Remedial Massage FAQ
Which massage treatment should I choose?
This depends on what you need treated. If you have a specific injury or pain, a remedial treatment would suit best. If you’re just after a general rubdown or a chance to destress/relax, a relaxation massage would be better suited. If you have a specific query or injury, feel free to give us a call to discuss your specific needs.
How long should my massage treatment be?
This depends on what you need treated. In general, we like to have 15mins per area of the body. For example, neck = 15mins, shoulders = 15mins, back = 15mins – Therefore we would like to have at least 45mins for a back/neck/shoulders massage. The common common appointment time is 1hr, however if you only want 1 area treated, our shortest appointment is 30mins.
When should I come back?
There is a different answer for everybody, and it all comes down to how well your body responds to this treatment. However in general, its best to string a few appointments closer together, so that your body adapts better to the treatment and doesn’t have as much time to build all that tension back up again. It has taken a while to build up your tension, so its unlikely that 1 treatment will be a permanent fix. During the first few treatments we can assess how well your body responds to our different treatment options and work out an on-going treatment plan from there.
Why did my remedial massage hurt?
Some pain is commonly associated with Remedial Massage & Myotherapy treatments. The pain is caused as we place pressure on tight areas of your muscles, known as Trigger Points, or “knots”. Put simply, nothing happens in our body without our brain telling it to do so. So our goal in treatments is to cause some pain, which will highlight to the brain that there is a problem here, and it needs to fix it. Our brain responds to this new pain (It may have been ignoring your muscle pain because it’s always tight and sore, so you didn’t realise how painful that spot was), and it activates our natural healing responses such as increased blood flow with hormones/nutrients/oxygen and everything our muscles need to repair.
I feel really sore after my remedial massage, what went wrong?
1-2 days of soreness is a common side-effect of a Remedial Massage/Myotherapy treatment. As explained above, your therapist may have aggravated some sore areas which your brain was ignoring but is now very aware of. This soreness can be alleviated through drinking water, movement, heat and stretching. If you are sore for 3 days or more, please communicate this with your therapist at your next treatment, as it means that they went a little too hard for your body to handle, and need to adjust accordingly. Once we learn your body, and your body gets used to receiving treatment, this pain will occur less and less.
Click here to read more about our remedial massage service.
What is lymphatic drainage?
Our lymphatic system basically controls a lot of fluid in our body, and our immune responses. The treatment can help to decrease fluid retention and swelling, boost immune function and also help with recovery post-surgery. It can also be super helpful during pregnancy and post surgery.
Click here for more information about lymphatic drainage.
What is the difference between Myotherapy and Remedial Massage?
Myotherapy is an extra year of study compared to Remedial Massage, and so they have a much more in-depth knowledge of the body, nervous system and also do more exercise prescription. Usually the hands-on treatment is very similar, however Dry Needling and Cupping is not usually included in a Remedial Massage course, so a Remedial Massage Therapist would have to do extra courses to be able to offer these modalities.
Click here for more information about our Myotherapy services.
What is electrotherapy?
Electrotherapy can be further explained by a qualified therapist, but basically its using electrical impulses to bring about change in your muscles and nerves. It can be done via pads on the skin, or by hooking up electrodes to needles. It can be super helpful to decrease nerve symptoms (numbness, tingling etc), and to remind muscles how to function properly (sometimes they forget!)
Is dry needling and cupping safe?
While there are risks to any type of treatment, the chances of something bad happening are very low, and these modalities are only offered by therapists who have done specific training for these tools.
Cupping usually leaves bruise-looking marks on the skin, which should not be painful to touch, and generally fade within 1 week.
There are a few more risks with dry needling, including pneumothorax (puncturing a lung), however our trained therapists use particular techniques to decrease the chances of this happening. A small bruise where a needle enters the skin can be normal and will heal as a normal bruise.
I have gotten an x-ray/ultrasound/scan done, can you read the results?
As Massage Therapists, we are not trained to read the actual images, however, please bring your report in to your next appointment and we will take a copy of that. If you would like to bring your images in, it is always great for us to take a look at them, but it’s unlikely we would be able to pick up anything that’s not in your report.