Thai massage at home #1

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This video shows a stretch for the hamstrings and piriformis that’s good for low back or hip pain. If your loved one is complaining about low back issues try this one out. It’s extremely simple but very effective for lumbar spine problems. The musculature of the gluteals and piriformis form a tight grip on the sacrum and if it’s pulled out of alignment low back pain is common. I’ll be posting more of these that you can add together as a small routine. If you have any questions feel free to contact me.

Thai massage doesn’t seem extremely common in Austin and I hope to change that. The more the public is aware of what it is and the differences it has from table massage, the better off we’ll all be.

Ma Roller

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I was introduced to the Ma roller years ago by a friend in the yoga community. It doesn’t look very exciting, just a wooden dowel with some knobs on it. It is the most effective tool for back pain I’ve found.

The Ma roller is a remarkably simply tool that most wouldn’t consider. It’s a piece of wood with two knobs that press into the strips of muscle along your spine. Massage therapists spend so much time getting these muscles to relax and this tool does the best job of anything I’ve encountered in my years working with bodies.

You lay down on the tool and it presses into the muscles on either side of your spine. The impact of the tool comes not only from a sustained, long term pressure on musculature that is tight but the fact that you receive a very gentle backbend as you continue to relax. This pushing of the spine allows a very pointed, precise backbend for specific vertebrae. You’re able to relax superficial muscles that are often overstretched and tissue that’s overly tight is given time to truly give way.

As with a yoga pose you use the tool within reason. It’s not supposed to cause pain but it is supposed to be intense if that is what your body needs. Intense gets your attention but it doesn’t tell you to stop.

When I first used the Ma roller I found that I needed the most help in my upper back or thoracic spine. It provides a stronger backbend here due to the way your spine’s natural curves press out against the roller. If I ever found the pressure to be too intense I could fold a towel over the roller and it softened the pressure the knobs place on my spine while in use.

Over the years my upper back and cervical spine have improved but as soon as I’d worked through this I began developing low back pain. I’ve worked with it for several years now, it comes and goes and the Ma hadn’t been used in awhile. I decided to use it again and placed it around my lumbar paraspinal musculature only to discover that I had some deep tension here that felt old. Right along my core I could feel shooting pains from this area to the heads of my femurs in my hips then about half way down my thighs.

My wife giggled as I groaned for ten minutes or so hanging out in what is some very intense sensation in my low back. After having these muscles release some and gently moving my vertebrae I stood up and felt much more free. My low back wasn’t as rock solid and upon twisting my spine it adjusted strongly and down into my sacroiliac joints. Later that day in yoga class I noticed that when I went into what’s commonly called superman I could feel those muscles tighten for the first time in awhile. Previously I was getting almost no additional contraction, the muscles were already squeezing so tightly I couldn’t feel them anymore.

Over time the area is letting go and I find forward bending to be easier and with less strain. I’m not always completely certain what’s tight and why but the Ma roller is only one of the two tools I recommend to clients.

Get one and use it, your back will thank you.

link to purchase

 

Thai Yoga Massage pt. 2

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Thai massage has it’s own story. As with any story, the best one wins. The best story is that Dr. Zhivago created traditional Thai massage while he was the Buddha’s doctor. Along with Buddhism, Thai massage spread into Thailand from nothern India. There the work was preserved by monks who used it to aid their health and facilitate meditation practice. Monks worked on each other to help them with the rigors of sitting and meditating for hours. Then the work was used as a health regimen for those in the villages who went to the monks for healthcare. The sick and infirm would receive the work from monks as the monks worked on their practice of loving kindness and compassion.

Thai massage was surely influenced by Chinese medical doctors who passed through the area and also influenced by traditional indigenous medical practices in Thailand. In the end, regardless of the truth of the story the work has been practiced for so long in Thailand that it’s just considered traditional bodywork in its homeland.

Over time the work was shared. Not until recently has Thai massage been promoted and used in the west. Harald Brust or as he was called, Asokananda, was a German gentleman who learned the work by observing, receiving and asking questions about the work from monks and practitioners in Thailand. Over time he was accepted as a qualified teacher of the work and began teaching it to westerners who wandered through. He helped translate the work into other languages and wrote books on it in addition to classes he taught.

My teacher learned from Asokananda amongst others and taught me, so you see the lineage goes back for a long time traditionally but is fairly new to the west. The work is easy to learn, it does take some practice and doesn’t really resemble massage as we think of it in the west. It looks much more like someone doing yoga to someone else, thus it’s commonly being called lazy yoga. Thai Yoga Massage is more of a dance with a client than table work. You’re moving the client and they move with you.

