Muscular Solutions

Barry is incredible.
After a year of serious hip issues (a benign bone tumor, labral tear, a femoral neck near-​fracture and terribly misbehaving psoas) and six years of uncomfortable hip issues before that, I was at my wits end. As a choreographer in Boston’s modern dance scene lots of peers had recommended Barry, but I was hesitant about paying out of pocket… the poor artist stereotype is sometimes true in the time between gigs ;)
Let me tell you, every fraction of a cent has been well spent. Not only is Barry a body wizard and so incredibly knowledgable of the body’s many components and the system as a whole, but he’s super honest– something you don’t find consistently in health care/​medicine. He was upfront about not expecting miracles, especially since the first issue I went to him with (labral tear) wasn’t something that could be magically fixed, but we started a plan to get better alignment and posture, worked to unjam the hip socket, did a ton of muscle work and I was fastidious about my homework, and what do you know– after our first three sessions last year, I’m still exercising and rehearsing pain free! I canceled a surgery last winter to fix my labral tear, which would have put me out of the game for a few months and I don’t regret the decision at all.
Since my initial issues I’ve been back for some back quirks, and recommended my husband visit for an old back injury. I constantly tell the dancers in my company to bring their laundry lists of issues to Barry… Someday they will see the light! In the meantime, I’m probably due for a tune up!

Barry is a god amongst massage/​physical therapists. I’ve been to many in my day, and I’ve never, never met someone who possesses such an innate, intuitive understanding of the human body. Not to mention some of his tricks are almost voodoo-​esque in their magic — like one minute your knee can’t withstand pressure, then he taps the side of your foot, and suddenly your knee can resist all of his force.
I went to see him on the recommendation of a friend who said he fixed her chronic hip issues, then I recommended him to my roommate and my father, and my roommate recommended him to her mother. All are deeply happy customers. He will give you stretches and exercises to do to help prevent your issue from reoccurring, and he will find places you didn’t even know hurt, but turn out to be related to the issues you’re having.
I’ve gone in both for run-​of-​the-​mill back/​neck stiffness, and for an emergency session after I got rear-​ended and had awful muscle pain/​soreness from the whiplash. Barry worked on everything, demonstrating how that one moment affected everything from my sacrum to my throat muscles.
To call Barry a masseuse is a misnomer — he’s Barry. That’s all I can really say. This is not going to be a relaxing experience, and in fact at times, I’ve been on my side or back wincing and Unilocaling in (good) pain. But it’s so worth it. Every time i’ve been to see Barry, I feel structurally… better. More pain-​free. Able to go months before needing another tune-​up. Which is good, because Barry isn’t cheap, but he is willing to work with you on payment plans/​options if he feels you need multiple sessions.
You will walk out a new person.

I went to see Barry with a chronic pain condition. I had about six sessions with him, but did not experience any sustained improvement.
I realize that there is no guarantee of results in any PT treatment, but Barry spends a lot of each session promoting himself, and telling you how he is in the top 5% in his profession, as well as telling you about all the celebrities that use him. There is also a lot of theatrics in this practice, as Barry runs back and forth to his bookshelves to examine one textbook or another, and then stands in a thinking pose while pondering your condition.
Barry does not accept insurance (or at least did not when I saw him), but he spent a lot of each session denigrating practices that do. My frustration with Barry is that he seems to have so much ego associated with his self-​assessment of his skills that he will never tell you – «look, I can’t help you, but maybe you should try something or somebody else.»
In the end, after the sixth session or so, I realized that Barry was losing interest in me as a patient as I kept honestly reporting that I was not seeing much improvement.
Fortunately, I ultimately solved my pain condition by seeing a physiatrist (a medical doctor who specializes in Physical Rehabilitative Medicine) at Spaulding Rehab. She put me in treatment with two of their PTs who immediately understood my condition and got me on track to being almost pain free. The PTs at Spaulding are outstanding. One of mine was on the faculty at Mass General. They take insurance. They have the benefit of being in a collaborative learning environment so they see a lot of cases and discuss them among themselves. And they don’t spend any time in thesessions talking about how outstanding they are, or how much better they are than other PTs (even though they are pretty outstanding).

