It seems pretty common that some people got a massage from friends and family, and it got sore or even painful, next day. The reason why you got hurt next day is your muscle fibers got damaged (bruised) because of too much pressure. Just because the muscle is tight, you can’t pound on it expecting it getting tender (your body isn’t meat!). Besides, “No pain, no gain" isn’t always true. As much as I want to promote self-care, I don’t necessarily recommend your friends and family give you a massage. It’s not the techniques that they lack, but the art of pressure, speed and depth, in my opinion.
I get comments from my clients that the pressure I use is “just right.” I immerse myself in the feel of tissue (it’s a mentally and physically hard work), and I don’t go deeper than what the tissue lets me. Although we usually talk about “pressure,” it is actually a combination of pressure, speed and depth. My pace may be a little slower than the average massage therapists’ because I “listen to the tissue” every inch. It requires both sensitivity of my palpation (touch) and intuition. It is as if tissue calls out for me to get my attention. If I move faster, I may miss it. If something gets my attention, I stop, work on it, and, when I feel a change again, continue.
I don’t normally analyze what it is, why it is there, or what it means when I notice some change in the tissue, unless I apply Trigger Point Therapy. The great thing about the massage therapy profession is that massage therapists are not allowed to diagnose – it’s out of the scope of practice. We can’t name or label what the condition is. To me, it’s such a freedom because I want to see a person as a whole, not the collection of conditions and symptoms. Like in the Eastern medicine, you can only find imbalance in the body, whatever it manifests.