What to expect from a sports or deep tissue massage.

First let me reassure you if you haven’t been to us before that we don’t do any unnecessary nakedness.  If you want you can wear gym shorts but it is no necessary.

On your first visit you will be asked to fill out a consultation form and we will discuss why you booked.  At the start of subsequent treatments we may ask you about your response to our last treatment or if there has been a long gap, your reason for booking.  If there has been a significant gap we may ask you to fill out a consultation form again, especially if it has been archived.

While we are all able to use oils, we tend to use a sports wax as it doesn’t stain your clothes and it is odorless and one brand we use is nut free too. During the massage we will use fingertips, knuckles, hands, elbows, and forearms to treat you.  You may be asked to breathe deeply as we works on tense areas.  Most of our clients want deep pressure.  However there are times when we need to use a lighter sustained pressure on some restrictions to achieve a myofascial release.

We may get you to move position on the massage bed to give us better access to certain muscles or to treat the opposing muscle.  For example, if we have worked on your upper back we may need to open up your chest, particularly your pec muscles.

We may stretch your muscles ourselves or ask you to move your body in a certain way to stretch it or to see how it reacts to the movement.

 

 

 

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