What do you think of when someone says to you "go get a massage"? Do you think of an island retreat with someone rubbing your back with delicious smelling oils melting stress away? Or do you think of the spartan massage table you hop on right after a big grime-filled race to work on your plantar fasciaitis? Perhaps your mind is on being in a clinical setting with your therapist stretching out muscles to balance your hips and improve your posture? Well surprise!! All of these are massages.
With so much misleading media, many people think that the first vision is the only valid kind of massage. How wrong they are! The massage profession has made many positive advancements over the years being recognized by the medical community and the public as a beneficial addition to a person's health habits, and as a respected form of healing. But how can you choose the right kind of massage for you?
Massage is, unlike most medical treatments, offered in a variety of settings like a clinical doctor's office, a field outdoors next to an athletic event, a spare room in a person's home, or even a lavish spa.
Thankfully the kind of massage you get has a lot of bearing on where you are getting the massage. Each of these places represent a generalization of the main focus in common types of massage.
Doctor's office - clinical and medical massage for injuries, surgeries, medical conditions, muscular & joint correction
Athletic environment - sports massage for maintenance, injuries, and soreness
Spare room/retail massage - general relaxation, circulation, sports maintenance, energy work, some varying spa treatments
Lavish spa/beauty shop - routine based Swedish massage (occasional routine deep tissue labeled massage), wraps, scrubs, hot towel, hot stone, basic aromatherapy (blends or small selection of individual oils)
Massage therapists gravitate to a place that offers the type of massage that they specialize in and feel most strongly about. These fields do overlap some and you may on occasion find a sports therapist working in a spa but most likely you will find them, if they overlap, in a doctor's office.
You wouldn't expect your manicurist to fix a broken finger or treat arthritis or carpel tunnel syndrome, and by that same token, you can't expect the massage therapist in the spa to rehab an injury or correct a joint disfunction. Spas specialize in feel-good relaxation in all their services.
Spas offering massage have strict guidelines as to how the massage will be performed so that all customers have the same experience and each time a patron returns, they get the same quality of massage no matter who the therapist is. These rules apply also to 'deep tissue' labeled massage, thus making it not a true form of deep tissue massage.
Spare room and retail massage establishments offer general forms of massage, but have more freedom to customize. They run a middle ground, primarily focusing on relaxation and feel-good techniques, but will occasionally offer snippets of advanced techniques mixed in with general massage. Random routines are designed by the individual therapist primarily based on what the therapist would like in a massage on themselves. Many customers will find a particular therapist that they are fond of and will go to them on a regular basis. Deep tissue massage in these environments also follow a random routine designed by the individual therapist which also makes it not a true form of deep tissue massage.
Sports massage is focused on the athlete and their sport of choice. Maintenance is done with general massage while injury work is done with advanced forms of massage. Runners generally don't usually receive lots of work on their hands, and swimmers don't receive lots of work on their feet. True advanced forms of massage are specialized to the individual, not the therapist. Deep tissue, done on an injured joint or limb, is mostly true deep tissue massage in sports massage. Sports massage maintenance can be relaxing, but it's primary goal is circulation to reduce soreness and promote muscle growth and healing.
Doctor's office environments or clinics focus on health maintenance, improving injury healing, and working medical conditions. They primarily use advanced massage techniques. The massage is tailored to the individual and their condition, and in holistic centers, how that condition relates to the entire structure.
This is not the place to request a feel-good, fluffy, couples massage or a mani- pedi- combo. Swedish and relaxation techniques may be employed here for calming, anxiety reduction, and stress relief, but they are not usually a large part in every massage. Deep tissue massage is done only where needed on the body to facilitate correction and speed healing for that individual. The whole body isn't worked in the same way as a spa or retail establishment. In western theory clinics, an individual with carpel tunnel syndrome in the right wrist will result in only the right arm being worked on. In eastern theory clinics the same individual will experience the right arm, spine and hips being worked on.
In conclusion, the world of massage therapy is much like a swiss-army knife tool. It helps many problems but you have to pick the right tool for the job. If you need a relaxation massage, spas and retail franchise massage places might be the best place to look for those. And likewise, if you need actual therapy for chronic pain or injuries, look to more clinical settings using advanced massage techniques to find the relief you need. Using the wrong tool for your problem will eventually lead to greater dissatisfaction or disability depending on your situation.
