This is perhaps one of the most common questions I get from people taking training with me, and it’s a brilliant question. It’s not the easiest to answer though, because there can be quite a lot to it – but it’s still an important answer to give because it can help you feel more immediately successful in giving manual therapy. When you can conceptualize this particular element of any manual therapy style, your results immediately improve.
It’s the answer to this question that takes a massage from “feeling nice, for a home massage” to “Oh wow, I didn’t realize you knew how to give a proper massage!!”
So let’s pull it apart.
First thing I’ll say is that there’s probably more than one “the” spot – it’s good to know that right from the beginning, because we can often get caught up in the little joy of having found one and forget to keep searching afterwards. Rarely will there be a single culprit point for any pain situation.
So then, how do you know what you have A spot:
- • Often, the muscle fibers under your touch feel slightly denser than the rest of the muscle (this can be hard to detect initially but gets easier with practice).
- • In the instances where the density of the muscle doesn’t feel any different, you’re usually looking for something like a local “twitching” response of surrounding muscle. It’s more correctly known as “fasciculation” and is a sign that you’ve found a trigger point (not the only sign).
- • Breathing typically changes – each inhalation typically becomes deeper, signalling a higher intensity in that particular spot which can often be a sign of a good spot to be on.
- • The rest of the body tends to respond with a slight initial increase in “alertness” – things that follow a deeper inhalation for example, but is followed by a “releasing” response where things seem to settle after you’ve been on the point long enough.
Those are some things you can pay attention to and observe as you deliver pressure. But there are also some very simple verbal checks we can use to get more information as well – which is especially something to use more of as you begin exploring the application of manual technique:
- • Sensation referral – if the person you’re giving a massage to reports feeling it *here* when you massage *there*, that is another great sign of a good spot to press on.
- • And then you’ve got the good old “does that feel like the perfect spot there?”…. “Not quite, just a little to the left”. This exchange can rapidly help to calibrate your touch sensitivity to the non-verbal cues by helping you get to the spot and note what you feel.
After some practice you’ll also realize that for many of us, we have at least some “standard” spots that pretty much everyone has, given the similarities of how we tend to live our lives.
With just a little bit of practice, you’ll begin to hear things like:
“Your hands are so intuitive”
“I didn’t realize that there were so many sore spots in my shoulder”
“You found things I didn’t even know existed”
The first step though, is to start – and verbal feedback will help you work on the other elements over time.
That’s how we work in the massage club. An open dialogue with the people we work on. Join in now to start working on your touch sensitivity.
Reading this made me think more about timing. During practice, there are moments when I apply pressure and nothing changes right away. No twitch, no breath shift, no referral, or clear softening. Those moments feel confusing, especially as a student still learning how to read what I’m sensing.
This leaves me with the question:
When pressure doesn’t create noticeable change, how long do I wait, and how do I balance patience with responsiveness?
Great question! I would suggest including your client in those moments – things like “are you feeling like that’s releasing or changing at all or is it holding on?” or “would you say that’s the exact spot or is there a little shift that would hit it perfectly?” – things like that help them to make suggestions when needed, and also gives them an idea what you’re working on – you’re looking for a change and you’re looking for the exact perfect spots! 🙂
Another thought on that – I’ve got another blog that talks about the few times where I just “leave it” – because on the rare occasion it needs to just rest and be worked over consecutive sessions. Here’s the one: https://navina.ca/blog/2023/10/04/sometimes-leave-it-alone/
Other times, it might be a matter of leaving it for a few minutes and returning later in the same session too – either in the same technique or a different one. There’s no rule that says we can’t return to the same technique various times.