In this quick instructor demonstration training video, we will show you how to setup your massage table at a sporting event, how to sanitize in between clients and how to redress your table if your table covering is ripped, torn or deteriorates during work hours:
Sometimes, when working a corporate onsite chair massage event, a massage therapist will come upon the occasional client with a headache.
Chair massage is highly portable, and can be easily practiced in almost any office or work setting.
The following is our instructor demonstration of how we would normally treat a headache during chair massage. This particular chair massage routine for headaches includes massage compressions, trigger point therapy application, myofascial release and other bodywork practices and skills.
Gentle forms of massage such as aromatherapy affect your nerve endings. This could release chemicals called endorphins which can reduce pain. Stronger methods, such as Swedish massage, aim to stimulate your blood circulation and lymphatic system, relax muscles and ease knotted tissues that can cause pain and stiffness. Some types of massage such as shiatsu may also gently stretch parts of your body to release stiffness.
Why people use massage with cancer:
One of the main reasons people with cancer use massage is because it helps them feel good. It is a way they feel they can help themselves. Generally, massage therapy can help lift your mood, improve your sleep and enhance your well-being. There is some evidence to help support these benefits.
Massage for people with cancer is promoted as a natural way to help people relax and cope with:
stress
anxiety
headaches
pain
Research into massage and cancer:
There is no scientific evidence that massage can treat cancer. But it is commonly used to help people feel better, and to reduce some cancer symptoms and treatment side effects.
In 2011, a UK review looked specifically at trials using massage for women with breast cancer. There were 6 trials and the reviewers said that massage seemed useful as a supportive therapy. Massage seemed to help with symptoms of depression, pain and tiredness.
Specialty oncology training should be completed prior to practicing massage on anyone who has cancer, to review precautions, contraindications and more. You can find oncology bodywork and massage training at our school here at: https://ceinstitute.com/collections/oncology
[i] “General Cancer Information.” Massage Therapy | Cancer in General | Cancer Research UK, 12 Jan. 2015, about-cancer.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/cancer-in-general/treatment/complementary-alternative-therapies/individual-therapies/massage?_ga=2.61722852.999167709.1558910339-1995383506.1558910339.
Massage increases circulation. Circulation creates better tissue metabolism, including a delivery of oxygen and nutrients and improves venous return of poorly oxygenated blood.
Myofascial release bodywork on the other hand will improve massage therapy techniques, by removing tissue restrictions that restrict normal tissue metabolism and circulation.
Myofascial Release Techniques are DIFFERENT From Massage in the Following Capacities
There is no repeated compression such as petrissage or tapotement
We are not directly increasing circulation or tissue metabolism
Myofascial release stretches and lengthens contracted tissues
Massage clients in a chair is a little different than providing service on a massage therapy table. A chair allows a practitioner to provide pressure in different directions than normally accessible on a table. The boney landmarks of the client's posterior body also require appropriate navigation when adjusting your hands-on skills for this new seated client position as well.
In this chair massage therapy instructor demonstration, we will provide a visual review of the different landmarks one should avoid while performing chair massage on the posterior body:
What are we trying to achieve with SPORTS MASSAGE? There are many sports massage benefits, but one of the MOST IMPORTANT benefits is an increase in blood circulation.
Research suggests that some sports massage could provide the following benefits[i]:
increase blood flow by increasing the arteriolar pressure
increase muscle compliance
increase range of joint motion
decrease active and passive muscle stiffness
increase muscle temperature from rubbing
induce a relaxation response (physiological mechanisms)
reduce anxiety
improve mood state
enhance performance
reduce injury risk
Ischemic Compression in Sports Massage
Ischemic compression is a proven stationary massage technique, commonly used in CPR during cardiac arrest to manually increase an individual’s blood circulation.
Ischemic compression can be defined as: manual, repetitive, stationary pressing over one area with one compression. The practitioner presses and releases on soft tissue.
