Yeah, that wouldn’t surprise me.
I do tend to believe her, though, because what should have been a whole-body massage, wound up being 90 minutes of work only on my back and arms. She told me that she had chosen to try to really work those areas loose, rather than do a superficial all-over job.
Fair enough.
Because lower back muscles go pretty low, plus, when I hurt a hip flexor, a lot of massage work had to be done on my butt. The various gluteus muscles make up a significant portion of your body’s stabilizers, so if something goes a bit wonky, your butt muscles are getting some work.
Shorts get in the way of butt muscle treatment.
The only time I’ve worn any kind of shorts was when I hurt a lower ab muscle. Like, a really low ab muscle. It was initially thought to be a groin injury (just because of the way the pain was sort of referring). I wore bike shorts “just in case”, but needn’t have bothered. It hurt enough that there was no way Pinky the Monster was going to be doing anything other than hiding in fear.
Wow, something that makes me de-lurk and answer!
I’ve been a LMT for twenty years, specializing in sports and rehabilitation work. Since being licensed I’ve done everything from working in medical offices to touring with sporting teams.
Oh man, do I have stories. Anyway…
I prefer my people to be naked, unless I tell them otherwise. Your back doesn’t stop at your belt line, and your legs go up to your waist. Much of the low back pain I find comes from the hip flexors. And can anyone say “sciatica”? I want to be able to give you the best massage I can, so that means I want to be able to go over the gluets. When I see underwear that tells me not to touch. (I do know some therapists that refuse to work on glutes at all. How can you not work on such a major part of the body?!?) You are always tucked under a large flannel sheet so nothing gets chilled. Trust me, there is no gratuitous peeking, no matter how hawt you are. Quite frankly I work with naked people every day. You don’t have anything I haven’t seen a hundred times before.
A good therapeutic massage should last for days. You should feel more relaxed, more aware of your body, and more rested.
There are a ton of things I could go into, but mainly you just have to be comfortable. Undress to your level of comfort, ask as many questions as you need to, and enjoy the experence.
First of all, this:
is NOT Massage Therapy. It’s something called “Raindrop Therapy” and it’s pure, unadulterated evil. It’s dangerous, often causing chemical burns from undiluted essential oils, most of which should never be used neat (undiluted) on the skin. Raindrop Therapy has been denounced by the National Association of Holistic Aromatherapy and other professional aromatherapy organizations as unsafe. Before founding Young Living Essential Oils and trademarking Raindrop Therapy, Donald Gary Young, aka Don Gary Young, D. Gary Young, and Gary Young, plead guilty for Unlawful Practice Of Medicine for selling sham cancer treatments and performing medical procedures on pregnant women, including blood draws (which he would then interpret, despite no medical training) and offering to deliver babies with no midwifery training or medical license. The guy is an absolute whackjob, and I say that as someone who is quite comfortable with many “alternative” modalities.
We in the field (okay, I used to be in the field) prefer the term “Massage Therapist” to masseur/masseuse, as a general rule. Just sounds more professional and less porn-y. 
No, no, not at all. Hair is a little rough on my hands, but it’s nothing I can’t deal with. (You know what is ouchy? 4 day stubble on women’s legs. Please, ladies, wax before you come or wait for it to grow out soft again! Pretty please?)
I don’t care what you look like, really I don’t. Big people are more work than little people, but that’s what I signed up for! Fat people can actually be the most fun, because chances are you haven’t felt deep touch down in your muscles for a long time, and we also tend to have tighter than average muscles holding up all our weight, so massage can feel extra good for you…which makes me feel good working on you! I don’t plan on seeing your genitals, so that’s not a concern for me. The only gross thing I can think of is if you have any open sores, I’m going to grab a pair of non-latex gloves when I get to that area, just to protect both of us from spreading whatever you’ve got.
Ticklishness happens when the top layer of nerve endings are stimulated. The awesome thing is, the deeper nerve endings run very close to these and end up in the same spot, but “fire” faster, so if you’re stimulating the deeper nerve endings, the “tickle” nerves can’t make their connection! So the answer is, we work deeper and with firm pressure, and you won’t feel the tickle.
And, if you do somehow feel the tickle anyhow, tell me, and I’ll adjust what I’m doing. Together, we’ll find the depth, rate and size (that is, fist or fingertip or palm) of touch that works for you without tickling.
Unless it’s something like a foot massage or one where you sit in a chair I go naked. I don’t care about gratuitous peeking. I’ve never gotten chilled either, but I ran into the opposite problem at one spa (I’d gotten a “men’s treatment” gift certificate as a b-day gift) were I had to specifically ask the therapist to skip the drapping because the room temperature was really high and he didn’t have access to the thermostat.
I went to the Camelback Marriott spa a few years back. We booked a massage and when you do this, you’re entitled to use the spa for the day, which included a gender specific whirlpool and 3 different steam rooms.
I kept my undies on for the massage but was a bit disturbed by the number of women walking around completely nude in the common areas. I was also surprised by the number of women who did Brazilians.
I kept my robe on, thankyouverymuch.
I’ve been dating a massage therapist for a little over a year. Most of what I was going to add has been covered already, but I wanted to throw in a few things:
The OP asked about etiquette. One point of etiquette that a lot of folks apparently don’t know (I didn’t, before I met my GF) is that it’s customary to tip an LMT.
Also: When you hear the phrase “massage therapist,” in your mind the emphasis should be on “therapist.” The person working on you is a licensed medical practitioner; my GF, as part of her training, actually dissected a human cadaver in order to see exactly how the muscles and, uh, other stuff is all connected.
