Massage and Bodywork What's the Difference?

By Edna Ribeiro, LMT, CMT

Many new clients ask this same question, “What's the difference between massage and bodywork?”

Simply put, massage is the manipulation of muscles and fascia, which will solely include hand touch. Bodywork may involve many types of modalities which may not necessarily include hand touch, such as passive stretches, visceral manipulation, reiki, chakra balancing, guided meditation, breathing techniques, cranial sacral therapy and postural analysis, among others.

Most back and neck pain starts from repetitive posture problems, causing muscle distortions, which in turn brings you pain and limited range of motion. The solution is to address the muscles, releasing any adhesions which may have built up, which is what limits your range of motion and causes pain.

Typically, it is important to know a lot about your routine. How do you position yourself during work? How do you drive? How do you sit while watching TV? What type of physical activity do you do and how often? In addition, a postural analysis can help tell a lot about your gait and back/neck posture. Together we can get to the root of the problem and prevent future pain and discomfort caused by muscle adhesions and improper posture.

Getting to the root of the problem can allow you to live a healthier life. Think of massage not only for when you are in pain, but most importantly for your body maintenance.

The body is an amazing machine. Like a car needs regular oil changes and parts get old and need to be replaced, the body needs maintenance, too. Except, we don't get to trade it for a new one, so we have to maintain it like a well-oiled machine.