Does massage have to be painful?

 This question is asked a lot by clients who have either endured an extremely painful massage or conversely, clients that don't feel that massage is effective unless it really hurts.

Firstly, massage IS sometimes painful, however it does NOT have to hurt for it to be effective.  In fact, if you have deep muscle pain and I inflict more pain on you, your body is going to be more tense and less relaxed than you started.  If I take my time and coax my way into the pain point your body has time to adjust to the discomfort and muscles will relax.

Some massage therapists do inflict a lot of pain, and they have clients that love it, however I would argue that the immediate results are due to the flood of endorphins that the body provides to deal with the pain.

I ask clients to allow me to work at a maximum level of 7-8 out of 10 on THEIR pain scale.  This allows me enough pressure to be effective where required without overloading their stress response.  Of course, if the problem is overall tightness caused by stress rather than a single tight area, or if my client has a high level of continuous pain, it might be necessary to work a lot lighter than that to allow the entire body to relax.

If you really do want a 'Dr Death' kind of massage and my approach is not working for you after a couple of treatments, just ask and I will happily refer you to someone I know can help.