Massage really can offer amazing benefits. I had chronic back pain for several decades, stemming from an untreated injury when I was about 15; if anyone even touched my lower back (around where the so-called “tramp-stamp” tattoos go), I would jump as though I’d been shocked. It wasn’t a tickle-response–I could even do it to myself. My GF, bless her heart, has been working on it veeeeeeeery gently and patiently, and while I’m not 100% yet, I’m light-years better than I was. I can actually stand being touched (lightly) in that area, and it’s even begun to improve my posture, which has always been kind of weird.
I was totally skeptical before all this, but I am thoroughly converted.
Oh, and I share the OP’s disdain for the “woo-woo” aspects of it all. It’s not a necessary element.
Oh yeah. I’ve never had one last longer simply because only one place I’ve been even offered a 90-minute massage and that never fit my schedule but I’d have loved it if it had. Trust me, if you give it a try you’ll be hating to hear the therapist whisper “relax for a few before you get dressed” and leave the room.
Re the OP - as others have said, undress to your comfort level. I’ve been utterly starkers, or left my underpants on, either way. And the therapist won’t even get a glance at your genitals - that part is always covered.
I’ve always asked for them to be fairly firm - if you’ve got a ticklish spot, I pretty much guarantee that a slow, firm pressure sliding along the skin will NOT be ticklish. My feet are godawful ticklish but a foot rub, with reasonably firm pressure, will melt me into a puddle of goo in about 5 minutes.
Here’s what’ll happen: The therapist will approach a tickle-spot, and you may tense a bit but s/he will continue the stroke and you won’t feel the tickle. You may tense, then s/he will detect that tensing and most like press more firmly - no more tickling. Or s/he will ask “is that OK? am I hurting you?” and you’ll tell him/her about the tickle, then she’ll press more firmly.
One thing to note: they always use massage oil of some sort. Not the essential oil stuff that WhyNot mentioned, but something like olive oil or almond oil. Reduces friction, which is easier on your skin and the therapist’s skin, and allows her to get deeper into the muscles. You won’t be out-and-out slippery, but you may find (especially as a fur-bearing critter) that you want a shower before bed that night.
I tried to go naked for a foot massage, but they told me to put my pants back on and then kicked me out of the mall.
The kind of spa that has whirlpool baths and steam rooms is a while different animal. I went to one built over some hot spring. In the gender-segregated areas it was pretty much like a locker room with guys in various stages of undress or nekkidness. In the steam room I had my towel around my waist, in the hot spring I was buck, and I wore a robe to go and see the RMT, until she left the room so I could pull of the robe and quick hide under the sheet, then I was buck, but covered up by the sheet.
My girlfriend said the women were pretty much wandering around naked everywhere and seemed to only use their towels for something to sit their bare butts on.
BTW, when it comes to massaging the gluteus muscles, the RMT always keeps one butt cheek covered at all times, IME, so you feel less exposed. I’ve had the sheet tucked under my hip and leg so it feels really secure, like I’m wearing half-pants, and my man-bits are hidden while he/she works on the one exposed half of my butt.
I go to a boutique spa but nobody wanders around naked in there. I have heard from a friend, though, that in Caesars Palace Qua Spa in Vegas, many tourists from outside the U.S. take it all off. Said friend was shocked, but then, she is extremely modest in general.
I also hear it’s quite common for men and women in Germany’s spas to strip down to nothing and even be in the same rooms or bathing areas together.
I hope I’m not bumping a long dead thread but yes Vivalostwages it is very common in Germany. I’ve been to five different spas in Germany and there is a clothed family play side, usually with slides and wave polls and what not.
Then there is the nude spa side. They all have lots of saunas, hot tubs, another pool and usually a bar that serves food and drink. Top of the hour (or at some predetermined time) the staff will conduct a special sauna where they hand out ice cubes, or they wave around eucalyptus leaves, or something. These sauna’s are packed to the gills.
The first time you do it, it’s shocking (holy crap AM i really naked in mixed company? What if I get an erection, what if … ) but within 5 minutes I realized there was nothing sexual at all going on.
Maybe half the people just walk around naked from one activity to the other (never in the restaurant area though) and the other half put on a robe or wrap a towel around themselves. Does it attract some voyeuristic and/or exhibitionist types, I think so. But the vast majority, I’m convinced, are there because they enjoy the place.
Can I ask a question of you? I herniated a disc in my lower back last year and I still get twinges of pain now and again reminding me it’s only 99.9% back to normal.
In your opinion, would I be safe going to get a massage at a spa if I showed them exactly where the injury was? Or should I only see someone trained like yourself?
I’m on the hunt for exercises I can do to help the injury heal even more than it has… so far I know my old yoga routine is out because of the bend & twist combinations (it feels really uncomfortable when I attempt it).
A lot rests on the training of the therapist working on you. Depending on what state you’re in licensing requirements range from zero (only a few states are left like this) to over 2,000 hours plus continuing education. However, I’ve been given excellent massages by students, and horrid massages by people who have been practicing for years. As long as you’re comfortable with your therapist, and trust that they are listening to you and your concerns, there is no reason why you can’t go to your local health club or spa and get a great massage.
Any good therapist will not only have you fill out paperwork, they will ask you lots questions before they even touch you. If for any reason something is uncomfortable or makes the pain worse, they will stop. But unless they are digging into the area with hard pointy objects (my fingers qualify) you’ll be fine.
I would also recommend talking to your doctor to see if Physical Therapy is an option for you. They will not only give you exercises that will strengthen the area around the initial injury, they can make sure that the things you’re doing now are not irritating the nerves unnecessarily.
Thanks for the information! I shall of course consult with my doctor, but all of this is good to know.