Unexpected Results

After a bit of a holiday break, we're back on the blog. Hope everyone is getting off to a good new year.

Life often brings the unexpected and a reader writes about some unexpected results from her massage therapy session.

"Two years ago, I began experiencing considerable, constant pain in my right hip. I was going to be at an event across the country that a friend who is an advanced massage therapist was also going to be at. I scheduled an appointment with him, knowing it was likely to bring me temporary relief and, wow, did I want and need some relief by then!

As it turned out, the single massage gave me a lot more than temporary relief. While he was working, the massage therapist told me what he was noticing in the tightness of my hip and leg muscles suggested that I was probably turning my right foot inward while walking. I'd never noticed myself doing that, but, sure enough, he was right.

Not only did the massage leave me walking pain-free for the first time in more than a month, ever since, whenever I'm walking along and feeling a twinge in my hip, I make a point of pointing my foot out slightly outward...well, making sure it's straight, actually, but it feels like I'm pointing it outward.

Doing that always makes the hip pain go away within moments and the constant pain I was feeling for at least 4-6 weeks before that massage has not returned in the two years since I received it.

I believe it's rare for a single massage to make such a difference, but that one certainly did. It was all thanks to what the massage therapist knew, observed, and mentioned to me as being a possible source of the problem."

I'm always pleased when someone finds relief through massage therapy, but what particularly caught my attention from this reader's story is the unexpected results. We can usually expect to feel relaxed and to get at least temporary relief from sore, tight muscles. However, massage can be a catalyst for other, less expected results.

In this particular reader's case, the therapist was knowledgeable and experienced enough to understand what might be triggering the client's hip pain in the first place. Besides offering some immediate, short-term relief, he was looking at ways to solve an ongoing problem. By making a suggestion as to possible corrective actions, the client herself was able to remedy the source of the pain and prevent future problems.

An experienced and knowledgeable therapist will look for ways to educate the client so that the client can continue to get well and stay well outside of the massage room. By carefully listening to and observing the client, the therapist can help the client discover aggravating factors that may not have been obvious.

Have you had an unexpected result from massage therapy? If so, we'd like to hear about it.