Every second week my husband and I subject ourselves to a sports massage from our friend Carla. It’s a painful process and the only luxury involved is the fact that it’s done in the comfort of our lounge. I wrote a post on the modus operandi of a sports massage therapist last year – you can read it here .

I’m almost confident enough to say that we’re veterans at handling the pain these days.

But my friend Gina, who came along for a first-time massage with Carla last week, didn’t share the same sentiment.  It was with a seemingly sadist approach (but obviously not) that I captured the facial expressions that go hand-in-hand with a deep tissue massage.

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It starts off pretty casual – note the arms in a relaxed position, folded behind the head.

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But then, once the warm-up is finished after about 1 minute, the arms move down and clutch the sides of the plinth indicating slight discomfort. It’s still tolerable at this point.

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Then comes the clutching of the plinth and the Stage One Grimace, indicating moderate discomfort. Here, Gina has closed her eyes and is trying to make her way to her quiet place.

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Unfortunately the journey to that quiet place is cut short by the quad-fist-entrenchment. That results in the  Stage Two Grimace you see above, indicating severe discomfort.

So now you can say that you’ve learnt all about the typical facial and body expressions exhibited during a classic sports massage.

How many people can say that?!