The energy lines called sen within traditional Thai massage bear a slight resemblance to meridians in Chinese medicine but there are no points on the line, it’s just a line. For this reason I think of them as being much closer to the experiential lines one feels when you stretch deeply within a yoga pose. The line that goes down the back of the leg and to each toe, the line that extends from the shoulder joint down to the fingertips being the most common examples one would feel.

A regular yoga practice benefits the practitioner of Thai Yoga Massage and allows one to work with joints and mobility to understand how to move clients for their benefit. The work you do on yourself will help you understand physical limitations and how to work with them. Thai Yoga Massage is the future of bodywork in the U.S. It’s seed is being planted and in coming years it will grow and produce fruit. It’s far too beneficial to remain Thai in the same way that yoga is now practiced by more Americans than those of Indian descent.

Here’s a good video from an American school.

Want more? Sign up! Two classes are being offered that you can register for and more will be added over time. You do not need have experience as a massage therapist to take these classes. If you are a licensed therapist in TX I can provide continuing education units through the state. If you wish to sample the work contact me to make an appointment. The most secure way of knowing you want to learn the work from me is to interact, receive what I’ll be teaching and see if it’s the work you’ve been looking for.

Yoga and Thai Yoga Massage have arrived in Austin, Round Rock and the vicinity.

 

Thai Yoga Massage

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Living in an area where this bodywork isn’t common I feel it’s necessary to work to educate massage therapists and the public on this healing path. I’ve been a massage therapist for 9 years and worked with Thai Yoga Massage for 7 or so of those years. Even after all this time the work is seen as an oddity to those who’ve never had anything else but a table massage.

I remember years ago doing a demo where I lived in Baton Rouge and people walked by looking at me as if this was the oddest thing they’d ever seen. In retrospect, how does one demonstrate…massage? To put it in context we’ll have to go to where Thai Massage originates, Thailand, in southeast Asia.

Thai massage in Thailand is the traditional healing method. It’s been practiced since time immemorial and it’s no different than going to a barber to get your haircut. Young, old, infirm and in between go and get work semiregularly and it’s integrated into the culture as a part of daily life. In Thailand it’s not really massage, it’s just what we do when we ache. Massage in our culture has roots in swedish and deep tissue massage primarily and is a western anatomical model of how bodywork is done. Thai massage has more roots in yoga and chinese medicine.

Thai massage is done in public. It’s not done behind a closed door where you can go to sleep in the near dark. It’s not uncommon to be in a public space, mats on the floor and have 10 mats with 10 clients each receiving the work from 10 therapists. One of the more famous places to go receive a Thai massage is in a buddhist temple from blind monks.

The history of Thai bodywork is influenced and hard to seperate from Buddhism and the practice of yoga. They’ve intertwined and influenced each other in myriad ways but as a practitioner one has to delve into these ideas and practices to understand how well they integrate. I started practicing yoga several months before I had my first Thai Yoga Massage and the work was so seamless it seemed like the exact same thing except one was active, the other passive.

After a single Thai Yoga Massage I decided to study everything the teacher taught without exception. This work was some of the most healing I’d ever experienced. Gravitating towards feeling good and healing my body I knew this would become key to my growth and healing.

So again, what is Thai Yoga Massage? Primarily it’s passive stretches, kneading and pressing on the body and musculature to help relieve tension and pain. Swedish and deep tissue massage is wonderful at treating muscles like a sponge, squeezing out blood flow and then allowing it to return so that muscles can heal rapidly. Thai Yoga Massage in contrast seems better at working with lengthening muscles and has more focus on ligaments, tendons and joints. After a Thai Yoga Massage one doesn’t typically want to go to sleep and there isn’t the lymphatic dump that happens after a swedish session.

After a swedish or deep tissue massage many clients report wanting to take a nap or go to sleep. A Thai Yoga Massage client usually stands up and says, “I feel great. I feel taller.” Then they can return to work, but their mind is clear and that clarity seeps out into their thought and work.

So, how does feeling unencumbered sound to you? Thai Yoga Massage is the best bodywork I’ve encountered and it changes peoples lives. I’ve been working for nine years. I’ve studied, learned, pressed, kneaded and done all in my power to help people and it’s all right here. Come experience the work, take a class for yourself. It’s time Thai Yoga Massage was common in Austin, Round Rock and in central Texas.

This video is by a wonderful teacher named Kira. She also studied with Asokananda as did my teacher.