CE INSTITUTE LLC BLOG

by Selena Belisle, Founder/Instructor, CE Institute LLC

Myofascial release bodywork is usually started with skin rolling  Skin rolling is achieved by lifting dry skin and rolling it through an opposing thumb and fingers. In this video demonstration, we are skin rolling the back from superior around C7 of the spine to inferior, just above the client's ileums.

It is thought that myofascial release is like peeling an onion, where a practitioner would start by stretching the superficial fascia with techniques such as skin rolling, prior to applying deeper myofascial techniques with different applications such as palming or using an elbow to stretch the underlying fascia.

Here is an instructor demonstration video exhibiting skin rolling:

To learn myofascial release, please visit and register with us at: https://ceinstitute.com/collections/myofascial-release

#massage #massagetherapy #massagetherapist #LMT #bodywork #painrelief #MFR #myofascialrelease #myofascialreleasetherapy #bodyworker #bodywork #increasecirculation #scartissuerelease #scartissue

by Selena Belisle, Founder/Instructor, CE Institute LLC

Lomi Lomi Massage is part of an ancient Hawaiian healing approach.  Pule is commonly practiced as an opening ritual for both Ancient Temple Style Lomi Lomi Massage and Aunty Margaret Machado's Big Island Style Lomi Lomi Massage. It is a small blessing that's said silently or aloud prior to the session.

Pule can include:

• calling for guidance
• calling for help
• wishful thoughts
• positive intentions

Pule can also be practiced with your hands on or off the client, as  well as one hand on each.  Here is a brief video explanation and demonstration of pule:

Pule is open to interpretation and practice by each unique massage therapist for every individual treatment. While pule is often used to start a lomi session, the ways it can be provided can largely vary.

Providers do not have to practice pule to provide LomiLomi massage; however, it is a fairly standard practice and one of the elements that qualifies the treatment in the lomi modality.

To learn Lomi Lomi Massage, please register at: https://ceinstitute.com/collections/lomi-lomi

#lomi #lomilomi #lomilomimassage #hawaii #hawaiian #hawaiianhealing #aloha #massage #lmt #massagetherapist #massagetherapy #bodywork #bodyworker

 

 

 

By Selena Belisle, Founder/Instructor, CE Institute LLC

Hot Stone Massage Operating Temperature & Placement Stone Practice
Massage stones must remain fully immersed in water to maintain consistent temperature throughout for safe and best practices. At an operating temperature of 135-degrees, stones must be placed through two physical barriers on a client, or kept in motion while using them for massage.

Of course, anyone wishing to practice hot stone massage should seek professional training to do so.

Why Working Stones are Also Called Palm Stones
Also, the 135-degree stones used for massage are frequently called "palm stones" because they are kept in the practitioner's palms during massage, which is some of the thickest skin of the body. A practitioner can usually handle a 135-degree hot stone because it is continually rotated in their palm, and the palms have less sensory neurons than our fingers too.

Proper Stone Bath Retrieval with Hot Stones
We teach that practitioners should use a red or lighter colored slotted spoon because the water is too hot to stick fingers into a stone bath for stone retrieval.

Potential Hot Stone Massage Injury When Utensils Are Not Used
Sticking finger tips which are loaded with sensory neurons and about 1/3 of the thickness of palm skin into a scalding 135-degree bath could desensitize a practitioner's digits to the heat, if they could tolerate it.  Inserting fingers into the hot water bath also risks burn injuries to the practitioner. This is why we use tools to retrieve fully immersed stones in a hot stone bath.

Using Slotted Spoons and Tong Tools to Retrieve Hot Stones
Using tools to retrieve stones have their own issues, but for now this is the best and most commonly practiced method for these reasons and more. We prefer the use of slotted spoons instead of tongs for hot stone retrieval, because tongs tend to drop more stones with 130+degree hot water splashing which can also be dangerous. While it's easy to drop stones in the bath with a slotted spoon, we feel this happens more frequently with tongs.