The practitioner can then stay in the same place and repeat over and over, or the practitioner can travel to different areas with this same compress and release, ischemic compression technique.
Ischemic compression requires multiple compressions to increase blood circulation. Compressing once is not adequate to increase circulation.
In sports massage, we can use ischemic compression throughout the body over muscular soft tissues. Sports massage ischemic compression aids and increases overall blood circulation.
Sports massage practitioners should be LESS aggressive in their manual techniques in any area of injury, regardless of the athlete who is on the table. Pressing and manipulating soft tissues injuries, including sprains and strains, will usually cause greater damage and additional swelling which will adversely affect athletic performance.
As a sports massage therapist, you can perform any legitimate type of bodywork that helps the athlete and enhances their athletic performance. Some bodywork techniques are more commonly accepted as “sports massage”, but sports work is really about serving the athlete to the best of your licensed capabilities.
[i] Weerapong, P., Hume, P.A. & Kolt, G.S. The Mechanisms of Massage and Effects on Performance, Muscle Recovery and Injury Prevention. Sports Med 35, 235–256 (2005). https://doi.org/10.2165/00007256-200535030-00004
In this instructor video demonstration, you will view a gentle passive skin moisturizing session with easy successive strokes to create a relaxing and gentle massage that can be use with aromatherapy, geriatric and oncology bodywork service:
Manual Lymphatic Drainage is NOT A MASSAGE. In massage therapy, we primarily work with muscle and other soft tissue structures. In Manual Lymphatic Drainage, we primarily work with FLUID.
While the lymphatic and cardiovascular systems both transport fluid throughout the body, the lymphatic system is thought to be a “less robust” system than the cardiovascular system, in-part, because the lymphatic system does NOT have a PUMP. The cardiovascular system's pump is our human heart and cardiac muscle.
Interstitial Fluid
In manual lymphatic drainage, we are trying to absorb and propel a milky white and often colorless fluid that bathes the tissues and drains through the lymphatic system into the bloodstream. It contains: water, proteins, cells, toxins, fats, waste, bacteria, viruses, etc.[i]
“The only difference between lymph and interstitial fluid is its location. If the milky white fluid is found in the spaces between body tissues, it is called interstitial fluid. If it is found in the lymphatic system, it is called lymph.”[2]
Here is an instructor demonstration of belly pumping, which is thought to promote stagnant lymph to propel superiorly towards the subclavian veins to be "dumped" in the cardiovascular system for appropriate filtering and/or elimination:
[i] Reference.com IAC Publishing Labs Company, found online June 24, 2016,
https://www. reference. com/science/lymph-differ-interstitial-fluid-cbe413fad52593d
[2] Reference.com IAC Publishing Labs Company, found online June 24, 2016, https://www. reference. com/science/lymph-differ-interstitial-fluid-cbe413fad52593d
“…a web of connective tissue that spreads throughout the body and surrounds every muscle, bone, nerve, blood vessel and organ to the cellular level…”
Fascial Fact: There is no such thing as “isolation” of a joint or muscle. Everything is connected - tension on one area will affect other areas. The entire body is connected through fascia.
FASCIA TISSUE TYPES
3 Types of Fascia
Deep Fascia which includes Myofascia
Superficial Fascia
Visceral Fascia (aka “Subserous Fascia”)
The superficial and deep fascia is the fascia that we are trying to affect in our myofascial release bodywork.
Traditional Hawaiian Lomi Massage does not address western diagnosis or disease. Much like Chinese medicine, lomi massage treats the body as one soul or unit.
Lomi Lomi Massage is an Energy Bodywork that uses touch communication. Our goal is simple: it’s to shift our client’s energyvia touch communication.
That goal includes taking any negativity in the body, and using touch communication to change it to positivity.
Here is our CE Institute LLC instructor demonstrating Ancient Temple Style Lomi Lomi strokes, using touch communication to create a positive within the client's body:
