My Search for a Great Massage

Scottsdale Therapeutic & Sports Massage began with my search for a great massage. Long before I trained in massage therapy, I was a massage client. A really frustrated massage client. I didn’t know precisely what kind of massage I wanted, but I knew I wanted a great one. My definition of great was, I thought, pretty simple: I had persistent knots between my shoulder blades, and I wanted someone to find those knots and make them go away. I figured that was the whole purpose behind a massage, any massage, and therefore any massage would be great.

I was, to put it kindly, naïve. I’ve since learned there are many different kinds of massages, and that people get massages for many different reasons, which means I first had to learn what kind of massage I was looking for (“deep tissue,” “therapeutic,” and “trigger point” are all terms that would’ve been helpful to know). But even after I knew I was looking for a deep tissue (not Swedish) massage, I still didn’t know how to get the relief I wanted.

I booked a lot of massages at random, and I spent a lot of money on disappointing massages. Sometimes a therapist would encounter my knots yet seem oblivious to their presence. Other times, the therapist would find one of my knots and do something to it, but it was either the wrong thing, or it was the right thing but not for long enough.

But then there were those other times. On those rare occasions, I got a great massage therapist. He would find my knots, work them the right way for the right amount of time, and I would feel my knots ease away. Even better, he knew where to apply firm pressure and where it wasn’t needed, making the experience both effective and relaxing.

These sessions helped me create my personal definition of a great massage. I think, at its core, a great massage is one in which the therapist both reads my body and reacts to it. Both skills are essential. A therapist who won’t (or can’t) read my body makes me feel invisible on the table, like I just put a quarter in a massage vending machine. Worse, though, are massages in which the therapist can read my body but doesn’t react to it in the right way. She finds a knot, she hovers for a beat…and then she moves on. Almost…but not quite. Those massages frustrate the heck out of me.

It was these disappointing massages, and a genuine curiosity about the giving side of the transaction, that led me to massage school. I wanted to be one of those great massage therapists, or at least understand why it was so hard to find one. What I learned, in working with my classmates, was both obvious and surprising: massage therapists are human beings. They are both capable and incapable of giving great massages. Any one massage depends on a complex mix of talent, training, temperament, and what kind of day the therapist is having. Not everyone has the capability to be great, but of those who do, not everyone learns how to be great. And then, of those who learn how to be great, not everyone has a great enough day to give a great massage every time.

Not Everyone Starts with Great Hands
There is an element of talent in massage. Like any of the five senses, the sense of touch varies in its degree of sensitivity from one person to another. In the field of massage therapy, “touch sensitivity” (a phrase I use to describe the trait) is important both in output (creating an effect or sensation with one’s hands) and input (awareness of what one’s hands are feeling). Most people who gravitate to massage therapy have better-than-average ability with both input and output, but in my experience it’s the level of input awareness that seems to vary the most from one person’s hands to the next.

When I was in massage school, we discussed touch sensitivity a lot. Some of my classmates could tell, with their hands, when a client’s muscles released (or relaxed), and others couldn’t. We learned that sensitivity can be developed (or “turned up”) with conscious practice, but it was clear everyone started with a different native ability. Some classmates with less native ability made a deliberate, intentional effort to develop their sensitivity to input, while others were content to focus on the quality of their output. Thus, both “nature” and “nurture” play a role in a therapist’s development of her touch.

Not Everyone Learns How to Use Their Great Hands
Whatever a massage therapist’s level of touch sensitivity, it’s what they do with it that really matters to the client. As I stated earlier, a therapist who can find my knots but doesn’t fix them is the type I’ve gotten some of my most frustrating massages from. I’ve thought a lot about those massages over the years, and I think what separates the disappointing from the truly great is a combination of good training and good engagement with that training.

First, there’s good training. The field of massage therapy has a cornucopia of theories, techniques, and niche modalities for treating muscles that are restricted in some way or another, and some of them work better than others. Some of these techniques are taught in massage school (depending on the school, the instructor, and the year), and many, many more are available through continuing education. Which techniques a therapist ends up learning is a combination of happenstance (which massage school they end up attending) and choice (which continuing education courses they gravitate toward). There are many techniques that differ in approach while being equally effective in outcome, but there are also techniques that aren’t particularly effective, or aren’t effective for particular types of clients. Thus, a therapist can have talented hands but fail to get training in effective techniques that will allow her to use her talent to her full potential.

Second, there’s what I think of as engagement with the training. A therapist can study an effective technique, but unless she makes the effort to understand how the technique works and has the touch sensitivity to apply it correctly, the technique is not effective in her hands. As an example, in massage school we learned a technique called “applied pressure theory” for inducing relaxation in an over-taut muscle, but student uptake on the lesson varied. To be effective, the therapist must apply pressure to a muscle’s attachment site until the muscle stops contracting. In a group of students with varying degrees of engagement, some couldn’t find the muscle attachment site, some could find it but applied intermittent rather than sustained pressure, and still others applied sustained pressure to the correct location…but not for long enough. With practice and additional instruction, many of these students were able to learn the technique correctly, but not all of them did. Thus, it’s never enough for me to know a therapist studied or got certified in a certain technique; at the end of the day, it’s whether that therapist’s hands know how to be effective.

Not Everyone Is Having a Great Day
If you haven’t already arrived at this conclusion, I’ll state it bluntly here: massage therapy is part science and part crapshoot. The science comes from understanding the anatomy of muscles and the physiology of how they respond to manual pressure and movement. The crapshoot comes from your choice in massage therapist, whose understanding of the science varies, whose touch sensitivity varies, and whose mood and attitude varies.

Massage therapists are human. For my part, I try to give a great massage, and I try to give one every single time. I am also certain, on some days, with some clients, I fail. Sometimes a client’s nervous system doesn’t respond well to my preferred techniques, and sometimes my touch or my timing are just off.

It’s that—the human factor—that gives massages their unpredictability. It’s why massages are impossible to standardize, why they’re impossible to study rigorously as a science. But it’s also what gives massages the potential to be great.

I’m a Picky Client and Picky Clients are My Favorite
If you’ve read this far, you know I’ve applied a lot of analysis to rationalize just how picky of a massage client I am. To sum up, I consider a massage to be great only if the therapist giving the massage (1) has some degree of talent in her hands, (2) studied at least one technique that is effective, (3) engaged with her study enough to use that technique correctly and effectively, (4) reacts to what she senses in her client’s muscles and adjusts her technique accordingly, and (5) is having a great day. I am a demanding client.

Because I am such a demanding client, those are exactly the sort of clients I seek to serve.  I call it massage empathy:  I know what I want to feel when I’m getting a massage, and that feeling is what I strive to create for my clients.

Feeling picky?  Believe me, I know that feeling.  Why not give us a try?

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