What If Softer Is Better?
By Marty Kunsman, CNMT
I write this article to stimulate discussion and debate. I have learned many things working as a Massage Therapist that I would like everyone to know. Much of what I have learned goes against what most people believe. The healthiest bodies are not hard and tone but soft and pliable. Many people are trying to tone up when the focus really should be on softening.
There is wide difference in the overall muscle tone of the bodies I work on. I usually work on a person’s back first. Many of these backs have an overall tone that is very hard, similar to a rock. Others, have soft, pliable back muscles that I can sink into, similar to a piece of uncooked steak.
I wanted to know why. I started to ask a few questions of the people who were my extremes. I figured I could learn more from looking at the extremes. My extreme Hard Bodies tended to be people who worked a lot. They might have had jobs with a lot of responsibility, requiring many hours each week. The extreme Soft Bodies tended to be people who did a lot of cardio exercise. A small percentage of them were people who just didn’t seem to have too much stress in their lives. I saw first hand how easy it was to feel the stress that people were holding in their bodies.
There were no exceptions. I could always predict how much stress they were holding. Always.
This has many implications health wise. Since my specialty is pain, I wanted to know if one body type had more of a likelihood to have pain issues. It turns out that the harder bodies had more pain issues than the softer ones.
Now, I listen to their complaints of tight areas in their bodies but I always check their overall tone first. I will feel this hardness, this high tone, everywhere in their bodies. Even in their hands, when we first shake hands. In the following articles, we will go further with the discussion. I hope to hear from you with any comments. Especially if you are a bodyworker of any kind and have your hands on people on a daily basis. Let me know of your experience with this.
Marty Kunsman works as a Neuromuscular Massage Therapist in Charlotte, NC
He is a graduate of the Academy of Somatic Healing Arts ( Atlanta, Georgia) and author of:
Hard Body Pain/Soft Body Bliss 2006
Hard Body Pain and Massage Therapy Solutions 2006, 2014
Available at Amazon.com
comments: hardbodypain@gmail.com
