Deep tissue massage encompasses a variety of therapeutic techniques designed to reach and manipulate the layers of soft tissue beneath the skin’s surface. This approach to massage therapy is designed to relax and lengthen these tissues, promoting injury recovery, pain relief and the restoration of proper posture and body mechanics (how your body moves).
Muscles can become imbalanced because of injury or repetitive daily movements, such as sitting at a desk for extended periods, poor posture or playing a sport that utilizes one part of your body more than others. “You can get tight muscles on your shoulder, for instance, and that starts to pull on your neck [muscles],” explains David Abookire, a licensed massage therapist, sports injury specialist and owner of Boulder Therapeutics in Boulder, Colorado. “Receiving deeper work can help to unwind those patterns so that your biomechanics and movement patterns are reset.”
What’s the Difference Between Deep Tissue Massage and Other Massages?
The goal of deep tissue massage, as Abookire explains, is to rebalance the muscles. While providing pain relief is a key objective, this form of massage also aims to identify and address the underlying causes of discomfort.
It utilizes precise techniques that apply sustained pressure to targeted areas. Therapists may use their elbows, fists and varied amounts of their body weight to achieve a deeper pressure than that typically found in other massage types. However, the therapist will apply lighter pressure initially, and gradually increase as a way to warm up the body to access the deeper layers of tissue.
“Deep tissue massage strives to make changes in the body,” says Jaimi Jansen, a physical trainer, massage therapist and the founder and CEO of Santa Cruz CORE Fitness + Rehab in Santa Cruz, California. A deep tissue massage client may have tense muscles from prolonged sitting or from a strenuous activity such as recently completing a marathon. Either way, Jansen says a therapist must take a slow and steady approach to help the body unwind.
All types of massage therapy typically provide physical tension relief. Each form, however, has unique goals and techniques. Swedish massage, for example, is geared towards promoting muscle relaxation and enhancing blood circulation. It features long, flowing strokes across the body often accompanied by the use of lotions or oils. Deep tissue massage, on the other hand, targets small, specific regions and typically less oils are used.
Deep tissue massage may be incorporated into a several other modalities, including:
- Neuromuscular therapy, a technique that involves applying strokes with the finger or thumb, designed to alleviate pain or dysfunction
- Myofascial release, a type of manual therapy targeting the body’s connective tissue and is used to decrease pain and improve function, and uses sustained pressure techniques
- Trigger point therapy, which uses various manual techniques to apply pressure to tight and tender areas called “trigger points”
However, not every massage therapist who offers deep tissue massage will use all of those techniques, according to Abookire.
Jansen starts her own deep tissue sessions with broad, Swedish-style strokes to prepare the tissue for the more intense pressure to come. “The tissue has to welcome the pressure. Otherwise it can cause the muscles to spasm,” adds Jansen.
Both Jansen and Abookire emphasize that the objective of deep tissue massage is not simply to apply intense pressure. “We’re not just pushing hard to make it hurt; we’re pushing harder to access deeper muscles after we warm up the superficial ones,” explains Abookire. Multiple sessions may be required before those deeper layers can be safely reached. “We moderate [the pressure level] depending on the client,” he notes. “If your nervous system is telling us not to work deeply, we won’t.”
