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I always say

I often say in here , That once any underlying pathology is ruled out. Its soft tissue work all the way. But thats not always true. I had an elderly women in for a massage the other day.. In her late 70s. She never had a massage before in her life. She said she just wanted to relax.. I asked her if she had any pain in her body.. She toled me that she has a serious arthritic condition in her back.. She sees medical doctors for it.. She has had injections in her back.. I asked her what part of her back hurts the worst. She said lower back.. I asked her if any of the medical doctors touched her back..She looked kind of puzzled and said.. I dont think so.. I left the room so she could get on the table.. Her daughter was in the waiting area.. I told the daughter that there was a very good chance that her mother is going to be pain free after this massage.. The daughter said.. Oh she is not expecting to be pain free.. See has a serious arthritic spine...I said well maybe, but, she is 77 years old and has never had a massage in her life, and I have been doing massage for 30 years. She is going to feel prety good. And its my experience that most MDs dont know anything about muscle pain. The women ooh ed and aww d the entire massage. After her massage she came out into the waiting room and told her daughter and me that her back does not hurt anymore. I explained to them, that you can not rub out arthritis. And that I would bee considering a different kind of therapy for her back. Im sure that she has some arthritic donditions in her back. But thats not whats causing her pain.. Its tight sore muscles. So when I say.. Once any underlying pathology is ruled out. Im prety much talking about tumors or broken bones or cancer or something. 630 billion dollars was spent on the ache and pain industry last year. I wonder how much of the billions is incorect or waisted therapy? Our profession has so much potential. I wish there was some real leadership in our profession.

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Permalink Reply by Chuck Peck on January 29, 2013 at 6:08am

Hello Gordon,

I so agree, I can't count the number of clients I've worked on that their primary issue was large areas of tight muscles. This is made worse when one muscle in a pair is much tighter than it's partner.

I use the term Therapeutic Relaxation for the work I do on them. A very slow rhythmic stroke and only works to a level that that muscle will allow. Moving from body part to part, often coming back to the worse muscles to see if it will except deeper strokes. This type of massage works wonders for this type of client... now if I could just figure out how to get them to stretch between massages, they'd really feel so much better.

Chuck Peck

Arizona LMT

Cave Creek, AZ

http://www.carefreeservices.org

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Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on January 29, 2013 at 2:28pm

I dont want my clients to go home and stretch after I have eliminated their trigger points...I want them to let the muscle rest, so it can heal. . If on the next session their pain is gone... Then I suggest stretching.

Chuck Peck said:

Hello Gordon,

I so agree, I can't count the number of clients I've worked on that their primary issue was large areas of tight muscles. This is made worse when one muscle in a pair is much tighter than it's partner.

I use the term Therapeutic Relaxation for the work I do on them. A very slow rhythmic stroke and only works to a level that that muscle will allow. Moving from body part to part, often coming back to the worse muscles to see if it will except deeper strokes. This type of massage works wonders for this type of client... now if I could just figure out how to get them to stretch between massages, they'd really feel so much better.

Chuck Peck

Arizona LMT

Cave Creek, AZ

http://www.carefreeservices.org