As a general rule, I think pinching is safer than poking, because you can be more certain that you are just massaging muscle rather than artery or bone. And it seems more effective too, especially if you create slack in the muscle you’re treating. However, pinching is rather hard on your fingers and forearms, so you’re liable to give yourself RSI if you overdo it (which in theory should be treatable with massage, I guess, but you might need to get a friend to do it if you’re no longer able to massage yourself!)
Another thing massage books mention is that you’re technically supposed to always treat a muscle and its antagonist (roughly, the muscle which performs the opposite motion, I believe?) in the same session. If you don’t do this, the antagonist is liable to tense up in response to its complement being released? However, the risk here is more like “annoying, hard-to-diagnose chronic pain” as opposed to the sort of injury that could send you to the ER.
I think there is a lot of alpha in massage therapy. I’ve been doing it for years, and it’s helped with a surprising variety of problems (e.g. had migraines at one point, massaging deep in my shoulder and use of the acupressure pillow I mentioned elsewhere seemed to help a lot). It’d be cool if there were people on LW who were true experts at it, including safety expertise obviously (I don’t consider myself an expert there).
One of the best massage therapists I ever visited was a practitioner of what he called “neuromuscular therapy”. He told me about this site called somasimple.com, made it sound like LessWrong but for discussing the science of chronic pain. That was many years ago though. I think maybe he got his training from the National Association of Myofascial Trigger Point Therapists. IIRC, there are a number of groups like that which are endorsed by the Trigger Point Therapy Workbook that I linked elsewhere in this thread.
I think massage therapist could be a good career for those concerned about AI-driven automation, because some people will always be willing to pay a premium for a human therapist. I believe licensing is done on a state-by-state basis in the US. Perhaps best to check for a state which has licensing reciprocity agreements with other states, if you want some flexibility in your living situation.
No prob.
As a general rule, I think pinching is safer than poking, because you can be more certain that you are just massaging muscle rather than artery or bone. And it seems more effective too, especially if you create slack in the muscle you’re treating. However, pinching is rather hard on your fingers and forearms, so you’re liable to give yourself RSI if you overdo it (which in theory should be treatable with massage, I guess, but you might need to get a friend to do it if you’re no longer able to massage yourself!)
Another thing massage books mention is that you’re technically supposed to always treat a muscle and its antagonist (roughly, the muscle which performs the opposite motion, I believe?) in the same session. If you don’t do this, the antagonist is liable to tense up in response to its complement being released? However, the risk here is more like “annoying, hard-to-diagnose chronic pain” as opposed to the sort of injury that could send you to the ER.
I think there is a lot of alpha in massage therapy. I’ve been doing it for years, and it’s helped with a surprising variety of problems (e.g. had migraines at one point, massaging deep in my shoulder and use of the acupressure pillow I mentioned elsewhere seemed to help a lot). It’d be cool if there were people on LW who were true experts at it, including safety expertise obviously (I don’t consider myself an expert there).
One of the best massage therapists I ever visited was a practitioner of what he called “neuromuscular therapy”. He told me about this site called somasimple.com, made it sound like LessWrong but for discussing the science of chronic pain. That was many years ago though. I think maybe he got his training from the National Association of Myofascial Trigger Point Therapists. IIRC, there are a number of groups like that which are endorsed by the Trigger Point Therapy Workbook that I linked elsewhere in this thread.
I think massage therapist could be a good career for those concerned about AI-driven automation, because some people will always be willing to pay a premium for a human therapist. I believe licensing is done on a state-by-state basis in the US. Perhaps best to check for a state which has licensing reciprocity agreements with other states, if you want some flexibility in your living situation.
somasimple.com doesn’t work?