Practitioner’s Perspective:
Massage vs. Stretching & Why Your Body Really Needs Both
by Richard L. Harrison, MSOM, LMT, ACBT
Massage vs. Stretching & Why Your Body Really Needs Both
by Richard L. Harrison, MSOM, LMT, ACBT
People often ask me, “Richard, if I’m getting massage regularly, do I really need to stretch?” Or the flip side: “If I’m stretching every day, why bother with massage?”
Here’s my short answer: your body thrives when you have both. But they work in different ways, and neither one is a complete substitute for the other.
Let me break it down.
Massage: Turning Down the Volume on Tension
When I’m working on you, I’m not just mashing muscles around (though sometimes it probably feels like it). I’m talking to your nervous system. Your muscles don’t decide to be tight all on their own, your brain and nerves are telling them to hold that tension.
Massage works by:
Calming the nervous system so those “tighten up!” signals stop firing all the time.
Improving circulation, so your tissues get fresh oxygen and nutrients to repair themselves.
Breaking up adhesions, those stubborn spots where muscles and fascia have decided to “stick” together instead of gliding smoothly.
Massage is like hitting the reset button on your muscle tone. You walk out feeling lighter, looser, and more grounded.
Stretching: Teaching the Body Its Full Range Again
Stretching, on the other hand, is like reminding your body what it’s capable of. You’re not just passively letting something happen to you. You're actively sending signals back to your brain saying, “Hey, this range of motion is safe.”
Stretching helps by:
Lengthening muscle fibers, so they don’t default to being short and tight.
Training joint mobility, which helps you move more efficiently and with less effort.
Building neuromuscular confidence, so your body learns to trust that it can move into a position without freaking out or guarding.
If massage resets the system, stretching is what keeps it from drifting back into the same old patterns.
Why They’re Better Together
Here’s the thing: if you only get a massage, you might feel amazing for a few days… and then the tension slowly creeps back because your body slips into the same postures, the same movement habits.
If you only stretch, you’re working against tension that’s already locked in. It’s like trying to pull on a rope that’s tied to a wall, it’s going to resist until you loosen the knot first.
When you combine them:
Massage loosens the “knots” and tells your body it’s safe to relax.
Stretching takes that newfound freedom and locks it into your movement patterns.
That’s why in my sessions, you’ll often get both, deep tissue or acupressure work to release the tension, and assisted stretching to help you own that new range of motion. Your body doesn’t just need to feel better, it needs to remember how to move better. Massage and stretching are the perfect one-two punch for making that happen.