swedish, Deep Tissue Massage, and Sports Massage?

Swedish Massage is characterized by more superficial, flowing strokes, stretching, and general relaxation techniques to release muscle tension. Deep Tissue Massage is intended to be slower and deeper in the sense of staying in one muscle area for a longer time than would ever happen in Swedish-style massage, and sinking with the tissue very slowly as the muscle fibers and fascia gradually release. It can take several deep-tissue sessions to relieve pain and tension in one area of the body. When I go in for deep tissue work, the therapist spends the entire session on no more than 2 or 3 areas of my body, based on what I tell her is happening at that time. Whereas, for a Swedish Massage, you can expect a full-body approach, and the therapist will assume you want your whole body massaged unless you tell him or her not to massage you in specific areas. (Of course they should always ask, when first meeting you, if there's any place you do not want to be massaged or touched—like your feet, your face, etc.).

Sports massage is fairly self-explanatory. The techniques used are meant specifically to help treat pain and discomfort brought on by either acute or chronic problems related to sports and related activities, such as yoga, dance, and martial arts. I do not recommend receiving this level of massage by someone you either don't know well enough to fully trust or whose education and training are not immediately accessible and clear to you. Only someone who demonstrates a very good understanding of human anatomy and physiology should do this kind of massage.

Have another question? Email me.