Doing massage is a demanding physical activity, so it’s important to look after your body. It’s crucial to avoid straining your hands and body or wearing yourself out.
The buildup of strain
Strains can build through poor working practices and pushing yourself too hard (e.g. by trying to consistency apply more pressure than you can comfortably deliver, or trying to do too many massages in day). It’s the slow cumulative effect of doing this in many massages that is of concern. This buildup of strain (often outside of awareness) can lead to problems. At the very least, these will reduce your effectiveness. If they are not addressed, straining your body may end your career and can be debilitating in other parts of your life.
So the practitioner’s ease of working is just as important as any specific stroke or technique – your comfort needs to be a significant factor in determining your way of working.
Burnout
There’s an attitude in some massage circles that you should put everything you have into each massage treatment, and constantly work at the edge of your limits or beyond them. And that we should ignore any discomforts in our body as we try to deliver this. These attitudes are a recipe for burnout.
Overload and burnout can also arise through working too many hours every day, pushing your body too hard in every treatment, and not taking enough breaks.
Build yourself up before embarking on your massage career
When you begin doing massages, you’ll need to take time to build up your physical strength and stamina, for example by building yourself up in the gym before working professionally. This is particularly important if you’ve switched from doing a desk job. Then when you start working professionally, try to spread clients out during the day, only see a few each day initially or only work half days until you’re ready for a full day’s massaging.
Warming up
Massage is a very physical activity, so a warmup (even of a few minutes) is an important preparation for your working day – doing exercises for stretching, flexibility, strengthening and energising.
Pacing yourself
Doing a full day’s massages is like running a marathon – you need to pace yourself so that:
- you can give the last client of the day a decent treatment
- and you don’t end up completely exhausted at the end of every working day (rather than just somewhat tired, as you would expect from doing a good day’s physical activity).
Depending on your work situation, try to organise:
- how many massages you can comfortably do in a day, and over your working week
- having breaks to replenish yourself – during the working day and the working week, and during the year
- spreading your most physically demanding clients throughout your working week, rather than scheduling them back-to-back on a single day
- when to refer clients on – there’s no shame in referring on clients when you can’t deliver the pressure that they want; in fact, it’s the professional thing to do.
- and reducing your work-load at stressful times in your life, when you are in recovery from strains or injuries, and also as you get older.
Know your limits
There are limits to every person’s ability to apply pressure and to maintain that level of pressure throughout a series of massage sessions, depending on your build, strength, fitness and the pressures that exist in your life. Obviously, practitioners with bigger builds can deliver more force for big, active clients that would exhaust those with smaller builds. However, even if you have a large build, you can wear yourself out if you consistently try to deliver more force than your body-weight can easily provide.
It’s important to know your limits and respect them – how much pressure you can comfortably apply in one treatment session, how many massages you can do in a day, how you are able to pace your working day and your working week, and when to refer clients on.
Obviously, practitioners with bigger builds can deliver more force for big, active clients that would exhaust those with smaller builds. However, even if you have a large build, you can wear yourself out if you consistently try to deliver more force than your body-weight can easily provide.
If you notice discomforts developing
If you notice discomforts developing, take preventative measures before they turn into major aches and strains. Doing one massage awkwardly might just tire you. But doing many massages awkwardly will start to have a cumulative effect, resulting in discomfort, stiffness or soreness. And, if you continue doing them, you may be forced to retire hurt.
Refer clients on
It’s important to refer on clients when you can’t deliver the pressure that they want – in fact, it’s the professional thing to do. Physically burning yourself out is no use to you – it will stop you from being able to deliver to your other clients, and may restrict the rest of your life.
Conserving your hands
It’s crucial to look at (and have training in) how to use your hands most efficiently – working most effectively with the least strain – particularly how to avoid straining your thumbs and wrists, the areas that practitioners most commonly strain.
Once you know what you’re doing with massage with your hands, it’s important to learn how to use your forearm and elbow (Hands Free Massage) skilfully (effectively and with finesse) and appropriately (monitoring and adapting to the client’s comfort and responses) in order to conserve your hands as much as possible.
Professional maintenance
An important part of maintaining your career is having support for your work – situations where you can discuss client issues and get advice and support. This might be with a formal supervisor, or by making times with colleagues to let off steam and get advice.
Professional development
Attending conferences and professional development courses enables you to maintain, refresh and develop your work.
Bear in mind that if you’re doing regular massage sessions, you are a massage athlete. Treat yourself like any other professional athlete:
- do warmups to prepare for your working day (above)
- and find ways to wind down at the end of your working day
- pace yourself (a major theme of this article) so that you can maintain your energy throughout your working day
- practice outside of your professional treatments in order to refine your techniques (making them more efficient and effective, and easier and less strainful to deliver) and to develop and incorporate new techniques
- keep yourself in good shape through your diet, getting good sleep etc
Self-maintenance
It’s important to look after yourself in order to retain your energy for doing massage. Ideally, this includes having regular massages yourself,.Make sure that you’ve got other interests and activities and social times in your life that nourish and replenish you and balance up your working life. And you need regular time off work, holidays, and doing things to nourish yourself outside of work.
This article is adapted from the book Foundations of Hands Free Massage by Darien Pritchard to be published in 2025.