The massage therapy/bodywork industry has a lot of confusion and controversy around the concept of no pain no gain. At Body Fix Therapies, we believe that this philosophy has no place in our practice. Our patients should not have to feel pain to make progress with our treatments.

What happens when you get worked on, and you are in pain, is your muscles are reacting to the pressure or engagement as possible danger and responds by tightening up or guarding. They protect you because you are uncomfortable. Typically, bodywork is trying to do the exact opposite. It is trying to relax your tissue. Feeling pain during your session does not mean you are getting more done, it means your body is fighting against what the therapist is doing making the session less effective, especially in the long run.

Additionally, depending on how aggressive the treatment is, your body can respond as if it has been through blunt force trauma. There are some extremely rare instances where a little bit of discomfort might be needed to push through something, but again, these are very rare situations.

There should not be any pain in orthopedic massage therapy. You should not have to breathe through your treatments for them to be effective. This doesn’t mean we don’t go deep if needed, it simply means we don’t go too deep to fast. Your body accepts rather than endures treatment. Call 916.488.4223 to make an appointment for a pain-free but effective orthopedic session with one of our massage therapists.