You didn’t know we had secrets, did you?? Well we do. And because it’s a holiday week, I’ve decided to write a fun and easy blog post this week. So I picked the top 5 secrets I sometimes share with my clients and today I share them with you as well. 1. Don’t apologize for falling asleep during the massage. It means that you were comfortable and relaxed enough to drift off to sleep. We take it as a compliment when you fall asleep, whether you mean it as one or not. Please don’t burst our bubble by telling us you only fell asleep because you were completely exhausted. 2. Don’t apologize If you forgot to shave your legs today. I will personally guarantee that far more women than you’d suspect don’t shave their legs every day either. If they did, I wouldn’t massage nearly the amount of stubble that I do. I massage so much stubble, in fact, that I barely register it anymore. 3. Cleanliness is next to Godliness, but you can take it too far. Please don’t shower right before walking out your door and come in with wet hair. You see, the moisture gets pulled out of your hair, into the sheet, AND into whatever additional padding that we’ve added beneath the sheet to increase your comfort (often this a lambswool-type padding). This padding stays wet for a long time. We probably only have 1 spare pad. If it gets wet we have to change it. And because many of us don’t have laundry facilities in the spaces that we rent, if two people come in with wet hair in the same day, the remaining clients may not get the additional padding at all if the first pad hasn’t dried yet. 4. It’s possible to smell too good. Believe me. Please refrain from applying perfume or cologne until after your session. Most massage rooms are small and with the door shut for 60-90 minutes, the smell concentrates until we can taste it. We really don’t like the taste of perfume. If we’re trying to ignore the taste of your perfume, you won’t get the best massage out of us no matter how hard we try to do so. 5. Timeliness is next to Godliness. It’s obviously not cool to be late; we operate a time-based business. People sign up for a timed session and we’re not going to be late for the next client, who showed up on time, just because you were late. Most therapists will still end the session at the original time and require you to pay the full fee. It’s also not cool to be more than 5-10 minutes early. Again, this is because we operate on a time basis. After each client, we have things that we must do to “finish” the previous session and get ready for the next. These include: Charting on the session we just finished (a massage isn’t finished until it’s charted), changing the table linens, resetting the room so it’s ready for us to begin a new session, drink some water, use the bathroom, have a bite to eat, and return voicemails/emails received while we were in with the last client. So there you have it. 5 of our most important secrets. Do you have a question that you’d like answered, but can’t quite bring yourself to ask your therapist face-to-face? Leave it in the comments and I’ll either answer it in the comments or in a blog post of its own. Are you a massage therapist who has another secret you’d like to share? Please leave it in the comments. And of course, don’t forget to like, share, pin, retweet, etc. You all know the drill. The handy buttons below ↓↓↓ make is super easy to do so.
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ArticlesLet Your Fascia Flow
By Anita Boser Originally published in Body Sense magazine, Spring 2011. Copyright 2011. Associated Bodywork and Massage Professionals. All rights reserved. Sharon shuffled into her massage therapist's office wondering what was wrong with her muscles. After two weeks of working overtime at her job, she had resumed her normal exercise routine. Instead of the relief she expected, she left the gym with more pain and even developed a disturbing complication: tingling in her fingers. Fortunately, her therapist knew the root of the problem was the fact that Sharon's fascia was distorted. Few people know about fascia, a three-dimensional web of support that facilitates, or inhibits, movement. Like a movie director who influences every scene, fascia coordinates every move of the body. Fascia is a thin connective tissue that wraps every muscle fiber, every muscle bundle, every individual muscle, and every muscle group. It becomes the tendon that knits into the connective tissue covering the bones. For extra coordination and strength, it forms sheets to transmit force between muscles. Nerves, blood vessels, and organs also have fascial coverings. Healthy fascia is smooth and slippery, so muscles can slide like silk. When gummy, dense, and contorted, unhealthy fascia binds muscles and limits movement. Collagen fibers give fascia its shape and structure, which organize along lines of tension in the body. In Sharon's case, long hours sitting at a computer shortened and thickened the fascia in the front of her chest and neck, causing fascia around the muscles in her back and shoulders to create additional fibers. Her shoulders felt tight, not because they were shortened, but because they were encased in stiff, misdirected fibers. Common exercises--such as using elliptical and weight machines, and traditional stretching--are two-dimensional. They focus on contracting and lengthening muscles, like clenching your fist and then opening your fingers wide. This is good for muscles, but ignores the complexity of your fascial network. Sharon's muscle-focused exercise routine reinforced the misalignment and tightness in her fascia. A more helpful approach would have been to pay attention to her posture and choose non-repetitive movements, such as adding angles to weight exercises, stretching in multiple directions, and using balance equipment. Exercising in a three-dimensional, non-repetitive way engages more of your fascia, so the different layers can slide more freely. The Octopus Undulation exercise is an example for your hands, try it to feel the effect of non-repetitive movement and to relieve repetitive strain. Without the coordination of an adept fascial network, movement is like a B-rated movie: stiff and awkward, lacking smooth transitions and subtle inflection. Over time it leads to dysfunction and pain. Bodywork can return fascia to a more fluid and flexible state. Showing Sharon these techniques brought her relief, as did adding variety to her exercise routine. As a result, she has regained the flow in her body. Anita Boser, LMP, CHP, RYT, is a certified Hellerwork Structural Integration practitioner, registered yoga teacher, and author. You can download a free booklet of exercises to relieve body tension at www.undulationexercise.com. |
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