I regularly hear the words 'No Pain, No Gain' when clients come in for massage. It speaks to a misconception that massage therapy must be painful in order for it to be effective. Nothing could be further from the truth!
Pain is a very subjective and personal experience. The tolerance to pain and an individual's pain threshold will vary based on their own neural wiring and traumatic physical experiences that have taken place in the past. It is inconceivable to even try and compare pain tolerance from person to person. Therefore, the idea that you must feel physical pain in order for things to improve is in fact, wrong.
Pain is a neural response. It is a sensory and emotional response to trauma or a threat of trauma within the body. It cannot be quantified. You cannot say that a broken bone will result in a specific type of feeling in the body as it works differently between individuals. On the opposite spectrum to pain, pleasure is also a sensory and emotional response to an enjoyable or positive experience. It also cannot be quantified and different people will respond in different ways to pleasurable stimuli.
Interestingly, the neural response to a pleasurable stimulus will reach the brain quicker than a painful stimulus. This can contradict the idea that a massage has to be painful, although some individuals do equate a certain amount of pain with pleasure due to the release of hormones that occur as the result of pain. This is however, dependent upon the knowledge of the individual that the pain will soon end. Sustained pain therefore has a negative response within the body and can actually make the body function worse due to resistance to pain. You can however override the pain response with a pleasurable stimulus.
So where is the balance?
If you are in tune with your body and understand it's somatic responses, you will know whether or not your brain will equate a small amount of pain with a positive outcome. However, the pleasure stimulus is still faster which means your body will respond quicker with a positive outcome when a pleasurable stimulus is experienced.
Your body, your preference.
I use techniques that will achieve the same outcome for different people however, one will be gentle and painless and the other will be firmer and with small amounts of pain felt by the recipient. With firmer work, it is important for the client to communicate with me to ensure they do not experience too much pain as the work will not achieve the best outcome.
So in essence, a massage doesn't have to be painful if you don't want it to be. But a little but of pain can actually be good for you!
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