For proper training in hot stone massage, please visit and register at: https://ceinstitute.com/collections/hot-stone

Here's some more info about skin thickness:

Knowing where skin is thinner or thicker in the body may help you determine a better service for your client.  For example, a hot stone during hot stone massage will be more tolerable over the thicker skin areas of the body which would be more tolerable to heat.  And services such as hot stone massage will require more attention in the thinner skin areas of the body, because the skin is thin and could easily be sensitive or burn to excessive heat.

Thin Skin:  Above is a diagram of thin skin in the axilla/underarm region.  Here, you can see that the outer layer of the epidermis (the stratum corneum) is much thinner than in the previous picture of thicker skin. 

You can also see there is no stratum lucidum, but there are apocrine glands (labeled #8 on the pictured diagram above) which can produce a scent or odor.  Most apocrine glands are found in the armpits, groin, and breast area.

Thick Skin:  Below is a diagram of the skin of the human palm.  Skin is regularly thicker on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet.  This thick skin on the soles of the feet are what can lead to excessive dead skin and calluses. 

The thick skin of your palm is also an ideal place to hold a stone, hence the nickname of "palm stones", also known as "working" stones, which are used to perform the majority of the hot stone massage in motion.

In this image below, you can also see the stratum lucidum layer of the epidermis.  This is an additional translucent layer of skin of the epidermis that is found in few select places such as the palms of hands and soles of the feet, which helps makes the skin thicker than other areas of the body.

As such, it's common to hold hot working stones in your palms during hot stone massage.  The skin of your palm is usually thick enough to tolerate this heat. However, sticking the extremely think skin of one's finger tips into scalding water to collect stones out of a hot bath is an extremely bad idea, and could result in thermal injuries to the practitioner's fingers or any human soft tissue that is placed into close to scalding water of a hot stone bath.

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Author Selena Belisle is the Founder of CE Institute LLC in Miami FL.  She is a retired professional athlete and has been practicing massage therapy for over 30 years.  Selena is an approved CE Provider with NCBTMB & the Florida Board of Massage.  She now teaches full time for the Complementary and Alternative Health Care Industries. You can learn more about Selena’s training and CE classes at www.CeInstitute.com

#hotstonemassage #bodywork #massage #massagetherapist #lmt #massagetherapy #stonemassage #bodywork #bodyworker #hotstone #hotstonetools #properpractice #LMT #hotrock #hotrockmassage #massageontherocks

 

 

by Selena Belisle, Founder/Instructor, CE Institute LLC

Research Shows Chair Massage Reduces Anxiety

A 1996 study titled: The Effectiveness of Massage Therapy Intervention on Reducing Anxiety in the Workplace by Karen R. Shulman, Gwen E. Jones, showed chair massage can reduce anxiety:

“For 15 minutes weekly, subjects either received a massage or were allowed a break, depending on their assignment to either the treatment or control condition…Significant reductions in anxiety levels were found for the massage group.”

Corporate Onsite Chair Massage Reduces Stress

Back in 1998, the Boston Business Journal featured our onsite chair massage work on their cover with a full-color photo.  The full-color photo that mentions us is no longer available in their online archives which can be accessed here:  https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/1998/04/13/story3.html

The title of the Boston Business Journal article is:  "Massages, exercise help accountants deal with stress."

The Ease of Onsite Chair Massage

Onsite chair massage is fairly easy to execute with proper education.  In fact, after a couple events and experience, some therapists prefer these quicker sessions over private one-hour full body massage sessions.

Chair events allow practitioners to see a greater number of clients each day.  Seeing a greater number of clients allows for a greater number of positive changes with each massage session, which is extremely rewarding.

Chair massage events also lead to innumerous referrals for a greater amount of massage appointments.  Some clients will want additional massage time which can lead to another appointment, back at the office when one is provided.

