Chair Massage

Comment

Comment by Susan G. Salvo on September 30, 2009 at 8:06pm

Awesome!!!

While I admittedly need some work on my body mechanics, I have lots of fun with technique.

Comment by Bill Cahalan on September 30, 2009 at 7:54pm

Susan, I watched the video and loved it. I am always on the look out for various ways to massage. I even used some of the actions today while performing a chair massage. A big thank you Susan!

Comment by Susan G. Salvo on September 29, 2009 at 12:17pm

Hey guys,

I posted a chair massage youtube video a few months ago (in response to students/grads request).

Let me know what you think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvNVnsreTWk&feature=channel_page

Comment by Jack Nelson on September 29, 2009 at 10:44am

I too have a Oakworks Portal Pro, for over 10 years. I love it, but I have 2 concerns. 1) It doesn't seem to adjust well for shorter (5'2"?) clients. It seems to work best if I adjust the seat to the maximum height, but then the short client has a little difficulty getting on the seat. 2) The 3 face rest adjustments doesn't seem to work well for shorter clients, especially women. That is, I slide in down as far as it will go, then I release the 2 levers and position the face rest as low as it will go, but then it is too close to the client. Any suggestions??? I have discovered that an Earthlite face rest will fit on the Oakworks chair frame. Next week I will be working with another MT who has an Earthlite chair; I' hoping that I can swap face rest for a test. If it works, then I try to buy either a complete face rest or a face rest frame from Earthlite.

Comment by Lisa Santoro on September 28, 2009 at 8:07am

I wanted to weigh in on massage chairs. There is so much excellent info here in this forum already! Bravo! This is just my 2 cents, and it is based on years of chair massage experience. I have had my Oakworks Portal Pro for 15 years. Besides my very frequent use of the chair, it was used in my practice at Harvard University as the rental chair. Now, those of you who may not have ever been tot he Cambridge area, know that a lot of the sidewalks are old brick and sometimes cobblestone. That chair has been dragged around to all areas of the huge campus, and I'm STILL on the first pair of wheels!

Without further ado:

1. Chose a chair that does not have plastic components. These wear out so quickly! I love the lightweight Earthlite chairs for their portability, and as a starter chair for those who will only be doing occasional chair massage, this one is just fine.

2. Make sure it's easy to adjust. Sorry Dolphin people, but we had one of those for 2 months in our practice and the screws stripped. THis is also a hard chair to maintain your good body mechanics with. Usually in chair massage, you need to be able to do a quick turnaround (i.e. get one person off and one person in the chair quickly). If you have a difficult time with complicated adjustments, this can irritate the people in your line and they'll go somewhere else.

3. Make sure the chair also adjusts for your height. Some days you may need to work higher, some lower, and don't we know people come in all sizes too so you may need to adjust the chair for them.

4. If possible, get the thing on wheels. Why ruin your precious back trying to carry it around?

5. What's the quality of the vinyl? Tears look unsightly and they cushions make a funny and sometimes rude noise if there's tears and a person settles in on it.

6. What's the quality of the cushioning? Is it so flimsy that when the person puts their face into the cradle, do they feel the hard frame? I once saw one of these chairs at a convention site, and every person who left that practitioner had a large crease on the left side of their face.

I hope that's helpful for some of you, and happy chair massaging!

Lisa Santoro
(See my article in the past issue of Massage and Bodywork magazine--"Free Your Hands and the Rest will Follow: Hands Free Chair Massage" Spring '06 issue)

Comment by Darcy Neibaur on September 27, 2009 at 7:07pm

Tuesday Sept. 29, will be my second event to do chair massage. We are going to the local power company and doing a corporate chair massage event. In the past I have also been to the women's gym here to do a chair massage event with them. It is always very fun.

Comment by Bill Cahalan on September 27, 2009 at 5:39pm

Thanks for sharing those tales, Susan. I have an Earth Lite chair right now. Bought it used. I like it but hate trying to fold it back into it's wheeled bag.

Comment by Susan G. Salvo on September 27, 2009 at 5:12pm

I have an Oakworks chair now…

..but I had a golden ratio chair till last year.

We had two incidents during a four-day event.

Incident #1: A lady needed a chair adjustment.

She reached behind her and grabbed the seat and lifted it up.

This action detached the seat from the chair frame.

When she sat back down, the lady kept going until she was sitting on the floor.

It all happened so fast, I could not stop it.

Luckily she had wonderful leg strength and she was uninjured.

I had three days left.

Incident #2: One the last day, a tall lady with a very short skirt wanted a chair massage.

I was her therapist and gave her a great massage.

When she began to stand up, her legs stuck to the chair seat (this is Louisiana, its hot and humid).

The seat came with her.

Because of the first incident, I was able to grab her, the seat, and hinge the seat back on the frame in record time.

The long legged lady never knew what was going on – I was soooo smooth and kept my eye contact on her, not the chair (which would have brought attention to the chair).

I tried to contact Golden Ratio. The company was/is no longer in business.

I trashed the chair and bought an Oakworks Portable Pro.

I never looked back…

Comment by Bamboo-Fusion on September 27, 2009 at 12:01pm

Hello Ariana,

Thank you very much for creating the Chair Massage Group. I do Chair Massage in my practice with Bamboo and would love to talk about it to your member :)

Nathalie Cecilia, Founder

Comment by Gabriele G. La Vone on September 7, 2009 at 8:27pm

Maria, that sounds great re the replacement wheels. And they have some cool colors.....
In Nashville I have a lilac Portal Pro and in Phoenix I have an aqua colored one.........Also, if you leave the zipper open on the bottom of the carry bag when the chair is upright, you can wheel the chair around with its carry bag/cover on. Good luck!

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• Next ›
• Page