Deep Tissue Massage
How does it work?
Most people are familiar with the feeling of 'knotty tissue', that triggers nerve pain, often around the shoulder blades, hips, or up and down the spine. When muscle tissue gets torn or damaged it can often mend itself with fibre that can become clumpy and inflamed. Especially if fibres are stuck behind bone, or are under or over used by repeated activity or bad posture, blood flow may be limited, fibre strains re-occuring, and natural healing slow. Massage speeds up the natural healing process by manually intervening to break down clumpy fibres and increase the flow of healing blood to the area, so that the body can heal itself. Most natural healing occurs during sleep, so clients will often experience some immediate relief after massage, and then longer term mending after 2 nights sleep. After one nights sleep the client might experience reactive aches, showing the process is not complete until a second night.
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Many painful conditions experienced through the nerves, like frozen shoulders or sciatica, neck pain and headaches, may have their origins in the build up of inflamed muscles tissue around the skeleton, and a carefully applied deep tissue massage may be what the body needs to unblock the tissue and trigger the natural healing processes of the body.
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Stephen will identify the inflamed areas, through touch and conversation with the client and the slowly work to release the fibres by gradually increasing pressure, before easing off, shaking, and smoothing the area back down.
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Use of the whole hand will have the softest and smoothest feel, the heel of the hand can create stronger pressure, and knuckles may then be used to pick out a particular area of inflamed tissue, if the client is happy with this.
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A good deep tissue massage is a co-operative effort where the client and therapist agree on the suitable pressure as the treatment proceeds.
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