Chair Massage Techniques - Principles For Efficient Body Use Part 1

If you're using chair massage techniques, it's extremely important to use your body in a safe, effective way to prevent pressure to your body and make certain that you have a long healthy life as a chair massage provider.



Chair Massage expert, Eric Brown, has developed eight guidelines for efficient body use that he suggests you adoption to minimize the stress on your joints. This is the first part of a four part sequence:



Principle 1: Keep your torso in a neutral alignment



The spine needs to be kept in an aligned position. The curves of the spine ought not to be exaggerated or eliminated. By keeping this posture, there is little strain to the discs in your back or the ligaments that support your spine. Because we oftentimes have sedentary lifestyles, we tend to lack the strength and awareness needed to stabilize the trunk in this posture.



Because of this you must be quite conscious of maintaining the spine in this position. This stabilization is very essential and makes it possible for you to transmit your body mass effectively into the patient's body.

You really must lunge when doing most of the techniques. If our back is aligned in a lunge position, you will notice that you are glancing at the floor. This is an unnatural position. We have a very instinctive orienting reflex that makes us align our gaze to the horizon. So your habitual tendency will be to lift up your head and extend your back into a very vertical position to see straight forward. This pulls your back out of an aligned position and causes hyperlordosis (excessive curving) in the lumbar spine. This makes it a great deal more difficult to stabilize the lower back and creates unnecessary strain to the joints and discs in the back.



It's all-important to battle this instinct and to keep a very neutral position of the low back. Initially it will feel really awkward. Keep in mind, as you direct your focus to your back you'll soon start to be conscious in a kinesthetic way why it makes sense. At first it will take a lot of awareness to maintain this neutral positioning. But with practice you'll start to become increasingly comfortable with the feeling of this position and it will start to be much more comfortable to maintain.



Below you'll find a simple exercise you can practice to develop a strong sense of stability in your torso in a neutral position.



Practice this exercise for an neutrally aligned back



Coming from a background in classical ballet, I've been exposed to alternate ways of thinking about the human body and how it moves. Dancers don't have a lot of technical knowledge about the body's anatomy so they are likely to communicate movement in the form of imagery. One image they habitually use, no matter what they are doing, is the image of pushing downward into the ground. Think about Newton's third law of motion: "Every action has an opposite and equal reaction." The more they drive into the floor, the more their spine rises and lengthens.



For this exercise, simply stand still in one spot with your feet shoulder width separated. As you remain quiet for a second, notice the sensations through your feet, your legs and your back. Scan your body with your inner eyes. Now as you are standing there quietly, think of pressing into the ground with your feet. Picture trying to push the floor downwards. As you do this, identify what happens in your body. Notice how your legs feel as though they become more firm while remaining relaxed. Feel your pelvis rotate into an upright orientation so that it feels like a bowl that supports your abdominal contents. Observe how your spine appears to lengthen without any effort and how your body lengthens around a central axis.



Repeat this process several times letting your body relax and then engaging your feet into the ground to become aware of that lengthening sensation.