I don’t get to go here that often, because I am not in the Boston/​Brookline area all that often. But when I am there, I go to Muscular Solutions!
A friend told me about this place and on a whim, while in town, I decided to book an appointment. I admit, I was not suffering from chronic pain that some of the other patients might have been, but I had an ache in my shoulder I was hoping Barry could handle and woe and behold, he knocked it out of the park.
A combination of a soothing bed-​side manner, consummate professionalism and genuinely studied technique and I was right as rain.
The second time I went was due to a terrible ache I had in my head/​face due to some dental work I had done. It was impossible to bear and had been going on for weeks.
Now I am not going to say he used voodoo or ancient Eastern mystical secrets. Nor will I say it magically disappeared in an instant! But he alleviated the pain, with a very focused approach, to the point where I barely felt it anymore and shortly afterwards, it was gone.
I was impressed. Really damn impressed. And more than a little thankful.
So yeah, go there and go there now if you’re in pain and need a new strategy. Or even if you aren’t – I think he might surprise you with what he can do to your body. You won’t regret it!

I started seeing Barry after a particularly difficult year during which my body started manifesting a great deal of imbalance, which presented as tension pain and trigger points. Within my first session, Barry had figured out my body, mysteriously finding sites of old injuries and alleviating current pain. He was completely honest with me about my prognosis, and we came up with both a schedule and a payment plan that worked for me. Unlike others whose problems are solved in one session, I saw Barry for about 6 months regularly. He has amazing intuition about what will heal people, and when he suggested to me that I should start dancing again (I had stopped as a teenager), a lightbulb really went off. I am currently pain free, much more active, taking two dance classes a week, and feel healthier and stronger than I have ever been. I go now just for maintenance and adjustments, and it’s always worthwhile. I carry around Barry’s business cards and recommend him to everyone I know!

The combination of modalities that Barry utilizes during treatment sessions can seem quite like magic. His combination of study and experience makes him unique and hard to match, so I take the opportunity whenever I’m in the Boston area to book an appointment. He’s helped me with overall fatique and feeling run down after illness, and more recently addressed acute back pain. Though the techniques during treatment can feel intense, it’s so well worth it, feeling huge improvements when I walk out of there that last a long time.
Years ago I was seeing a chiropractor in NYC for back pain. I’d feel better after my appointment, but within a day or two later the pain would return. No so with Barry and Muscular Solutions. My last appointment was a week ago, and I still feel the benefits of my visit. He also goes above and beyond, giving me exercises I can do at home to maintain the structural balance he restores, and he’ll even follow up to see how I’m feeling.
I feel lucky to have been introduced to Barry and his gifted healing services.

I scheduled my boyfriend an appointment with Barry after reading these rave Unilocal reviews, and I really do hate to be the first to not give him 5 stars, but I just can’t. My boyfriend has had chronic back pain caused by bad joints, sports, and weight lifting, so I thought Barry might be able to help alleviate this pain. While he is very knowledgeable, I guess we were just expecting more than what he got — we were a little disappointed. Nothing at all bad to say about Barry himself — he was very, very nice and professional — but just don’t expect miracles. My boyfriend felt like for the $ 130 hourly rate all he got was a deep tissue massage and some stretching exercises to do at home.

Just getting around to Unilocaling my experience. I must say I’m not at all surprised to see all the 5 star reviews. They are well deserved and I’ll be adding my name to the list with this review.
It’s a bit hard to adequately describe what Barry does in a short Unilocal review. Quite simply he is amazing and one of the finest people in his profession I have encountered. He is constantly expanding his knowledge and I think there are few folks with broader expertise when it comes to correcting problems with muscular therapy. This is so much more then a a simple massage.
I first saw Barry after an injury that left me with some loss of feeling in my arm and significantly reduced mobility in my shoulder/​arm. After going twice a week for 12 weeks (24 sessions!) to physical therapy through Mt Auburn Hospital and having it go nowhere I went to see Barry on the advice of a friend. It was the best decision I ever made. While the folks at MAH were focused simply on addressing the symptoms, Barry worked to determine the root cause and after a few sessions I was nearly back to pre-​injury condition armed with exercises and techniques I could do on my own. I cannot stress enough how much of a difference Barry personally made toward my recovery.
I now see Barry on an occasional basis as a preventative measure when I start to feel off or out of alignment. Highly recommended!

This may be the easiest recommendation I’ve ever written. Barry’s work is impeccable. I came to him with a severe hip problem that had recurred off and on for years. He both fixed it, and gave me a long term set of exercises to prevent it. All along the way he was great at setting expectations honestly and responding to any issues and concerns. He understood my reality as a performing artist and was able to structure his therapy to my specific needs.

Barry at Muscular Solutions works minor miracles… Getting an hour of Barry’s time is necessary if you have an injury– but I’d also recommend it as a great gift for someone you care about.
I always leave feeling about a million percent better than when we start, and with a better understanding of how I move, and what about my motions puts me out of alignment.
Barry has a fantastic presence– he’s very calming but efficient at the same time…