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Myths of Massage
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Lt's dispell the myths of massage. Some myths have been handed down through generations of massage therapy students.
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Latest Activity: Aug 15, 2018
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Comment by Emmanuel Bistas on November 23, 2010 at 7:08am
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...Just came across a re-circulation of an old myth, and it appeared in an article by an author who is quite well respected in the complementary health care world." MUSCLES HAVE MEMORIES" No, memory is a function of the brain..
One of the greatest myths is that we know precisely how things work. Science keeps changing as is our understanding of the human body. We all need to be careful not to create new myths as we are removing the old ones.
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Comment by lee kalpin on November 22, 2010 at 4:33pm
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That really is a problem! I had a massage once that I had booked for one hour and it ended up going for over 2 hours. While some therapists may feel they are doing the client a big favour by spending so much time, I was very put out about this experience.
First of all, I had other appointments and commitments, so this messed up my day big time. Because I was face-down on the table, I was not aware of the time but was counting of the therapist to end the appointment on time.Therapists do need to consider this.
Another aspect is that this put me in an awkward situation - was I to pay for one hour (which I had booked) or two hours which the therapist had actually spent? There are ethical issues around this.
A final aspect is a big one. I know of a male therapist who was charged with sexual impropriety due to sloppy draping. He was spending up to three hours on each massage. The regulatory board considered that spending this long when the client was paying for a one hour appointment was "grooming" the client so that she would put up with sexually inappropriate behaviour.
Therapists need to behave professionally. This includes setting up a treatment plan and getting client approval for that plan. Then they must stick to it. and chart progress. If there is no progress, then the treatment plan must be changed. This should not be guesswork, treat everything possible and hope for the best!!!
Maybe this should be a topic for a new discussion group!
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Comment by Lauriann Greene, CEAS on November 22, 2010 at 3:57pm
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Your comments are spot-on about creating a treatment plan, Lee. Too few therapists are setting treatment plans at all. Often, therapists exhaust themselves trying to address every possible client complaint in just one session, because they don't feel they can create a treatment plan spaced out over a number of sessions. Sessions can become very long (I've heard of as much as 3 hours!) as a result, and turn into a relentless pursuit to please the client. The therapist's own professional assessment of the client's needs and ability to take care of their own health can be lost in such a situation.
The more that the therapist is in control of how to treat the client, the more the therapist has control over their own schedule and the type of treatments/modalities they will incorporate. And that adds up to a better ability to take care of themselves.
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I agree Lauriann. Well said. This generates another discussion eally.
It is about the client setting the treatment plan. Certainly the client has the right to request the modality or type of massage they want. However, I believe that the therapist should perform an assessment, and determine what the problem is - and what is needed to treat the problem most effectively, then propose that treatment plan to the client. The client can accept or decline. The therapist should be determining what is needed, not just accepting instructions from the client. In many cases Deep Tissue work is not appropriate. Also, this is subjective, what is deep for one person is not deep for another - and TOO deep for the next client.
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Lee wrote: "I agree that therapists need to work at a depth that they can sustain without causing injury to themselves, but deep work should not be about more hand pressure. The strength for deep work comes from the legs and moves through the body - is transmitted through the hands, or sometimes the elbows or ulnar border of the forearm.."
I totally agree, and I should have been clearer in saying that deep work is not to be totally avoided. We talk about using good body mechanics (larger muscles and the weight of the body) in our book. However, bear in mind that the force is still transmitted through the upper extremity even with good body mechanics, as you mention, so hand force as a risk factor is still present in deep work. For that reason it should be used judiciously (rather than all the time), since the frequency, intensity and duration of use of hand force (and whether there are other concomitant risk factors present) will determine whether the use of hand force leads to symptoms or injury.
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I think this operates on the same theory as "the medicine has to taste bad or it doesn't work". You are quite right, deep tissue massage is not appropriate for every condition or for every client. If the client tis in pain he will tense up and the muscle guarding is counter-productorive. Also, sometimes the muscle which is the problem is superficial (close to the surface) and not much pressure is needed to treat it.
Massage therapists do need to educate their clients.
I agree that therapists need to work at a depth that they can sustain without causing injury to themselves, but deep work should not be about more hand pressure. The strength for deep work comes from the legs and moves through the body - is transmitted through the hands, or sometimes the elbows or ulnar border of the forearm..
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How about "you have to use deep pressure to give a good massage"? Unfortunately, this has become a very pervasive myth among clients, who think that the deeper the therapist goes, the more pressure they use, the better the result will be.
The truth is that deep pressure can sometimes cause muscle guarding, actually making it harder for the client's muscles to relax. Many clients find such massages painful, so that's counterproductive if we're trying to elicit relaxation. And there are many types of massage that do not involve deep pressure (craniosacral, Reiki, Trager, etc.) that are very effective.
Of course, the other issue is that using deep pressure (hand force) is one of the three major risk factors for musculoskeletal disorders among massage therapists. So it's in our best interest to dispel this myth and educate clients that pressure does not always equal healing.
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Just came across a re-circulation of an old myth, and it appeared in an article by an author who is quite well respected in the complementary health care world." MUSCLES HAVE MEMORIES" No, memory is a function of the brain. In fact, muscles do not technically even feel pain. A message is sent to the brain by way of the sensory nerves and the brain interprets the input as pain, heat, pleasurable sensation or whatever.
What I think people mean by this is a short-hand sort of explanation for the following scenario:---
A patient had a whiplash injury a year ago which was not treated and there are still trigger points present in the muscles, limited range of motion and other symptoms. When the massage therapist touches or presses on the muscle, pain is created which the brain interprets as being the same as the pain suffered in the car accident. The patient reacts to the pain, and may even have an emotional release, because the pain is so much the same as the pain felt after the accident.
So we may sometimes think of this as "muscle memory", but let's remember our science lessons and be clear as to where the memory of the pain resides - in the brain.
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Here's another myth - you can correct the curvature of scoliosis by doing stimulating massage on the "weak" side and relaxing massage on the "tight" side. Oh, how I wish that one were true!
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I remember these myths from when I was in school 26 years ago! This has certainly changed here in Ontario. We have students doing special massage clinics for pregnant women, and cancer patients receiving massage in the hospital. So these myths are pretty much dead, but they still surface from time to time. I had an admin prson at a spa tell me that they won't treat people who had cancer (even if it's in remission!) I loaned her my book on massage for cancer.
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