I had my interview about Thai massage in the U.S. tonight. It was nice to finally get a chance to speak to Ryan Hoyme commonly referred to as the MassageNerd. He’s become a celebrity of sorts in massage circles in the U.S.
Looks for more videos soon.
The Thai massage videos for download from this series will be available before Thanksgiving. I’ll keep you posted but enjoy the teaser videos for now.
Metta
We just finished another full Intro. to Thai massage class at our studio. That means I’m surrounded by 8 or more eager students trying to pull together a routine I’ve put together to try and help their clients, family and friends feel better. I give teaching my all and quite honestly have to hold back due to time. I told students several times that we need to lock everyone in a cave for several months and practice, then they’ll understand the teaching. It’s So simple it takes time. It’s like describing how to make wine. You ferment grapes. It’s never that simple.
When I consider what I’m trying to do. I return again to Jiro Ono. He doesn’t practice Thai massage but when I saw the film I understood immediately. He’d settle for no less than perfection of his craft and art. I don’t want to control Thai massage or make sure it’s traditional, I want to set it free. I want to be able to look back and know that I helped teach the best bodyworkers the US has to offer. When students ask about new moves or techniques I think of Bruce Lee saying, “I fear not the man who knows 10,000 kicks but the man who has practiced 1 kick 10,000 times.”
Come. There’s work to do. It demands your soul.
Lately things have been hectic with classes and business plans. We’re hopefully going to have videos of the sequence used in the Free Thai Massage Workbook available sometime in November. In the midst of all the teaching and sharing I’m amazed at how advanced such an ancient tradition is.
I gave a demonstration to massage students at a school in Houston yesterday and heard a loud laugh. I looked around and asked what was funny and everyone’s eyes went to the door. I looked behind me and saw a student gazing through the window at my demonstration with this look of complete amazement. Thai massage doesn’t often Look like other kinds of massage. 😀
I wrote a brief article for Massage Career Guides about Thai massage as well. It’s been wonderful to share this ancient healing art.
Low back pain is one of the areas that Thai massage excels at providing relief. In my 11 years experience nothing provides such consistent results other than a regular yoga practice, fortunately I do both.
The complex interplay between hips, pelvic bowl, sacrum, lumbar spine and all the musculature involded means it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what every back pain in the area comes from. The psoas is often involved from being shortened and the hamstrings often pull the lumbar spine towards flat back. Long term these are bad, in the short term you feel stiff and immobile.
I started using the Ma roller in a more advanced way to help clients help themselves at home. Thai massage has me doing these sacral movements and stretches for you but the Ma roller allows you to work on yourself. Notice the lumbar flexion or flat back then the lumbar extension or temporary lordosis we create. You’re stretching and pressing into some of the deeper structures at the base of your spine and if you’re like most of my clients, your back pain will get better.
Go slow, breathe and keep moving. I’ll see you soon for a Thai massage session or class.
Thai massage open practice fell into my lap over a year ago. Someone started the event in their home as an offshoot of the acroyoga community here in Austin and the first night I wandered in I was asked to teach a short sequence. Now, a year later, when new people wander in I can watch a regular teach someone new a similar short sequence and smile.
Currently our community on facebook has 260 members. You can join to get regular updates about our events. To my knowledge we’re the largest organic Thai massage community in the United States. We’re not affiliated with any particular teacher or lineage and we’ve taken Texas independence seriously. From the beginning I decided to lay no ownership over the group and to allow it to create its own community that’s self policing.
Our numbers have grown and thanks to the help of Casa de Luz we’ve had a constant space to operate in this past year. People who come are nearly religious about their zeal for what we’re doing here in Austin, Texas. I laugh when I ask someone how they found out and they announce that a friend of a friend mentioned it to them. In Austin, laid back and organic has shaped how we do things, including one of the most innovative Thai massage communities in the U.S.
Thai massage is more effective for low back pain. Of all the things I’ve used nothing else comes close. I can go into explanations but come get a session and find out. Here I have another discussion with Tyrone Chuang about Thai massage and some of the differences between it and deep tissue or swedish massage.
Long term as a teacher I try to give students more tools. My goal is to help educate and refine students options so they have longer more lucrative careers in massage and bodywork while helping their clients. Metta <3
Relief for lower back pain is something many are looking for. In all honesty I can do little for low back pain on a table massage. Thai massage allows me to give you real relief for lower back pain by allowing me to access the structures that are causing it to begin with.
This video shows a piriformis stretch you can do in a chair to help you see how the gluteals affect the lumbar spine.
The problem often goes deeper into the hips and pelvis than most realize and the psoas in particular is so tight and restricted it allows little of the fluid movements we had as children. Release the musculature, allow normal contraction and relaxation and whoila, pain goes away. People look at me like it’s magic but it’s not. Thai massage is just common sense. Don’t waste your time going to a spa, they don’t offer Thai massage…yet.
I’ve been doing lots of promotion on various facebook groups related to massage and Thai massage in particular. One of the things I’ve noticed is that other massage therapists talk about Thai massage as a modality. For the life of me I can’t fathom what they learned or were talking about. A modality seems to be something you add to your massage like Reiki, hot stones, reflexology and trigger point therapy. To me that’s akin to saying you learned this little thing that’s an add on.
Thai massage is The Best Bodywork I’ve Ever Had. I’ve looked under every rock, nook and cranny for more and I’m still practicing it 9 years later. Thai massage is So vast I find it never ending. Much like Chinese medicine you become a master after years of work with people and developing pattern recognition. People seem to think that Thai massage is just some stretches and that is completely not the case.
If you’re a client with back pain, it can help. If you’re a therapist trying to avoid burn out this is how you do it. Thai massage is deeper than any other massage I’ve ever had. I can, if I wish lean 185lbs of heel into you. Thai massage…is the best.
Landon Sykes and I spend lots of time hanging out and discussing the nuances of Thai massage. As males in a female dominated field we share a rapport that often finds us trading bodywork then having beers afterwards. I decided to record one of our conversations so you get an idea of what we’re doing with amazing bodywork in Austin, Texas.
Landon has been a massage therapist slightly longer than I have but we both focus on Thai massage. When we discuss yoga and Thai massage and the effects we’ve seen in clients it’s from observation over the years. Putting your hands on that many bodies over 10 or more years gives you a solid idea about muscle tightness, rigid inflexible joints and what happens when you don’t get work regularly.
You can schedule a session with Landon by calling 512-318-4387
Tyrone Chuang and I are great friends who met through our love of Thai massage. I recorded a conversation we had about Thai massage, massage in the marketplace and the role that acroyoga and massage schools have in influencing bodywork culture.
If you’re a massage therapist I recommend listening to this one. Tyrone recently got his massage license after attending massage school locally in Austin, Texas. He’s way ahead of the curve when it comes to bodywork and the anatomy he learned in school has heightened his skill set.
I hear this question often and nothing prevents Thai massage from blowing up in our area other than the fact that no one knows what it is. As I teach the work, hear more perspectives and refine my own I’ve come to think of Thai massage as a mixture of yoga and the martial arts, without the martial. It gives you the ability to do great healing work but if used inappropriately much like karate or kung fu you can hurt someone.
In short it’s amazing, simple and easy to use bodywork for the masses. In 20 years or so Thai massage will be as common as swedish and deep tissue is now. Trust me. There’s a class coming up in May. Sign up.
