Normally when you ask someone what they think of sports massage whether they’ve had them before or not you can almost guarantee the response will be “it hurts”.
This is a massive preconception of a sports massage but it doesn’t necessarily need to be. For a sport or deep tissue massage to be effective there does need to be a degree of discomfort, that being said the varying pressure should always be bearable for clients/patients.
We usually work on a pain scale of 1-10. 1 being a tickle and 10 being the worst pain you can imagine. As we start to work to a deeper level we aim for a 7 possibly an 8 but always within the individual’s tolerances. Most go with the no pain no gain attitude and whereas this may be true for some instances in life, in my opinion, this doesn’t work for massage and there is no skill in hurting people.
So why does a sports massage need to be somewhat uncomfortable? Essentially what we are trying to do is provoke a response in something called the Golgi tendons and nervous system. The Golgi tendons are situated near where a muscle attaches to the bone via the tendon. They work as stress sensors and basically stop you from exerting too much force and doing damage to the tissues.
Through advanced techniques in massage we can stimulate this response and in turn, get the body to relax the muscles being worked on. The hardest part for anyone is to override the natural reaction to pain or discomfort by fighting and tensing up, easier said than done!!
Remember more pain does not mean more success!!
To book your massage call me on 07949 917 832
