20 Tips for (the rest of) 2020 #11

One of the biggest reasons why people don't return to a particular therapist is because the massage wasn't the pressure the client needed or expected. Also what can happen is that a client may think they need a certain pressure to attain a certain goal, and must therefore 'deal with the pain' to 'get rid of the pain'. Not the case.

Everyone prefers different levels of pressure during their massage, and some can tolerate more than others. Massage pressure isn't one size fits all. The key is good communication between therapist and client. The therapist should regularly check in with a client during a massage to see if the pressure is enough or too much, especially if that therapist hasn't worked with that client before. Likewise, the client should be able to tell the therapist that they need more or less pressure, and the therapist should be able to adapt. As for the "no pain, no gain" approach, not in massage. Tight spots may hurt when getting worked out, but one should never leave a massage in pain. If a deeper type of therapy is needed to fix something, there are other techniques besides rough deep pressure that should be able to get the job done. Deep and painful are not the same thing, and the best way to keep it from ruining a massage is open communication between the therapist and client.