What did I do to hurt my friend/client?

[Dnt TriPP]

Hello,

I have been practicing massage for over 6 years "intuitively," and am currently a student with 150 hours in of a 600 hour course. Our class has gone through swedish massage techinques from head to toe and have given each other multiple full body massages. Until tonight I have NEVER hurt anyone. This evening I gave a good friend who is an avid cyclist (he lives completely car free and bikes everywhere) his first ever full body massage using Swedish techniques: Efflourage, petrissage, some cross fiber frictioning, striping, etc. When I got to his legs, his fibularous longus muscles were extremely tight. I used petrissage w/hands & Frictioning with my forearms while his leg was bent to help loosen the muscles. I checked with him on pressure regularly, and he even fell asleep at one point. However, about 10 min afterward the massage was completed he came downstairs and said that his calves were now extremely painful like he had been running up stairs for hours and hours. He could barely walk and was having a hard time bending down and putting his shoes on. I also applied deep efflourage and striping to his forearms during the session and afterward he said that his hands felt very weak - he was having a hard time gripping the flip top cap on the bottle of water or applying enough force to open the cap.

I gave him the same massage that I have been giving to my classmates for the last 2 weeks with good results on them. Can someone please tell me what I did? How did I injure my friend? (technically speaking) And how to I avoid doing this to paying clients in the future?

Thank You,
MissC

 

[Dave B]

What did I do to hurt my friend/client?

Probably a good question for your instructor to be answered in class.

It's interesting to note that you believe that you "hurt" or "injured" your partner.
If you have given and received bodywork for six years and this is the first time you have encountered this, I am really surprised.

The simple explanation that I give my clients is that sometimes after a session that their body may feel as if they had been at the gym - it's like a workout.
The muscles may feel sore or fatigued. I discourage any gym workouts or exercise after receiving a massage - or at least advise them to scale back and not to be surprised if they feel a bit weaker than usual.

I am not a big fan of frictioning if you are just doing it in a generalized fashion.
Frictioning is used to break up adhesions (places where the tissues are "stuck" together). It is best used in a precise manner...that you have identified specifically which muscle tendon you are working on and WHY.

BTW - good technique bending the leg - it is much more comfortable for the client than working straight down into the tissues. The fibularis longus and brevis are tight on a lot of people, especially those with a history of lateral ankle sprains. To prevent soreness and cramping I only do a couple of minutes work and very limited frictioning - I do more trigger point work and gentle stripping - then work deeper on each subsequent session. Forearm stripping is awesome when done with precision - my arms feel tired afterwards too. If he has never had a massage before he certainly will look to you to explain what he might feel over the next several days. A day or two of soreness would be normal...a week of soreness means we did too much or went too deep!

 

[Nine]

What did I do to hurt my friend/client?

If you haven't done anything that you normally don't do and the post by Squash Blossom doesn't fit your experience, your client may have an underlying health condition he might/might not be aware of. I had a client years ago come in when I had my practice in AL and they had received a massage with another therapist that left them unbelievably sore and bruised feeling, this client went in for some tests and was diagnosed with something. It was a while ago and I've since forgotten what the condition was, but I do remember it was an early diagnosis of something that could have come out worse if not diagnosed early.