What is the difference between relaxation massage and treatment massage?
Relaxation massage is where long, slow strokes are used. This is to help calm the nervous system and help relax tense muscles. This form of massage is good to use for those who have chronic pain, or nerve damage, those who are experiencing a lot of stress, or who are having difficulty sleeping. Relaxation massage can also be helpful after doing workouts as it can also help with flushing out toxins from the muscles which can help prevent cramping. Relaxation is used for this instead of treatment as the pressure is lighter.
Treatment massage has shorter, and sometimes faster strokes, depending on the type of treatment required. Treatment massage, helps with getting knots or adhesions out of muscles, tendons, ligaments, scar tissue, and so on. But treatment massage doesn’t just include the muscular system of the body. It also works on the joints, especially if joint-play is included in the treatment, or can affect the organs such as the lungs or intestines. There are treatments for the lymphatic system, but the treatment looks more like a relaxation massage in the sense that usually the strokes are longer, and the pressure is much lighter, as the lymphatic system is very delicate.
What most people don’t know, when it comes to massage, a treatment session always starts as being a relaxation massage. This helps a person to adjust to the therapist, as well as to help their muscles and nervous system to calm down. This step shouldn’t be skipped, sadly it is in many cases out of stereotyping, thinking that if you have a treatment massage it should hurt. Much like the saying, “no pain, no gain”. That isn’t true, at least not when it comes to massage. The reason is, if you don’t give the muscles and nerves time to relax and calm down, all it’s going to do is cause the muscles to spasm, a form of protecting the body like you’re being attacked. Once this happens, the therapist is only fighting against your tissues, causing discomfort, and possibly cause tissue damage. If the therapist does a relaxation massage first, the muscles don’t view their touch as a threat, and relax or melt under the therapist’s touch, allowing them to work on knots or other issues that are in the tissues. Not only does this make treatment less uncomfortable, but it also lets the therapist get to the deeper tissues of the body, which tend to be the cause for most of the pain you are experiencing.
Though, I know many will say that they want the rough and tough massage, as that works for them since they feel great three days after they had their massage. This isn’t right, as usually the reason why you feel better, isn’t always because the therapist is fixing you, rather you are past the hump of healing from the massage itself, not so much being cured from what you went into the massage for in the first place.
To ease your mind, during a treatment massage, you don’t need a half-hour full-body relaxation massage to negate the effects that I mentioned above. Especially if this isn’t your first massage with that therapist. If you’ve seen the therapist several times, and you do trust them, them putting oil on your skin, using a few long strokes, may be all that you need. This could mean 30 seconds to a minute, others could take up to 5 minutes, but is only really needed in the first area that is being worked. In the additional areas, it can go back down to the 30 seconds standpoint. I know that doesn’t sound like a lot of time, but it doesn’t always have to take a lot of time. If you have an acute injury or you’ve never seen that therapist before, it can take longer, and the therapist may not be able to go as deep as you might want them to for that session, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t able to do any form of treatment. But it is better for them to gain that trust with you, and will make the next session easier for you to relax so they can get deeper, without causing you harm.