For me I'll go with the painful one. I want to get rid of all the wind and pain and make my body feels 'light'. Really feels good that way and refresh but it's actually up to preference. If you're one who have low pain threshold then go for the relaxing one. Not sure for others but Malay massage are normally painful and I like it that way
I rem mine being painful the first few sessions because body became tensed after the whole pregnancy & delivery.. Towards the last 3 sessions, I truly enjoyed & fell asleep during my postnatal massages.. 😄 So i would say mine was effective..
Honestly I'd choose the not painful one next time because my massage felt like torture and I don't want to go through that again 😩. But depends on how much you can tahan, if you're OK with pain I guess it will work for you.