I’ve thought a few times recently about “The Listerine Effect” and massage. The effect referred to is the idea that if something is uncomfortable it must be good for you. Listerine’s TV ads show a guy scrunching up his face and enduring the pain of his mouthwash so that he gets its germ-killing benefits. A lot of people seem to think that massage has to hurt in order for it to benefit them. This is sometimes true, but usually not. It’s true when I and the client have together made the decision to go after a gnarly adhesion or other lesion with aggressive deep tissue massage or myofascial techniques. In my practice, this doesn’t happen that often. More often, I am doing deep tissue massage aimed at mobilizing soft tissues, improving circulation, etc. In deep tissue massage on fundamentally healthy tissues, there should be no pain, and this is what I’m doing about 80-90% of the time. If I suspect that a treatment might cause pain I always discuss it with the client or patient first, and I always stay on the safe side of their pain threshold. I think I have disappointed some folks who were hoping to get roughed up during their session, but I’m not going to inflict unnecessary pain just to address someone’s preconceived ideas about what massage should feel like.
Massage and “The Listerine Effect”
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