3 Reasons Your Massage Therapist Did Not Do the Same Thing on Both Sides

Have you ever gone for a massage, and while you're trying to relax and sink into the experience, you noticed the therapist did something different on one side than on the other. Instead of enjoying yourself, now you're tracking their movements or trying to figure out why, for instance, they worked the right side more than the left. Here are three (mostly) scientific reasons why they may have done things differently.

1. Your body is not actually symmetrical.

Outwardly your body appears the same on both sides, so it's easy to forget how different it is from one side to the other. Have you ever used the function on a camera app that mirrors one side to the other and marveled at how odd your face looks? It's because the sides of your face are not perfectly identical.

Furthermore, you do not use your body the same on both sides. Everything from hand-dominance, working, driving, or sleeping, we use our bodies differently on each side. Take something you're really comfortable or confident with one hand/foot/direction and try doing it with the other side or in the opposite direction. You'll quickly realize how ingrained the muscle memory is on your dominant side.

This all creates imbalances in the muscles, fascia, and bones. Yes, even the bony structures respond to the soft tissues repeatedly pulling on them in the same patterns year after year. While massage will not directly address the skeletal structure, your therapist will be assessing the soft tissues and helping to release and restore balance in the limited amount of time during your session(s).

By comparison, in a yoga class with numerous people, it can be beneficial to do the exact same poses on both sides. When the teacher is addressing multiple bodies simultaneously, they need to instruct in a way that will benefit everyone. Additionally, doing the same thing on both sides can bring awareness by revealing to yourself where your tightnesses, weaknesses, or imbalances lie and help you to correct that in your own body.

In massage, the therapist treats only one person at a time. Thus they can work directly with your inequalities to restore balance more quickly than if they were primarily concerned with doing the same thing to both sides of your body.

2. The pain is frequently in the overstretched side.

Another frustrating situation occurs when you clearly tell your therapist your right shoulder hurts, only to have them spend so much more time on the left side! Or you complain of your back pain, and they work on your chest. Did they forget!? Or get confused? It can be highly disappointing when the therapist doesn't work on what we asked for, especially when the therapist doesn't explain what's going on.

Everything in our bodies is connected. So when one area is tight and restricted, it will cause another area to become overstretched to compensate. The confusion occurs when the pain we are experiencing is on the overstretched side.

Have you ever woken up, went to turn your head, and bam, searing pain? Now you can barely move your head all day! You slather on the Icy Hot, stretch it, rub it, but nothing seems to help. It is because this painful side has been stretched to its wit's end and has given up. The muscle goes into spasm, just trying to hold on for dear life. While you're rubbing away at the pain, in fact, it's the opposite side that's tight and needs to be stretched and released.

I know it seems counter-intuitive at first, but I see it over and over! In our screen-obsessed society, it's more common than not to have rounded shoulders and a forward head position. It's so prevalent that it has acquired numerous names such as the dowager's hump, text neck, and upper cross syndrome. No matter what name you use, it creates significant discomfort in the back between the shoulder blades.

Probably 95% of my clients (myself included) complain of pain in the neck, shoulders, and upper back. Most would be thrilled to have their backs worked on for the majority of the session. I recently had a therapist do exactly that, only to have my pain return as soon as I went back to work.

That particular massage was less than successful because this postural imbalance stems from a series of tight and weak muscles, primarily short, tight pectoral muscles. Without releasing the restriction in your chest, the corresponding back pain will only be relieved for a short period. But stretching the tight muscles and strengthening the weak ones will, over time, bring the body back into balance and create true healing and pain relief.

3. Your therapist was working intuitively.

There are many reasons for sessions to be standardized, but too much regulation restricts the therapist's magic. Trying to do precisely the same thing on both sides can result in a highly structured, robotic massage. The greatest gift of your therapists is that we are not robots! How many times have you gotten out of a mechanical massage chair and said, "that was the best massage I've ever had?" Probably never. By comparison, people get off my table and say it all the time.

Spending our time together focused on precisely what I did on the first side in order to repeat it on the second side is not the best use of my skills or talents. I prefer to be in conversation and flow with your body. The best massages I've ever given happen when I close my eyes, take a deep breath, and allow myself to experience your body and your energy.

Trust me, one of these options will create a much better experience than the other. For both of us!

Sometimes I intentionally do things differently based on physical postural assessment and experience. Other times, my intuition tells me that something needs to move a specific way; I find myself moving in unexpected directions and creating stretches or techniques I was never formally taught. It's as if your body and your energy are my guides.

Finding a therapist who works in this way is a little more challenging, but when you find someone who is genuinely in tune with your body, it will be worth the effort!

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