Pressure-based bodywork feels good. The tissue lengthens, blood flow changes, you walk out looser. Within a few days the same patterns reload the same tissue and it tightens up again. The cycle becomes the practice, for some people forever. Here's what's happening, and what changes when you find the load instead of fighting the symptom.
Book your first sessionYour traps, IT band, hip flexors, lower back, wherever the work always seems to land, are tight because they're overworking. Something nearby has stopped doing its job, and that area is taking up the slack. Releasing it directly works for the moment. The slack is still there.
Pressure-based work lengthens the tissue and changes blood flow. You walk out feeling looser. Within a few days, the same patterns reload the same tissue and it tightens up again. You go back. The cycle is the practice, for many people forever.
Once Garrett identifies which parts of your body have shut down, he brings them back online. The areas that were overworking no longer need to grip. They release on their own. The relief holds because nothing is asking them to compensate anymore.
Your traps, hips, IT band, and lower back tighten in patterns. The patterns are predictable. They're also correctable.
Sitting, training imbalances, old injuries: whatever the cause, certain stabilizers and movers in your body have stopped doing their job. They're still there. They've just gone offline.
When stabilizers shut down, other muscles take up the load. Traps for the deep neck flexors. Lower back for the glutes. Quads for the hip extensors. These compensating areas are where the chronic tightness lives. They're working a job they weren't built for.
The compensating areas no longer have to overwork. The chronic tightness softens on its own. You don't have to dig into it. You don't have to release it. The tissue lets go because it's no longer being asked to hold.
Full assessment, guided protocols, and a take-home practice. About 60 minutes, in San Francisco or over video.
Garrett assesses how your body moves. Where it's overworking, where it's shut down. He's looking at your whole body, beyond the part that hurts.
Using simple props (yoga blocks, foam rollers, gymnastic rings), Garrett guides you through protocols adapted to your body in real time. You're not lying on a table. You're moving, finding positions where your body starts to rebalance itself.
Most clients feel a noticeable shift during the first session. The overworked areas release. The underworked areas start to re-engage. You feel the difference before you leave.
You leave with a short practice for what was worked on that session. About five minutes. You do it on your living room floor. It maintains the changes and keeps your body moving in the right direction between sessions.
Virtual sessions work well for this kind of bodywork. Because the work is in finding the pattern and changing the load, not in hands-on pressure, video translates cleanly. Garrett assesses your posture and movement via live video and guides you through positions that release tight tissue at the source. Most clients notice the change during the first virtual session.
I really have tried everything. Nothing has ever come close to this.Pam · Business Owner
If something isn't here, ask on a free discovery call. Garrett answers everything before you book a paid session.
Not in the standard sense. Deep tissue massage works through sustained pressure on tight tissue, with you lying on a table. The Amari Method works through movement and positioning. You'll be on a mat, finding positions where your body rebalances itself. The reason: tight tissue is usually a response to a load, and the only way to keep it from tightening again is to change the load. Pressure-based deep tissue feels great in the moment but the same patterns reload the same tissue within days.
It works for the same audience, active SF professionals and athletes, but it's a different mechanism. Sports massage is about recovery and tissue maintenance. Amari is about finding why specific areas of your body keep loading up in the first place. If you're getting a sports massage every two weeks because the same spot keeps tightening, something upstream is causing it. That's what we work on.
You don't have to. Many of Garrett's clients keep their massage practitioner for recovery and use Amari to address the pattern that keeps causing the tightness. The two are complementary. The difference: deep tissue manages, Amari resolves. If you've been getting deep tissue for years and the same spots keep coming back, the pattern is the issue.
Mostly no. The work happens through movement and positioning. You'll be on a mat, using simple props like yoga blocks, foam rollers, or gymnastic rings. Garrett guides you through positions where your body rebalances itself. You leave with a short take-home practice, five minutes, that maintains the changes between sessions.
Yes. The work is in identifying the pattern and changing the load, not in hands-on tissue work. That translates cleanly over video. Garrett assesses your posture and movement and guides you through positions that release the tissue at the source. Virtual is also a clean fit for clients who travel or aren't in San Francisco.
Book a session with Garrett. If you don't experience noticeable relief, he keeps working with you until you do, at no additional charge.
$225 · First session · San Francisco + virtual