The 📝Deep Tissue Massage Glossary collects the terms used when 📝Deep Tissue Massage appears in a Somatic Realignment Therapy session note, defined in plain language for clients.
Glossary
A
- 📝Adhesion — a place where tissue layers have stuck together and lost their glide.
B
- 📝Bracing — tightening against pressure, the sign that pressure or pace is more than the body accepts.
- 📝Broadening — spreading muscle fibers sideways with the palm or forearm to widen a bunched muscle.
C
- 📝Compression — broad, 📝sustained pressure into tissue with the palm, forearm, or elbow.
- 📝Cross-Fiber Friction — short strokes across the grain of the fibers to work a stuck spot.
D
- 📝Deep — the layer being worked, not how hard the practitioner pushes.
- 📝Depth — how far into the layers a stroke reaches, increased only after the surface has warmed.
E
- 📝Effleurage — long gliding strokes used to warm tissue at the start and close a region at the end.
- 📝Elbow Work — using the forearm or the point of the elbow for slow, deep pressure over large muscles.
F
- 📝Fiber Direction — the grain of a muscle, which strokes follow to lengthen and cross to loosen.
G
- 📝Guarding — the reflex tightening that happens when pressure or pace exceeds what the body accepts.
K
- 📝Kneading — lifting and rolling muscle between the hands, also called petrissage.
L
- 📝Layering — working the superficial layers before the deeper ones.
- 📝Lengthening Stroke — a slow stroke along the muscle from one end toward the other to encourage length.
P
- 📝Post-Session Soreness — a day or two of mild ache after deep work that fades on its own; sharp or lasting pain is not expected.
- 📝Pressure Scale — the 1-to-10 language used to keep pressure inside the client's range, typically staying at or below a 7.
S
- 📝Slow Tempo — the pace that lets deep layers accept pressure, since speed triggers guarding.
- 📝Stripping — a slow, deep stroke along the full length of a muscle.
- 📝Sustained Pressure — holding still on one spot until the tissue softens.
T
- 📝Tolerance — the pressure that is intense but still breathable.
W
- 📝Warm-Up — the lighter strokes that prepare tissue before depth; skipping it is what makes deep work painful.
- 📝Working Range — the pressure and depth a given area accepts on a given day.