Welcome to the continuing blogging challenge. Here is number 6!
Massage Therapists are using their forearms and elbows more and more these days. Maybe I am old school. Sometimes that isn’t a bad thing. I do try to be open minded and keep learning. Sometimes I just get stubborn though. If it is working, I don’t want to try to fix it.Using my hands still works just fine for me.
When I talk to other Massage Therapists about how and why they use their forearms and elbows I am usually told it will save my hands and that it is a better way to get deeper without working as hard. I am not so sure it is a good progressive element. It might be or, it might be that they are not taking the time and being properly instructed to use their hands and body mechanics correctly.
There is nothing more significant than the use of touch.
~Hippocrates
My person thought is that forearms and elbows are not touch, they bump me, press against me in a crowd, are used to push me away.
My personal opinion is that I do not to receive massage with the forearm. I abhor the feel of a hairy arm against my skin and refuse to discriminate against a massage therapist because of the amount of hair they have on their body.
My personal experience has been that some clients do ask if I use my elbows. When I tell them no but, that I can usually get deep enough without that, they sigh with relief. Others, want the elbows and do not believe anyone can get deep enough without it. Most of the time, I prove them incorrect. The other few get referred to a therapist that is stronger than me but, still doesn’t use their elbows.
Truthfully I just love hands.
No single therapeutic agent can be compared in efficiency with this familiar, but perfect tool.…
the human hand.
It is preeminently the instrument of the artist in all departments.
The hand is an ever present agent of skill…
It is capable of infinite adaptations…
If half as much research had been expended on the principles
of governing manual treatment as upon pharmacology,
the hand would be esteemed today
on a par with drugs in acceptability and power.
~J. Madison Taylor M.D. 1869
My hands have been amazing and busy since I was a little girl making mud pies and adding different weeds and rocks to them for different textures. I grew up on a farm and milked goats, shelled peas, groomed horses and all manner of farm activities with my hands. When I was 10 I started taking piano lessons. My dad said “Milkers never make good musicians”.
He was correct. I have managed to play the piano but, not well or well enough to show off in public beyond my early recitals. When I was 15 I took typing in school and bought a typewriter. Dad watched me typing and said “You are going to wear out your hands. You’ll have arthritis and not be able to use them at all by the time you are 30”.
Thankfully he was wrong. I continue to use my hands and haven’t worn them out yet. I love being a Massage Therapist. I use every piece, angle and plane of my hands and fingers doing massage. I know that I can feel so much with my hands, much less with my forearm and hardly anything with my elbow. That is because there are so many more nerve endings in the hand and fingers than the forearm and elbow. So I am most likely not going to be signing up for any of those forearm and elbow classes.
The history of massage is coeval with that of mankind and worthy of
being preserved; its mode of application can be cultivated as an art second
to none that the human hand can perform, having a harp of more than a
thousand strings on which to play; its range of usefulness is increasing all
the time, and has long since extended into every special and general branch
of medicine, so that he who would keep pace with its developments must be
well informed in all departments of the healing art.
~Douglas Graham, MD 1902
And it isn’t really old school. As much as I adore reading old books about massage I do my best to stay current as well.
So let’s not use a stylus. We’re going to use the best pointing device in the world. We’re going to use a pointing device that we’re all born with – born with ten of them. We’re going to use our fingers. We’re going to touch this with our fingers. And we have invented a new technology called multi-touch, which is phenomenal. It works like magic.
~Steve Jobs
So if you are ready for a multi-touch experience and a hands on massage therapy session, please give me a call at 610-906-2322.