All posts by Ian Harvey

Dealing With Your Massage-Related Injuries

Massage Tips and Tricks, Rambling

You may have heard me make the claim that I’m injury-free. “I’ve been using my weird body mechanics and low tables for a decade, and I don’t have any pain to show for it.” How could that be possible? How can a massage therapist avoid all injury?

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It… may have been an exaggeration. What I mean to say is that, while I’m CONSTANTLY injuring myself in new and interesting ways, I don’t have any chronic pain to show for it. It’s a matter of giving each new ache or pain the reverence they deserve, actually treating the injuries instead of ignoring them, and adapting to allow those parts to recover.

Let’s look at the last two months. I got a twinge in my thumb while doing some weird little swirling flourish thing during petrissage (I have no memory of commanding my hands to do this), and I started having pain in my wrist after allowing it to extend to an extreme angle during a high-pressure move. ... continue reading.

3 Rules for Reducing Chronic Pain

For Massage Clients, ,

I was sedentary for the first, oh, 20 years of my life. My only exercise was lugging my backpack, dense as a neutron star, from class to class because I was too lazy to make the detour to my locker.

I had back pain. Man, did I have back pain, and it was ever so mysterious.

Poor kid.
Poor kid.

That’s me about 18 years ago, taking a “before” picture (I think I was planning to start lifting weights… didn’t happen). Please realize that I thought I was in a completely neutral stance, feet even, shoulders relaxed, etc., and please notice how completely I failed. One foot was forward, one hip was hiked, one arm was rotated inward, and my entire torso was displaced 2 inches to the left.

Our bodies do the best they can with the stimulus that we give them. While our brains have access to a ton of information, the body will get limited cues, such as “needs to walk short distances,” “needs to sit for long periods,” and “needs to occasionally haul heavy loads.” Based upon these inputs, our bodies adapt. Mine had decided that I needed to be shaped a certain way to meet the needs of playing lots and lots of video games. ... continue reading.

Massage Video: Strategies for the Trapezius

New massage tutorial! This one’s on the trapezius, everyone’s favorite kite-shaped muscle. While I do discuss some specific techniques, this one’s more about strategy. What pain is associated with the trapezius? How can we work with it thoroughly, and in ways that other massage therapists might not consider?

When I get a client with pervasive neck, shoulder, and back pain, I’m thinking that poor beleaguered trapezius needs some love. By considering all portions of it (even the parts that attach to the clavicle!), we can treat it more thoroughly, and send it a more powerful message, than by just petrissaging that meaty part at the top.

What do you think? Are there any particular techniques that you’d like to share, or strategies for working with this region? I could talk about trapezius all dang day. ... continue reading.

Massage Malady #5: Cervical Sadism

Massage Maladies, Massage Tips and Tricks

If you’ve read my writing or watched my videos, you know that I love the neck. I fearlessly grasp sternocleidomastoid, I’ll draw the scalenes in as I work the traps, and I’ll happily give the local fascia a stretch with a slow, soft fist. I know there’s a lot of nervous, vascular, and lymphatic tissue present, but the neck is a robust structure full of feel-good muscle, begging to be explored. If you deal with it mindfully, you can really offer the client a new experience of a structure that has previously only caused them pain, or that they think of as the place where they “hold their stress.”

But… there are limits. That brings us to today’s massage malady: “Cervical Sadism.”

cervical-sadism

This is rarely seen with actual massage techniques: People tend to respect the anterior and lateral neck’s potential vulnerability by being careful with it, or even avoiding it altogether! While that’s not great, at least it’s erring on the side of caution. Conversely, this particular problem is characterized by a blithe disregard for the neck’s normal range of motion. ... continue reading.