LMTs who want to learn more about how to offer their own corporate onsite chair massage event, or how to practice chair massage itself can register for CE class with us at:  https://ceinstitute.com/collections/chair-massage-event-work

#LMT #chairmassage #onsite #corporate #massage #massagetherapy #massagetherapist #bodywork #bodyworker #onsitemassage #corporatemassage #onsitechairmassage #businessperks #employers #employeebenefit #painrelief #rom #increaserom #increasedrom #happy #employmentbenefit #office #officeworkers #secretarial #staff #computerjob #deskwork

 

 

 

 

by Selena Belisle, Founder/Instructor, CE Institute LLC

As evidence-based massage becomes more prevalent in the massage and bodywork industry, we've seen a growing number of LMTs dismiss an increasing number of studies due to perceived study deficiencies.  Sometimes these dismissals are for good reason, and sometimes the dismissals of research are for reasons that do not seem to be fully understood nor appreciated.  Here's some examples:

Health Care and Medicine Does Not Provide 100% Cures for All
There are no absolutes, such as any method being 100% effective in health care practices. That is just unheard of and an unreasonable expectation in the healthcare arena given human factors and variables. As such, many massage and health care studies will adopt soft language that generalizes conclusions, without absolute certainties. Expecting a study to conclude more than a generalization is arbitrary.  Massage therapists should not be seeking hard language that massage cured something, or was proven without a doubt, given the many human variables that will prevent this for the entire study population.

Massage therapists cannot be replaced by tools or machines.  True professional massage requires a human being to administer the appointment.  People namely trained therapists, are able to observe the tissue they are massaging to ensure no harm is done.

A 2021 study in the Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Journal from Oxford Academic reported a case of rhabdomyolysis after massage gun use.  According to the CDC,  rhabdomyolysis "is a serious medical condition that can be fatal or result in permanent disability. Rhabdomyolysis occurs when damaged muscle tissue releases its proteins and electrolytes into the blood. These substances can damage the heart and kidneys and cause permanent disability or even death."

In the case study, a young woman with pain in her thighs received muscle gun treatment from her coach to relieve her pain. This resulted in muscle bruising and a severe case of rhabdomyolysis.

Massage guns have been trendy with increased use.  Sharper image has sold thumper devices for years, and within the past decade, the number of massage gun manufacturers and sales have increased.  Most notably Mark Whalburg was recently reported to gift a massage gun to one of his movie costars who thought the massage gun was for something other than therapeutic purpose.

Massage guns are fairly easy to apply, except when they are used by untrained professionals.  That's because, when a massage gun is used over a contraindicated site, such as the carotid artery or a ruptured vertebral disc, it could likely do more harm than good.

Sports event use has seen perhaps one of the largest massage gun use increases, given it's fast application. Although again, when used by an individual who does not have proper training, a massage gun could be applied incorrectly to soft tissues which could result in medical harm.

The following image is an example of what a massage gun looks like; however, this is not the massage gun nor is it the massage gun brand that contributed to the rhabdomyolysis injury. Below is only an image to provide readers an example of what a massage gun looks like, and there are many different examples beyond this one image: 

In the end, massage guns will never replace massage therapists given the real harm that could result with massage gun use.  Furthermore, repeated machine compression to a soft tissue could be extremely harmful and result in cases such as rhabdomyolysis.  

For now, we continue to recommend massage therapists simply use their hands for massage, and when properly trained, use hot stones and cups for manual soft tissue manipulation.  Stones and cups still have to be applied by a trained practitioner who knows where and where not to apply such equipment.

So fear not massage therapists, massage guns will never replace us, unless we're at the time where causing possible and real life threatening harm by using a machine is desirable to replacing a real human being.

To learn more, please register for quality, affordable, professional training at: https://ceinstitute.com/

#massagegun #massagetherapist #lmt #massage #massagetherapy #health #healthcare #mt #manualtherapy #rhabdomyolysis #massagecontraindication #evidencebased

 

 

by Selena Belisle, Founder/Instructor, CE Institute LLC

 

Evidence Informed Massage Practices

LMTs can share research and evidence to support the validity of massage work on websites or with clients, such as Swedish massage can be used to treat headaches.  That in-part is of an evidence-informed practice when you have that research.

 

Evidence-Based Massage Practices

Using the actual hands-on massage protocol itself, from the research for any type of beneficial outcome, creates an evidence-based massage practice. 

 

Massage-related Research which includes Machine, Equipment or Product Use

Some massage-related studies use machines, equipment and products because their manufacturers usually have larger budgets to produce research, to demonstrate efficacy for sales.

 

Practicing massage with manufactured items would require additional information and/or training for manufactured item use and more considerations beyond anything discussed in this article.

 

 

Other Variables

There are other variables and considerations that can be applied to define evidence-based and evidence-informed practices.  These two explained above are simplified examples for evidenced massage therapy practices.

 

 

Practicing Evidence-Informed and Evidence-Based Massage
Sometimes a massage instructor will collect published research study data and provide the information in a neat, consolidated presentation.  And there are plentiful industry trade articles available free of charge for LMTs to learn more about research terms and language, on their own.

 

In Summary

We hope this brief summary helps clarify the difference between evidence-based and evidence-informed massage.  You can this and more by registering for training with us at:  https://ceinstitute.com/

 

 

 

by Selena Belisle, Founder/Instructor of CE Institute LLC

All CE Institute LLC hands-on classes are taught from an evidence informed and evidence-based stance.  It is important to practice from evidence and research to validate the work itself.

Here are some tips for practicing massage from evidence:

 

Seek Large Sample Size Research Studies for Use

When using researched protocols for hands-on practice, one recommendation is to review studies with large subject numbers. Following hands-on protocols that are provided to a large control group is preferred to using something practiced in a single case study.

Unfortunately, usually due to budgetary constraints, most massage studies are researched with exceedingly small subject numbers. However, in research, there are other studies called a meta-analysis and systematic reviews. These can collect similar massage studies, regardless of size, to review their data in totality to provide a broader and enhanced picture of results and outcomes from similar studies.

 

Finding Massage-Related Research

There are thousands of massage-related published studies with valuable information that can be used to improve massage efficacy, notably when using resources such as pubmed.gov. Unfortunately, there are still many massage topics that have not been studied or published yet, and when they are published, they might not provide the specific information you are seeking given there are millions of possible variables.

Do not let this information process frustrate you. Instead, we should all be grateful. There is a massive amount of available information, only seconds away at the stroke of a keyboard, which provides incredible and increasing access for evidence-based practices.

Sometimes you will find rare or unknown information while reviewing research because foreign published studies often fail regular massage keyword searches from language translations. Research can be a lot of fun, but it can also take a lot of time and practice to become efficient in finding what you need, if it is published.

I have spent decades scouring massage-related studies in both journals and online. Seeking usable researched hands-on protocols for evidence-based massage training can be long and hard work. However, it is always worth it when you learn something new.

 

What to do if a client is not Benefiting from Massage

Sometimes clients may not benefit from massage at all, regardless of research, training, protocols used or hands-on work. Every available method in your bodywork arsenal may not work! If or when this happens, the client could be suffering with an undetected underlying disease causing whatever prompted their reason to schedule their massage appointments.

Massage therapist should refer their client back to their doctor for further medical recommendations when the client is not reasonably achieving mutually agreed massage goals.

 

How to Learn which Massage Studies are Considered Better Quality

There are many industry trade magazine articles that provide language of how to read or interpret a research study.  LMTs can learn much of the language interpretation on their own with these magazines.

We now spend twelve hours teaching about this and more in an evidence-based massage CE course, so there are various opportunities available for practitioners to learn more about how to use research to establish an evidence-based massage.  You can this and more by registering for training with us at:  https://ceinstitute.com/