· Massage guides
These two get compared a lot, and people often pick the wrong one. They are both aimed at deep tension. They get there completely differently.
Deep tissue: pressure
Deep tissue uses firm, slow, focused pressure that works into the deeper layers of muscle. It is the right answer when something specific is wrong — a locked lower back, a shoulder that has not turned properly in weeks, an old injury that never quite settled.
You will feel it working. That is the nature of it. It should stay firmly on the right side of comfortable, and your therapist will keep checking, but it is not a passive experience. Most people notice the benefit the next morning rather than immediately, when they reach for something and the movement has come back.
Hot stones: heat
Hot stones gets to a similar depth without the force. Smooth basalt stones are warmed and worked alongside the therapist's hands, so heat does the loosening. Muscle softens from the inside rather than being pushed, and you get much of the release without any of the effort.
It is also, frankly, lovely. A fair number of people fall asleep partway through, which we take as a compliment.
Which to book
Book deep tissue if you can point at the problem. If you can say "it's here, and it's been here since June", that is what deep tissue is for.
Book hot stones if you cannot point at anything in particular, if you feel the cold, if firm massage has been too intense for you in the past, or if what you actually need is to stop thinking for an hour.
And if you are not sure, ring and describe it. We will tell you which one — including when the cheaper one is the right answer, which happens more often than you would expect.
Practicalities
Deep tissue is £80 for thirty minutes, £100 for forty-five or £120 for the hour. Hot stones is ten pounds more at each length — £90, £110 and £130 — which is the cost of the stones and the time to heat them.
More on this: hot stones massage in Hertfordshire.