When You Should Avoid Massage – Top 26 Reasons! (Conditions)

Every Massage Therapist Should Keep this List!

Massage Therapists often emphasize and advocate for the numerous benefits of massage therapy, which range from stress and pain alleviation to various positive effects on specific medical conditions.

However, there are situations where receiving a massage may not be suitable due to potential risks.

For example, massage may be contraindicated for specific areas like open sores, bruises, and burns, while still being feasible for unaffected body parts. In these cases massage needs only to be modified in some way – you can read more about reasons to modify here.

In certain cases though, it is advisable to completely avoid massage due to the potential risks it poses for certain populations.

So in today’s post I’m sharing a list of conditions where massage is not suitable at all. Most of these should be very obvious to a professional therapist, but may not be so obvious to an unlicensed masseuse or someone with the condition who wants a massage.

Contraindication; something (such as a symptom or condition) that makes a particular treatment or procedure inadvisable.

No Massage at All!

In an absolute contraindication or total massage contraindication, Massage Therapy or any type of bodywork treatment is not suitable and is not recommended at all on any part of the body.

This is to protect the patient from aggravated symptoms and to prevent exacerbation of their injury or disease.

This may also be for the protection of the massage therapist from legal liability as risk of injury is very high.

In some cases, such as infections or contagious diseases, absolute contraindication to massage is for the safety of the massage practitioner and the succeeding massage patients.

The List

Massage is absolutely contraindicated for the following conditions:

1. When a client is in shock, is having or just had a stroke, or a heart attack (acute stage)
2. Intoxication (drugs and alcohol)
3. High Fever
4. Right After a Major Surgery.
5. Meningitis
6. Clients who are experiencing severe unexplained internal pain
7. Hemorrhage (the escape of blood from vessels).
8. Severe Atherosclerosis
9. Acute Pneumonia
10. Pregnant women who are suffering from Eclampsia
11. Severe Hemophilia
12. Advanced Kidney Failure
13. Respiratory Failure.
14. Liver Failure
15. Appendicitis
16. Highly Metastatic Cancers eg. lymphoma, malignant melanoma
17. Diabetes Mellitus 1 or 2 with advanced heart or kidney disease or advanced vascular complications
18. Sudden onset of severe undiagnosed headache
19. Organ Failure.
20. Pitting Edema
21. Chronic active hepatitis
22. (Infective and non-infective) endocarditis/pericarditis.
23. Lung abscess or lung tumour
24. Sepsis (blood infection) or Bacteremia (blood stream infections)
25. If a patient has a contagious, airborne, infectious disease such as flu, colds, sore throat due to strep throat, shingles, etc.
26. Patients with Infectious Skin Conditions (See contagious skin conditions for more information)

Always Have a Consultation

While the list above is not exhaustive, it underscores the significance of gathering client histories.

Similarly crucial is to inquire with repeat clients about any new medical conditions or health issues they may have. Prioritizing the safety and well-being of the client is essential, while also ensuring your own health is protected.

Uncertain if your condition is contraindicated? Always speak with your doctor before seeking alternative treatments. 

Read More

Take a look at my post about When Your Massage Should be Modified – Top 36 Reasons! To see a list of conditions where massage can be very beneficial, but will need modification.

Thank you for reading this important post and please do share it and the others in the Essential Reading for Clients collection. 

It’s my intention with blog posts like this one to help first time clients as well as students of massage therapy, or even practicing therapists. To help better understand some important aspects of massage therapy that are seldom explained outside of textbooks.

Thanks again for reading and be sure to like, share and comment if you found this a valuable post.