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My Massage felt wonderful, but now,  a day later, I don’t feel well at all. What happened? They told me it wasn’t going to hurt.  So why do I feel so yucky, sore and tired?

Chances are, this was your first Massage,  or you have not had a Massage for a long time. When you receive regular body work, the aftermath leaves you feeling great. Ask any friend who is a regular to Massage;  they will tell you the same. The benefits are cumulative! Okay, then why am I hurting?

By the time you showed up for your Massage appointment,  you were months if not years overdue, right? Maybe you’re  just a human ball of tension. You’re going to need a Massage deep enough to begin the healing process, or you’re just wanting  a few hours of relief.  You’re  at a  Therapeutic Crossroads, and need to make a decision. Long or short term solution? The quick fix has limited value. Perhaps you have a test tomorrow and just want to relax, maybe it will help you score higher on the exam. But taking this approach can get pretty expensive.  Ultimately, it makes sense to improve the underlying condition. You opt for the more permanent solution.

It’s the day after, you probably forgot about your Therapist’s  suggestion to drink lots of water after the Massage. If your Massage was anything but superficial, you will be sore,  the body work  itself causes some level of inflammation. Do you remember those knots that felt like they were melting away under your Therapist’s loving hands? Breaking those up caused some changes to occur in your body. For one, those knots in your muscles contained lactic acid, which was released into circulation as your Therapist was working. This acid is basically waste material which is an irritant to your body’s tissues. That burning and or itchy sensation may well be the lactic acid coming out. That’s a good thing.

Also, during the Massage, toxins and other substances are released from fatty or other connective tissues  into your bloodstream and are  heading  out of your body via the  organs of elimination. This can leave you feeling sickly, weak and  irritable. All of these events are your body cleaning itself internally. A good thing.

When you drink lots of water,  it helps the body rid these substances faster. This is the reason your Therapist told you to drink all the H2O in the first place.

Additionally, you may be pro inflammatory, which means your body reacts more extremely to the Massage. Usually, poor diets  high in acid- forming foods and lacking in essential fatty acids make your body pro inflammatory.  Eating less meat and dairy and more plant- based food helps reverse this condition.  Even taking cool or cold showers reduces the acidity of your body and brings inflammation down.

Does Massage hurt? What would seem like a simple question, requires more reflection then many Massage Therapists are likely to give before they answer. Maybe a better question is what do you hope to achieve during your session and beyond?

The biggest factor to consider your goal or your expectation for the massage. Do you want a relaxing massage or a therapeutic session? Just remember when you ask for  relaxation work, what you receive will be superficial (at least on the physical plane),  so if you have deep seated muscular/ tension issues, you won’t benefit much in the long run and won’t be getting your monies worth. On the other hand, if you only rarely receive massage but you expect that it will solve all you health challenges, in just one session, then your putting way to much stress on your therapist.

Many Therapist’s tell their potential clients that massage absolutely should not hurt,  going on to suggest that if it does hurt the Therapist is doing something wrong. While there is  truth to that notion, sometimes that answer is more about pandering to a potential client, to get the “business”, then to really inform. For example,  Though something may not be entirely appealing to you, it may well be in your interest. By analogy, you might not like Spinach, but It serves your body well. A fast food burger and fries may taste good going down (not hurt), but will hurt you in the long run.

Let me be clear. During a Massage Session,  the client or patient should tell the Therapist if they are feeling pain. Some Therapists use a scale of 1-10 pain level,  ask  the massage recipient what  number they are feeling?  1 being the least , 10 being the  highest level of pain.The Therapist adjusts his Massage to fit the 7-8 pain range.  The problem is that this is all a bit subjective.To one person 7 can’t be felt, to another, 7 feels like a ton of bricks.  But getting feedback puts you in the ball park, at least. There is what the client describes as a “good” hurt, experience suggests, you have found the appropriate level of pressure.

Often a clients ongoing issues are deep set, and to resolve , you have to drop to the level, where the problem exists, to be effective. This does not mean you plow through, full speed ahead..Rome was not built in a day, and your body’s challenge to be healthy will not be resolved in a single day. If, for example, your neck suddenly is stiff as a board,  you get a quality Massage, and It feels a whole lot better, you return in a week for a follow-up, the Therapist has already  identified the source of this acute problem, a spasm in the upper Trapezius  muscle. The good therapist is going to understand  the “problem” is new (acute),  the muscle involved is superficial (near the surface) and that it can be resolved fairly quick and with appropriately lighter pressure. The neck has 7 layers of muscle, the Trapezius muscle being near the surface.

