Give Yourself a Hand and Don’t get all Bent Out of Shape!
1.
Before the session: practice mindful deep breathing and
perform some gentle stretching warmup exercises to improve
circulation and warmth. Reach arms overhead, behind your
back, flex and extend elbows, wrists and fingers, open and
close palms. Do some basic body stretches and limber up for
the work.
2. Keep yourself hydrated and fit. Get plenty of sleep, good
nutrition, and a regular fitness regimen to boost energy,
endurance and power for more great massages.
3. Schedule a reasonable number of clients at a time, with
breaks for rest or a nap between sessions to avoid fatigue.
4. Use proper foot placement and stance when massaging.
Assume a neutral posture with one foot ahead of the other,
as if taking a step, with knees slightly bent, spine with
neutral lumbar lordosis, to enable you to simply lean
forward to work into the tissues instead of curling your
fingers and bending your wrists to apply compression to the
muscles. Learn Tai Chi to master this type of posture and
movement.
5. Use proper ergonomics when working: work on a high-low
electric table, have plenty of room to move around the
table, use bolsters and pillows to position clients for
access to the body, keep the body part close to you to avoid
bending and reaching.
6. Employ a large repertoire of techniques and vary the
interventions to avoid repetitive strain. Take continuing
education courses to maximize your selection. Clients will
appreciate the variety!
7. Avoid overuse and awkward positions of your body: keep
thumbs and fingers in neutral when gliding, do not
hyperextend the thumb, fingers or wrist. Stack joints
perpendicular to the earth to maximize efficiency and avoid
strain to tendons and ligaments. Use gravity to do the work.
8. Have fun with massage tools such as foam rollers,
handheld tools, balls and massage cups.
9. Avoid repeated or sustained positions and pinching or
gripping. Alternate techniques and use both or alternating
hands, elbows, knuckles, forearms to ease your strain.
10. Use less force. You can access deep structures with many
techniques, including myofascial release, positional
release/strain-counterstrain, craniosacral therapy and
neuromuscular re-education work.
11. Be part of a support network, trade massages with other
clinicians, be active in your associations.
12. You are a massage athlete. Just as professional athletes
have a coach, you can benefit from the advice of an expert
Ergonomic Coach. Schedule a consult today. You can send the
consultant a video of your massage. The expert advice could
be priceless for preventing injury and putting more power
and longevity into the career that you love.
13. Are you part of a company or franchise? Improve quality
and productivity, reduce costs, improve staff engagement and
build a safety culture at your workplace. Make an expert
Ergonomic Coach part of your team and the entire company
learns to be proactive to prevent pain and promote the
health of your entire team for fabulous results!
Dr. Schmidt is a board-certified specialist in orthopedic
physical therapy and a certified ergonomic assessment
specialist. Learn more with free videos, home study and live
seminars with Educise at
www.educise.com. And on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/educiseresourcesinc.
Last revised: December 25. 2020
by Theresa A. Schmidt, DPT, MS, OCS, LMT, CEAS, CHy, DD
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