I went to see an RMT (registered massage therapist) today about the neck pain I’ve had for the last month. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking.
Sooo much owwie!! If you remember from my San Francisco post, the thumb print bruises left by Thori, this was twice as bad and ALL OVER! Every joint was screeeeeching pain.. I can take a lot of pain, I just go to my happy place, but he made me say owwwww more than a few times and clutch and claw at the bed. The pressure in my neck is gone, but I don’t know if the pain is just hiding under the bruises or not.
So first he shook me around by my hips then he tortured my back and the little knobbies at the bottom of my spine.. God those killed. Every joint he poked killed.. but those felt like he was stabbing me with a hot poker. That’s when I knew it was going to be a very very long hour.
Next, my legs.. Back of knee on left leg and Achilles tendon on right leg were the worst offenders but then he tickled my toes. 
Turned over, he worked on my neck some more.. shoulder owwies.. then did some kind of voodoo head scratching that felt really nice. Then he went back to my legs and did some more work on my thighs, then some range of motion testing. Turns out my left leg is severely worse than my right in how far it can bend and stretch. :/ While he was working on my left leg, it was causing a severe cramp in my right hip.. very strange!
I’m really sore now, but as long as I don’t touch my shoulders, back or arms, I’m ok.
Overall he said that my neck is ok, just that my joints aren’t getting enough circulation and that’s why they ALL KILLED. More exercise, more stretches, more massages..
I think I should go to a reflexologist next for my poor heel issues. He was concentrating on my neck, as I asked him to do, so didn’t get much time for heel.
So here’s what Thori said about the whole thing, made a lot of sense so I reposted it here with her permission.
*cuddles* Are you feeling better? Can you move yet?
Is very good he did range of motion with the massage (Deep tissue = Owie but goooood, if a day or a week later when the body stops screaming at you). Run if anybody mentions rolfing massage at this point *hehe* I have a gift certificate to a Thai massage that does all that and I’m ..saving it for a day where I don’t have the work the following week cuz my body’s messed up too.
*nodnod* @ joints, that’s where I left your bruises
Btw, I showed Wrennie the piccys and she laughed her ass off ..because y’know, she does jewelry and knitty so she has the same areas as you do
..when are you going back to him? He sounds funny AND good
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awwwwwh! *snuggles some more*
Spa massages should not leave bruises (hot stone, aromatherapy, etc) and relaxes the muscles with more light to medium strokes than deep/digging into muscles. Deep tissue massages are shorter term, like 5 to 10 min straight for one area of pain and it’s ment to break down scar tissue so your body can grow new, more flexible, tissue.
The fact that he was testing your physical limits (range of motion) and adding stretching with the massage means (to me, at least) he’s on the more serious side @ medical/sports injury/gym type of guy and *hehe* I do think you need a bit of that because you spend time hunched over the ‘puter or making SHINEYS! for years and you get weird muscle twitchies and numbness.
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Some people bruise more easier than others so that’s a good indication of too much pressure but not absolute. IMO, if you can handle the pain during and soreness after (not more than 2 days, borderline 4 days) and y’know .. you like it
then it’s ok. You MUST feel less stiffness/pain symptoms (after the soreness) afterwards tho and feel good for 2 weeks to a month. Then *nodnod* you go in again when things are stiff/pain.
Would say three-ish weeks for a couple of months for deep tissue, less after things clear up. You need a week to recover from pressure and another week or two for your muscles to heal back up.
You should tell him whenever it hurts past two days and you need to tell him when there’s too much pressure during. Unfortunately, for people with high pain tolerance (*clings* come get a tattoo with me
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*hehe* You’re welcome to @ post but y’know .. usual disclaimer(s) that it’s only my personal opinion since I’m neither a massage therapist or licensed in Canada and I wasn’t there and don’t know what’s going on in your body or his mind
My favorite example (if not exactly accurate of what goes on) is having a cut on your skin and the blood clots combine with the now dead tissue (at the edges of the cut) merge to form a scab (body fluid band aid @ body uses what it’s got) to seal off the area from more damage (infection and more blood loss). Underneath the scab, new tissue takes a week or so to to reform and eventually the old tissue/blood ban aid falls off.
Sometimes there’s a scar because the new tissue isn’t the same (for whatever reasons) as the old/surrounding type, it’s a little harder. Think stretch marks during pregnancy? Then you go to the spa (or my closet) to get scrubs, derma abrasions, lots of lotion/liquids to make that area more flexible. That’s essentially sandpapering the skin cells to slough off the old to make room for the new.
When you injure the muscle (big tramuatic accident or chronic carpal tunnel), the same process happens. Muscle and tendons needs to be more stable because they do all the work instead of lying around, looking pretty and getting a sun tan) so the body lays down stiffer tissue to make sure the injured area doesn’t get pulled too much. It’s that stiffer “safety net” tissue that is scar tissue and makes the muscle all stiff and shrinks it. Overtime (months/years depending) the whole area gets all kinked up because the injured tissue intertwines with other muscles/tendons/bone and pulls the others.
Soooo.. if you have numbness, muscle spasms, tight and tenderness (with pressure) AND pain then you most likely have enough scar tissue in there that needs to be tenderized @ deep tissue massages because that stuff isn’t just going to fall off on it’s own. Once the tissue gets broken down, you get that injured feeling. The therapist is supposed to know what they’re doing, instead of causing unnecessary pain/damage. Then you get that one week recovery period, one to two weeks growing tissue (and the new tissue will be baby tissue/weak) that should be more flexible than the previous bits but is probably still harder than what it should be = rinse and repeat.
But you really, really have to feel better afterwards (even if it only lasts a couple days but you should feel loose after the sore goes away), the second time (provided it isn’t a year later) massage = less pain/sore AND he has to listen when you say “no” and “ow” *nodnod*
*hangs head @ ANOTHER info dump*
I is talkies.
Candy now?