Lets say, another person comes in for help. She is also having neck problems. Her health challenge has been ongoing  chronic , the results of “whiplash” sustained in a car accident years before. By now she has many neck muscles involved, including some of the deepest, like the Multifidus. This person needs a different approach then our first example.  You just can’t go in there and “rip” it out. More visits and more work at progressively deeper levels is what is called for, which may not hurt, but may not be as pleasant experience.

Most often, the real discomfort  a person feels has to do with the aftermath of the Massage. I will cover this issue very soon.

Using the Yellow Pages to find a Therapist is probably not the best way to go, the reason being you don’t really know what your getting. The best place to start is with family and friends. They, at least can tell you about the experience they had with Massage.  Many of my clients have known me for years. They could probably tell you more about me than I could. It kind of feels like family, like a friend

Another good place to look would be medical offices. Chiropractors, especially often retain Therapists who know a bit more than the average about the human body and how it works. At minimum, they at least know when a Massage is the wrong thing to do. My background, before I attended Massage School, was in Physical Therapy. I was interested in helping people with real health issues, Accidents, Injuries, and otherwise serious conditions.  I then was inclined to work in Chiropractic offices.

In the city of Rancho Cucamonga,  where I work, the Therapist must have a minimum of 500 hours training. We are also required to carry insurance.

Massage is about feeling comfortable. The Clothes that “touches” your skin can feel bad and also be unhealthy.  The detergent we use in our washing machines does not entirely rinse out of  the  clothes we wear. On top of that we use expensive Fabric Softeners that leave behind even more chemicals.

Why not try this inexpensive alternative that does the job and also helps remove detergent residue.

• Ingredients, baking soda, distilled vinegar,  water, your favorite essential oil.
• In a gallon sized empty container add one cup of baking soda and 1 cup water.
• Slowly add 6 cups of distilled vinegar ( slow because it will fix quite a bit).
• After things calm down a bit add 6 more cups of water.
• If you want now add 10-15 drops of your favorite essential oil, I like lavender!
• Cap your container and shake up a bit. Gas will build up inside so just slightly unscrew the cap to let gas escape. The contents will be pretty well mixed. Store it away until your ready to use your washing machine.

Use 1 cup of your alternative Fabric Softener to each load of laundry. Just Add it during the rinse cycle.

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Is the art of touch something that should be shared exclusively in the context of a loving relationship?

Many women have expressed concern about their husbands or boyfriends going outside the relationship to get a “Massage”. They don’t feel all that comfortable with some other woman touching their man. I”m pretty sure a good number of men in relationships feel similarly, especially if the Masseuse is a Masseur (Male Massage provider).

Additionally, a good number of potential Massage recipients are extremely nervous about exposing their bodies to a” stranger”. Even with constant recommendations from friends and family to a legitimate Therapist”, yet folks are still to uncomfortable with the prospect of getting a Massage.  Only when a forward thinking doctor combined with unbearable pain and stress, will they give it a try. It really to bad.  Given such resistance, maybe doing Massage at home  is an alternative that ought to be explored.

A client of mine really needed the services of a Chiropractor. I offered to help her find one. But not all Chiropractors are the same, and I didn’t want for her to go at it alone, and end up without good appropriate quality care.  When you have been worked  in several Chiropractic offices  within the inland empire,  you get to know how things work.  Your run of the mill, rack em crack em office, would be counter to my clients best interests. I was looking for an “activator” practice, and not just a DC who knows how to use an activator. There is a difference.

I called a local office that seemed to fit the bill, explaining that I wanted to refer my client to a DC. A few days later,  I dropped in to check out the office.  The receptionist, treated  me with utter disbelief, and disdain, that a Massage Therapist would go to  all that trouble for a patient?  Okay, goodbye, she said tersely.  I guess I was disturbing her work, so I left

Well, to me when you go to see your doctor, you’re actually not only being treated by the doctor but by his or her whole organization. They are all responsible to help you get better. Any office is only as good as it’s weakest link.  I will not expose anyone to that kind of treatment. Nor will I stand for it. It reminded me, years back, I witnessed  a patient taping out (having a heart attack) in the waiting lobby of a hospital, the receptionist never noticed,  it was only other patients in the lobby that finally got help for the poor man.  This is what happens when you have people going through the motions, who could care less about you, and who might only view you as a hindrance or problem instead of a live flesh and blood human being with real needs.

Whether your selecting a Massage Therapist,  a DC, or a medical doctor, if they don’t seem happy to see you…….they probably aren’t. Run!