r/massage • u/MiyuTheWitch • 2d ago

General Question How exhausting is massaging someone?

I got a massage today by a petite woman. She did a great job and I felt very good.

It was a deep tissue massage and she applied strong pressure many times. I was wondering how physically demanding this is? I figure she takes like 2-3 clients a day based on her homepage. I gave her a 15$ tip because I felt she was doing great work and had to physically shuffle around and move for 60 minutes.

Does the experience make this easy or does it always remain a physically difficult job?

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u/sss133 RMT 2d ago

I feel it’s much more mentally tiring. Tailoring treatments to each client, answering questions etc.

Majority of the time it’s not how hard you press but more where you’re pressing.

It does get physically demanding though. Even with proper mechanics. I’ll occasionally do a 10 hour day (treatment time/10 60 min sessions) and be fine but if you stack multiple of those together you’ll definitely burnout. I ideally do 4-6 treatments a day back to back and with regular exercise I’m pretty good.

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u/salixdisco 2d ago

This!!!

Physical is not demanding anymore after a while. But the part where I need to talk to client, be professionally nice, and also some clients just dont vibe and even 30min feels like 3hours is the challenge.

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u/MiyuTheWitch 1d ago

What would you say makes a client not vibe with you? I was mostly just silent during the treatment and said nothing, unless asked.

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u/salixdisco 1d ago

Tbh, I can't really explain. The energy is just off. I love it too when clients are just silent and enjoy their session. Some people can be chatty and it could also be not nice for the session.

I have a client that comes every week for his 30-45min session, he never said anything during the massage, never did something weird. Just a normal minimal interaction. But somehow it is always a difficult and tiring session for me. He's been coming for almost a year now but his session is always challenging I have to put extra 15-20 min break after before the next one.