Are you seeking deep tissue massage because you are trying to get out of pain and wondering: “Can deep tissue massage make me worse?”
I get it, you’re in pain and you need help, but the last thing you want to do is make yourself hurt more.
I’ve worked for the past 5 years as a massage therapist, in both private practice and with a team of other massage therapists at one of the most respected clinics in America, and today I’m going to answer this question as best I can.
The first way a deep tissue massage therapist can make you worse if if they use too much pressure in a vulnerable place. One place this happens in particular is in sensitive lower backs. When the lower back hurts, this can be due to a lack of stability, and too much soft tissue work directly on the lower back can destabilize the lower back further. I have personally done this once, and ever since then I have been extremely careful when treating lower back, especially in older populations.
How to avoid this: Find an experienced therapist who does more than just “massage the lower back.” A good therapist should know how to treat the hips, adductors, iliacus and psoas muscles for back pain and should exercise caution in these areas until they know how your body responds, particularly if you are older and have chronic back pain.
In our society, we have this “no pain no game, mentality.” And sometimes while we can work through pain and get great results, that doesn’t mean massage therapists should be using as much pressure as possible. If your pain level is ever more than 7 out of 10, the level of pressure it too much. You should generally not be sore for more than 2 days after unless you have a nerve issue your therapist is working on.
How to avoid this: Find a therapist who uses a comfortable level of pressure or insist on the pressure that is right for you.
There are some, more rare, circumstances in which I expect my clients to become worse off before becoming better. One of these instances is with nerve entrapment. If a nerve is stuck (particularly the auxiliary nerve) and I’m working to free it up from soft tissue adhesions, it might feel burn-y and irritable for several treatments before getting much better or disappearing.
How to know if this is the case: Your therapist should be experienced enough to let you know that you might feel worse off before getting better. This should generally only happen with nerve entrapment.
While deep tissue massage is a powerful tool for healing, it can indeed make you worse. Most of the time, massage therapists make mistakes when they just don’t have enough experience to know when they need to be careful in an area. Your best course of action is to choose a reputable therapist to work with, and to trust your intuition and the intuition of your therapist when something doesn’t seem like a good idea. Bodies aren’t always “logical,” an intuition is a useful, and I find, accurate, guiding force in making sure my clients get better and not worse.
Pain Solutions Massage Therapy & Personal Training
Phone: 415.518.2125
Email: ben.beeler2014@gmail.com
Hours:
Monday: Closed
Tuesday: 8:30am-10am, 1pm-7pm
Wednesday: 8:30am-10am, 1pm-7pm
Thursday: 8:30am-10am, 1pm-7pm
Friday: 8:30am-10am, 1pm-6:30pm
Saturday: Closed
Sunday: 2pm-6:30pm
