The difference between deep tissue and deep pressure

by Summer Bee (Heather Gamin) 

              When it comes to therapeutic massage, do you know what you are asking for?  Most people confuse deep pressure with deep tissue massage.  Deep pressure can also be called heavy pressure.  Deep or heavy pressure is when a massage therapist uses their body in a way that allows for a lot of pressure.  Some clients really enjoy this kind of work because they can feel the impact of changes that are being made in the body after the massage.  Most people who get deep pressure massages report being sore for 2-3 days after their season. Let me introduce you to deep tissue massage. There is some heavy pressure involved with deep tissue massage, but heavy pressure alone is not deep tissue.  The body is layered, for example, the outer most layer of the body is the skin, then just under that is the lymphatic system, under that is muscle, then bone and finely organs.  If we wanted to medically say where these layers were, we would call the skin superficial, and we would call our organs deep.  So, to get to the deepest parts of the body you would have to peel back each layer one by one. When your massage therapist performs deep tissue massage this is what they are doing, they are slowly going deeper and deeper through the layers of muscles. To put this into perspective your back has forty muscles on each side of the spine there are 20 muscles on each side. There are many muscles with many functions. Some muscles move you head and neck, others move your pelvis and some in the back even help support breathing.  When getting deep tissue work done the therapist needs to work with a lot of intention and move slower than they would when just be using heavy pressure alone because they are feeling dysfunction in the deeper muscles of the body. I hope this little dive into the difference between deep tissue and deep pressure empowers you to ask what ask what you are seeking in your next massage session.