In February of 2022, the Massage Therapy Foundation posted the 1st phase findings of its Ergonomics Project (https://massagetherapyfoundation.org/mtf-ergo-project/). Three of the recommendations are to sit more, change work postures, and have adjustable tables and stools to vary work postures.
These findings corroborated my experience which I teach and write about. Unfortunately, implementing these recommendations without understanding key body mechanics concepts comes with potential hazards. Let’s start with sitting.
Sit and Lean
If you sit more to massage in order to rest your legs, you could be potentially stressing your upper-body more if you don’t lean to generate force. Here’s how I lean to generate forces:
Sit and Use a Massage Tool
Since you can only use your upper-body to lean and generate force while you sitting, you might be tempted to press harder with your arms and hands. To prevent that I recommend using massage tools while sitting and pressing. The key to using massage tools is to lean, pin, add a guide finger and relax the hand holding the tool. Here’s how I do that:
Change Stances
Changing work posture doesn’t only have to be from standing to sitting and vice versa. I change stances constantly throughout a massage. Why? To break static posture and give areas of my body that are more taxed than other areas of my body a break. In this rough-cut video I demonstrate how to change stances (work postures) without interrupting the massage:
Massage is both static and dynamic. There are times you’ll be in the same position for a while as you hold a point or work an area. The dynamic part takes a little more conscious effort. As you’re in a static posture and before the taxed muscles start to figure, make the massage dynamic by changing positions, techniques or moving on to a different area.
If you need help figuring out which body-mechanics strategies work best for you, shoot me an email (mark@makethemostofmassage.com), and I’ll be happy to help:-)
Other help is here: book and online classes.
If you don’t take care of you, at some point, you won’t be able to take care of them.
