One of the problems when getting a massage is that you do not know what to choose. There are at least 10 different options and you do not know the difference between any of them. If it is your first massage, it is important to first establish why it is you are going.
If you are in need of relaxing, your best choice would be a Swedish massage which is slow, light, and calming touch. Aromatherapy is when they add essential oils to your massage; it can be added to any of your massages. It enhances the experience while calming your nerves or boosting your self-esteem, whatever it may be that you need. If you are particularly sore all over, due to overuse of muscles, I would recommend a hot stone massage to help relax your muscles. This will help them to be more willing to be manipulated in such a manner that they have more of a potential to release most of the knots in them. A word of caution though, it can leave red marks from the heat and pressure of the rocks, but it is not painful.
Another massage you will find on the list is trigger point therapy. Trigger point therapy is used to relieve areas found in your muscles that have many nerves running through them; these nerves are irritated causing them to be painful when compressed. The trigger points tend to send pain to other parts of your body. For example you could have a trigger point in your gluteus maximus (buttocks), which will send a shooting pain down your thigh. “Similar to the ‘check engine’ light in a car, a trigger point is a warning of dysfunction and if left unchecked could represent very serious consequences,” says Fabian Fernandez in his book Deep Tissue Massage Treatment, “a trigger point is a very serious dysfunction and if left unchecked could represent very serious consequences.”
Last but not least, deep tissue therapy which is done really deep and can be painful. It is also done really slowly, which is why it can cost more than a Swedish massage. Deep tissue therapy is used to release knots found all over your body that can possibly be blocking some of your nerves and blood supply. According to Fernandez, “A knot is a combination of spastic and intertwined muscle fibers.” These knots do not send pain, like trigger points; they “hurt so good” when compressed. We are all familiar with muscle pain that feels good when someone is squeezing them.
Now that you know what the difference is, you can schedule a massage with confidence and get what will really benefit your body the most.
