What Your Massage Therapist Can Tell About You After Your First Session

When we think about massage therapy, the feelings of healing touch, scented candles, and complete mind relaxation often start wandering in our mind. But while you are lying on the massage table with your closed eyes waiting for the magic of massage to happen, did you know your massage therapist is taking mental notes of your overall health? Yes, it’s true. Massage therapists don’t wait for you to open up about your mental health problems and your body’s functionality; rather, they start observing you as soon as you enter the room.

Sometimes it may seem strange when massage therapists ask questions like, how much time do you spend on screens? What kind of job do you have? You came for massage therapy, after all, not for therapy for your mental health. But there are reasons behind such questions; today we will see how a massage therapist can observe and tell about you after your first session.

A Massage Therapist Notices Your Every Moment.

As soon as you enter their room, they start to notice your movements, right from your walks, postures to your hand movements. They pay attention and make mental notes. When you are asked to have a seat, the way you sit will tell about your sitting postures.

Some massage therapists walk behind their clients to the treatment room just to observe them from behind. While doing this, they observe if their client’s posture is leaning to one side or if their hips and shoulders are uneven and look for other dysfunctions that may exist.

A Massage Therapist Identifies the Area of Weakness.

Before your massage therapy begins, your massage therapist may ask you to relax or stretch your muscles and suggest you perform a few stretching exercises. It may stretch your muscles, no doubt about it, but the intention of a massage therapist is to see the flexibility of your body and muscles and observe any weak points that could be targeted during the massage therapy.

Suppose you are performing hand stretching smoothly but having difficulty touching your toes by bending down. This will give an indication to your massage therapist that you may have lower back problems or less flexibility in your upper body.

Moreover, during the massage, they observe your facial expression and can tell which area of your body is more sensitive and cannot be pressurized. For example, if you are getting a massage on your shoulders and you frequently ask them to stop and make expressions that it is hurting, your therapists will identify that there might be some underlying problem, such as a slightly dislocated shoulder or torn shoulder muscle.

A Massage Therapist Can Tell If You Are Depressed.

It may sound strange, but a massage therapist can tell if their client is stressed or depressed. When you are stressed, it is difficult to relax your muscles. Massage therapists can indicate that you are stressed by feeling stiffness in your arms and upper body. Therefore, sometimes they ask about your daily routine.

A Massage Therapist Can Tell About the Work You Do.

Moreover, a professional massage therapist can tell what kind of job you do by observing your body. For example, a massage therapist can tell that you have a desk job by looking at your humped back and neck postures.

The above-mentioned are just a handful of secrets that your massage therapist can tell about you after your first session. Meeting with a massage therapist is beneficial because they can even help you identify any underlying bodily issues you may have so you can address them on time. In other words, a massage therapy session is not all about just feeling relaxed and calm but also about knowing your body more deeply.

Have you booked your massage therapy appointment yet? If not, get in touch with a trusted licensed massage therapist near you to get a massage that not only heals you but also informs you about any underlying health issues you may not know.

Can’t Get Rid of Lower Back Pain? Try Myofascial Release Therapy

Do you wonder why you keep struggling with lower back pain despite many chiropractic treatments and therapies? If yes, it could be because the treatment might have focused on the spine or hips alone and no attention was paid to your pelvic floor muscles. Many muscles are attached to and support your pelvis and lower back. Many patients can benefit from therapeutic bodywork that also factors in myofascial release to address the issue of lower back pain.

Most people don’t have any idea about what myofascial release therapy is. Thus, today, we will discuss myofascial release therapy in detail and discuss how it can help in reducing back pain.

What is Myofascial Release Therapy?

Myofascial release is a therapy technique that focuses on pain that arises from myofascial tissues – tough membranes that cover, connect, and support your muscles. This technique is often used in combination with different massages.

Myofascial pain is different from other types of pain as it occurs in trigger points, which are linked to stiff anchored areas covered in myofascial tissues. However, the pain caused by a trigger point is difficult to localize without proper knowledge and training.

Trained and qualified massage therapists can locate the myofascial areas that cause pain. These areas feel stiff and fixed instead of being elastic and movable when checked under light manual pressure. These areas are believed to restrict muscle and joint movements, which further contribute to widespread muscle pain.

When focused manual pressure and stretching are applied during myofascial release therapy, it helps loosen up restricted movement, and indirectly helps in reducing pain.

How does myofascial release can help relieve lower back pain?

Many professionals miss the link between lower back pain and the structure that involves your pelvic floor muscles and tailbone. Most women who experience regular lower back pain also suffer from pelvic floor dysfunction. It can be often difficult to figure out which comes first – the tension in the pelvic floor or the back pain.

Your pelvic floor helps stabilize the core and the lower back. Thus, when your back is in pain, the pelvic floor muscles may get tightened in an effort to try and protect the affected area. But that can cause problems as it can lead to overuse or over-clenching of the pelvic floor. In other cases, pelvic dysfunction may occur first and affect the stability and mobility of your spine, which in turn lead to lower back pain.

In both scenarios, lower back pain and pelvic floor dysfunction impact and reinforce each other. Therefore, both areas must be addressed properly.

Massage therapists can help you reduce lower back pain by addressing both areas using different techniques such as myofascial release and trigger point therapies. Both of these techniques may seem the same as both of them address stubborn muscle knots, but they are different. While myofascial release involves slower stretching and dynamic movement across large areas of tissue, trigger point therapy applies direct pressure to specific muscle knots.

If you are also suffering from lower back pain that is not going away with regular therapies and treatments, you should consider evaluating your pelvic floor area and lower back to see if you can benefit from therapeutic bodywork that involves myofascial release or trigger point therapy or both.

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