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How to use your body...

To think of massage as something you only do with your hands is incorrect. A therapist who uses the hands for a palpation tool and the whole body for most of the pressure is working correctly. Massage is very physical and the muscles of the arms should not be used for long periods of time without taking a break. The arm muscles are not generally as aerobic and fatigue easily; however, the large muscles of the legs and hips can function efficiently for many hours at a time. Generate your power from the lower body to help prevent injury and excessive strain to your arms and hands.

Stay Healthy!

Karina Braun, Author of Creating Peace with Your Hands
www.igetintouch.com
Education and injury prevention for massage therapists

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Comment by Karina Braun on August 6, 2009 at 10:06am: Hi Lauriann. I would be glad to explain. I am a yoga instructor and massage therapist so I come from that perspective and think through lines of energy. In Swedish massage, most of the strokes come from the hands and upper body but the whole body works together as the body "dances" with the body on the table. In deep tissue, the power for the stroke is generated from the feet up through the body, out to the arms and through the hands. If all power for the stroke starts in the upper body the therapist is working too hard and has a higher risk of injury because he/she is straining and working too hard from solely the upper body. My point was that the whole body has to be used to work correctly, especially when delivering a stroke or technique with deeper pressure. First, palpate with the hands to formulate where the person needs more work, warm up the tissue, and then use whole body generated strokes.
I did not say that the arm muscles were not aerobic. What I did forget was the word as...the arm muscles are not designed to work as long as the legs and this can lead to injury if the person uses their arms and hands for 8-10 hours a day doing massage (which is quite common in the Las Vegas spa community). Muscles need oxygen to perform. The leg muscles are designed to run and walk distances and do not tire as easily as the arm muscles because they are larger and more powerful. I agree completely that all muscles need to rest and recover or injury can occur. I know this all too well as I performed barefoot massage and injured my ankles and low back (annular fiber tears) and could not walk for a very long time because of the repetitive nature and unnatural motion of doing this type of work. Therapists that do barefoot massage think they can not get hurt because they are not using their arms but this is incorrect. Any part of the body can get injured if used repetitvely or incorrectly.
Every stroke should be a whole body stroke. Most important with deeper strokes. The energy is generated from the feet, mostly from the back foot pressing off of the floor (archer). Then, the line of energy moves up the legs to the core, continues up through spine, to the shoulders, through the arms and hands and then is transferred to the body on the table via the stroke. A line of energy is a flowing stream of intention and should be as relaxed as possible to create energy with effortlessness.
Hopefully, this explains things more for you and sorry if I leftout the word as because it makes more sense with it included. I hope you have a great day and thanks for the comment.

Karina

Comment by Lauriann Greene, CEAS on August 6, 2009 at 7:14am: Karina,you are indeed making a good point about not relying exclusvely on the arm muscles to create one's strokes or pressure. But there are several points you make here that I don't fully understand. You say the arms are not "aerobic" - I'm not sure what you mean by that. The word "aerobic" means dependent on oxygen - all muscles, including those in the arms, are dependent on oxygen to function. You say the "the large muscles of the legs and hips can function efficiently for many hours at a time". Actually, those muscles will also eventually tire and are subject to the same risk factors (repetition movement, awkward postures, etc.) as other muscles. Time for rest and recovery is necessary for all muscles to function optimally and not become injured. You say that "A therapist who uses the hands for a palpation tool and the whole body for most of the pressure is working correctly". Most therapists do use their hands to create pressure, not only to palpate. It is possible to apply pressure with the hands and still be "working correctly" and avoid injury. Finally, you say "Generate your power from the lower body to help prevent injury and excessive strain to your arms and hands". It's not possible to generate power (force) for strokes delivered with the arms exclusively with the lower body. The back and shoulder girdle will necessarily be involved. The lower body has to work in concert with the upper body to help preevnt injury to the upper extremity. Can you explain further?

Comment by Carl W. Brown on August 5, 2009 at 4:01pm: Karina you make some very good points. At 65 I have to be careful not to hurt myself. However, I found that using other parts of my body such as elbows, forearms decreased my sensitivity. Also I found that moving my focus to my body took it away from the client. I do most of my work while seated and use person’s own force letting the client do most of his or her own healing. Working a muscle or parts of a muscle at a time uses far less force that muscle groups. Ironically I also find that patience yields faster results with less effort.
The downside is that I find that I no longer can work this way and do traditional Swedish massage well. So while it produces very good results it is much harder to market.