Comments on: What Good Would Massage Do?

By: Cynthia

Cynthia — Mon, 24 Aug 2015 17:27:57 +0000

It is absolutely possible for an issue to be fixed regardless of lifestyle changes. You may have not had this experience but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. I am immediately reminded of a client I had who came in initially complaining of long-standing hip pain and dysfunction. She’d tried numerous things-doctors, PT, chiropractic, massage- none of which really helped. One session of massage with me fixed it entirely. I can say this definitively because I continued to see her off and on for years, and she never complained of hip issues again. She was an office worker and would come in periodically with stereotypical neck, shoulder and wrist pain. She worked hours that were too long, didn’t take enough breaks and in my estimation probably didn’t take ergonomics seriously enough, so yes I couldn’t “fix” those issues, only temporarily relieve them. But the hip pain, I feel confident in saying was fixed. I was surprised as I hadn’t had advanced training in this area and performed what I would consider standard work in her glutes which I would guess resolved some trigger points and allowed her to move better, thus breaking the cycle of dysfunction.

I’ve had other surprising experiences like this, such as when I accidentally fixed a client’s headache while working on her sacrum.

So, I’ll get on my own personal soapbox of “bodies are amazing and mysterious and don’t always work any one particular way”. Any absolute statement about what’s possible is foolish.

By: Connie

Connie — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 18:28:55 +0000

I beg to differ – massage can’t “FIX” anything. What it CAN do is “create a window of opportunity for the body to “fix” itself”. In other words, if the person expects massage to be the only answer and doesn’t change anything else (ie posture, stress management strategies, or overuse patterns), it will only be short-term relief that will diminish in effectiveness over time. If instead the person takes the relief the session likely provides as a window of opportunity to more easily address whatever started/exacerbated the pain in the first place – long-term relief is much more likely to occur. And this is true even if the trouble being addressed is something like stenosis or arthritis. Sometimes they need further guidance with the necessary changes, sometimes they do not. Regardless though, I think it is an extremely important distinction that must be conveyed to massage therapists and clients alike. And I will admit it is my personal soapbox.

By: Neal

Neal — Fri, 15 Nov 2013 02:47:08 +0000

massage can definitely “fix” many problems in the short run, and some in the long run as well. that said, the type of massage varies depending on the issue one is trying to fix