Olga's Deep Tissue Overview

Last Updated (Tuesday, 16 November 2010 21:19) Monday, 01 November 2010 10:00

Okay, so here's the skinny...Tight muscles pull on joints, putting extra stress across the joints.  This results in pain, tension, aching, etc.  Some really common examples of this are headaches, pain between the shoulder blades, low back pain, kinks in the neck, pinched nerves, and the list goes on. So what do you do?  Exactly, go get a massage, but what happens when you go get a massage and the therapist just gives you a nice relaxing light to medium pressure massage?  Thats all fine and good if you want to just fall asleep or take your mind off things, but how is that going to fix your problem?  The answer is Olga's Deep Tissue.  Loosen the muscles = take stress of the joints = no more pain!  At ODT, we train our therapists to work deep within the muscles to get you feeling better for days or weeks, not minutes or hours...

How Deep is Too Deep?

Last Updated (Wednesday, 17 November 2010 18:51) Monday, 01 November 2010 10:00

So I've had several clients request light to medium pressure, only to find out ten minutes into the massage that they had had "Deep Tissue" massage in the past by a therapist who went too deep.  Awful,  painful, terrible, excruciating, are just some of the words used to describe their experiences. 

The first thing I always tell my clients, is that if I do anything that makes you "tighten up" or "hold your breath", then I'm going too deep.  I also tell them to not be afraid to tell me to back off or go deeper if they need me to.  Whats happening is when a therapist starts to go too deep, your bodies natural reaction is to protect itself by tightening up.  If they continue to go deep while your muscles are tightened, they are going to bruise you and only make the problem they are trying to fix worse.  Now in a good scenario, the client would say, "That's too much can you back off a little", and the therapist would oblige.  However, in most cases the client doesn't say anything, and suffers through the torture, sweating, and clinching their teeth until it's over. In the worst case scenario, the client asks several times for the therapist to back off, but unfortunately they are not experienced enough to gauge their pressure accordingly, or they think that they're doing the right thing by going that deep.  

So whats the happy medium?  Well, we want to get deep enough into the muscle to affect it and get it to respond, but not so deep that it's uncomfortable enough to make you tighten up.  You should be able to relax and breathe freely and anything you experience should be a "good hurt".  As far as your comfort level, you should try to stay at about a 6 or 7 out of 10 on your pain scale.  If you get up over that, or it turns to a "bad hurt" at any time, you should notify the therapist to back off to a comfortable level.  If you have to tell the therapist more than twice without change, you should ask them to end the session...

What about Chiropractors?

Last Updated (Monday, 15 November 2010 03:24) Monday, 01 November 2010 10:00

Clients are always asking if I believe in Chiropractors.  In my experience, people either love them or hate them, for the same reasons they love or hate a Deep Tissue therapist, they either had a good experience with them, or a bad one.  My first rule of thumb is this:  If a Chiropractor recommends massage therapy, or has an in house therapist, you know they're at least trying to make you better.  Why?  Well we already talked about how tight muscles pull on joints.  Deep Tissue massage will help alleviate the tension and take most of the pressure off, but when they are so tight that they pull your joints out of alignment enough to put pressure on the nerves, you're ready to go to the chiropractor.  Pressure on the nerves will manifest itself by stabbing pain, numbness, tingling, or total incapacitation.  Just about any chiropractor can adjust you generally, a better chiropractor will focus in on exactly where the problem is coming from, and an excellent chiropractor will do that, and then recommend what muscles need the deep work done to them, to prevent them from pulling back out again.  One that just wants your money will adjust you and tell you to come back 3 times a week...for the rest of your life.  They know that as soon as you walk out the door, if your muscles are still tight, they will pull the joints right back out again and you'll be back for more.