Massage at home

Working on sore muscles at home — on oneself, or on somebody else — is a reasonable thing to do and is not a substitute for a trained pair of hands. Both halves of that sentence matter.

The real advantage of doing it oneself is not that it saves an appointment. It is that the person doing the work already knows exactly where the sore spot is, exactly how much pressure is bearable, and the instant it stops being useful — information a therapist has to gather by asking.

What is needed

Warmth, somewhere firm to sit or lie, a towel, and a plain oil if hands are going on skin rather than over clothing.

Any light vegetable oil works: grapeseed, sunflower and apricot kernel all absorb reasonably and do not smell of much. Two things to note. Nut-derived oils — sweet almond, apricot kernel, macadamia — are not suitable for anyone with a nut allergy, and sunflower or grapeseed are the alternatives. And olive oil is the one to skip, despite being the one most often suggested, because UK research found it measurably reduces skin barrier integrity; it is also heavy and slow to absorb.

Essential oils are optional and go into the carrier oil rather than onto skin directly, at the low concentrations set out under using essential oils safely.

Working on oneself

The useful targets are the places hands can actually reach with leverage, which is a shorter list than it sounds and covers most of what commonly aches.

Neck and shoulders. The muscle that runs from the base of the skull to the top of the shoulder is where desk tension gathers, and it can be squeezed between fingers and thumb along its length, or pressed with the opposite hand reaching across. Slow circles at the base of the skull, where the neck muscles attach, often do more than anything else in a few minutes.

One firm exception: nothing is pressed on the front or sides of the neck, where the major blood vessels run. Work on the back and the top of the shoulder only.

Jaw and temples. Overlooked and genuinely useful for anyone who clenches or grinds. The muscle that bulges at the angle of the jaw when the teeth are clamped responds to small circles with two fingers, and the temples to the same.

Hands and forearms. Thumb into the palm, then along the muscle between thumb and index finger, then up the forearm. For anyone typing all day this is the most immediately satisfying area on the body.

Feet. Thumbs along the arch, or a tennis ball rolled underfoot against the floor with body weight controlling the pressure. Good at the end of a day on hard floors.

Calves and thighs. Kneading with both hands, or a foam roller, which trades precision for the ability to apply real weight.

The pressure rule, which is the common mistake

Older advice on self-massage says that if a knot is not breaking up, more pressure should be applied. That is the wrong instruction and it is how people hurt themselves.

A tender spot that is not easing under moderate pressure is not asking to be forced. Escalating the force produces bruising, a sorer area the next day, and occasionally a genuine injury — and it does not achieve what it is meant to. Ease off, work the surrounding muscle instead, and come back to it another time. Mild tenderness afterwards is normal; bruising means it was too hard.

Giving one to somebody else

The back is the usual request and the easiest area for an untrained person to work on usefully.

Set-up first: the person lying face-down on something firm, warm, with a towel or small cushion under the forehead and another under the ankles. Hands warm. Oil warmed between the palms rather than poured straight on. Ask before starting, and ask again once underway, since the only reliable gauge of pressure is the person receiving it.

Four strokes cover most of what is wanted:

• The gliding fan stroke. Flat palms either side of the spine at the mid-back, fingers angled outwards, gliding up towards the shoulders with moderate pressure, out across the shoulder blades, then back down the sides with lighter contact. Repeated several times, this is how a session opens and how the oil goes on.
• Circling. One flat hand making slow circles up one side of the back, the other hand following it, so that contact is continuous.
• Kneading. Lifting and squeezing a handful of muscle between fingers and thumb, working across the fleshy areas of the shoulders and the sides of the back. Not on the ribs, where there is little muscle and the bone is close.
• Raking. Spread fingertips drawn down either side of the spine, firm but light, which feels better than it sounds and is a good way to finish.

And the things not to do, which matter more than the technique:

• Never press on the spine itself. Work in the muscle alongside it.
• No heavy pressure over the lower back at the sides, below the ribs, where the kidneys sit relatively unprotected.
• No elbows, knees, standing or sudden force. These are techniques that trained practitioners use with a trained sense of how much is going in, and an enthusiastic amateur applying them is the commonest way a home massage ends badly.
• Stop when asked, immediately and without discussion.

Tools

Handheld and electric massagers, balls, rollers and percussive devices all do roughly what hands do with less precision and more force, which is a fair trade for large muscles and a poor one for anything delicate. Percussive devices in particular stay off bony areas, off the neck, and off anywhere that has recently been injured.

None of them does anything that hands cannot. They are useful mainly for reaching a back without a second person, and for applying steady pressure without tiring.

When not to

Everything in the list under booking a first massage applies at home as well, and one item on it applies with more force, because at home there is nobody trained to spot it.

A swollen, hot, painful calf is not massaged. It may be a deep vein thrombosis, and working on it risks dislodging a clot. That needs urgent medical attention, not a pair of thumbs — and it is precisely the presentation that gets mistaken for a pulled muscle and rubbed.

Beyond that: nothing over broken skin, a rash or a fresh injury; nothing while feverish; gently and with care in pregnancy, over areas of reduced sensation, and with anyone on blood-thinning medication or with fragile bones. Pain that is sharp, bony, or localised to one small point wants a diagnosis before it wants massage.

What it does, and what it does not

It eases muscle tension, it feels good, and it is a decent thing to do for somebody at the end of a hard week. That is a real benefit and it is the whole of the claim.

It does not release toxins, unblock energy, boost immunity, or improve mental acuity by sending more oxygen to the brain. The claim worth contradicting most directly is that massage produces a state of wellbeing which resists headaches and depression — it does not protect against either, and anyone struggling with low mood is better served by treatment that works alongside an hour of feeling looked after rather than instead of it.

The techniques themselves, and how the professional styles genuinely differ, are under massage techniques. See also massage.