Massage Techniques for 4 Different Back Massages
Transcript
00:00What's going on guys, Spencer here with HM Massage.
00:12I uploaded this video a while back, and I uploaded it as a no talking relaxation video.
00:19But there were a few people who wanted me to explain the techniques I was doing, and
00:24explain the different mindsets for these four massages.
00:29So I thought I would do that, and showcase the intentions and the different goals in
00:36doing these four different massages, and how I went about them.
00:40Of course, if at any point you do enjoy the video, feel free to give it a like, otherwise
00:45let's get into it.
00:48This first back massage is focused solely on the outside part of her body, or the lateral
00:55edges.
00:56So we're really focusing on the low back, all along the lats, the latissimus dorsi muscles.
01:03We'll get into some of the serratus muscles, and the teres.
01:07What I'm doing here is using my knuckle to pull away from the spine.
01:12This is an area that gets very constricted and very pressed inward, and so it can help
01:18to really widen that, and pull the fascia and the muscles away.
01:24I'm then using my palm to come up along the rotator cuff, into the rear delt and triceps,
01:31and going upward towards her head is a great way to once again open up a very bound area.
01:40The lateral borders of your scapula and your shoulder joint are always tight, and the lats
01:46are actually a big cause of why we have forward shoulder posture.
01:52It's not always just tight pectoralis, but it can be tight lats as well.
01:59This area also contains many trigger points that reference all around the deltoid, down
02:05the arm, and even stretching into the lower and upper back.
02:10So this is a great area to work if someone has pain in any of those generalized areas.
02:18After that deep work, and it may not look like we have gone insanely deep, but the lateral
02:23edges of the back are very tender, but after that deep work you always make nice, and so
02:29here I've just done some lighter effleurage, and I'm about to do the same techniques to
02:34the other side.
02:39Massage number two, we immediately start having already warmed up the client a lot.
02:45You can tell from the red that's streaking down her back, we've already brought a lot
02:50of blood flow and loosened a lot of the connective tissues, so we're going straight in with our
02:56elbow.
02:58For my deep work here, you saw I went up to the head, and right there where I switched
03:04it back, and I'm going against the grain, or against the muscle fibers, that is how
03:10you get insanely deep, especially for that mid scapular area.
03:17I really like using my forearm and elbow there, because it's a nice, broad, deep stroke that
03:23doesn't hurt my fingers, and then I'll follow it up with some specific knuckle work if I
03:29need to, really working the top of the shoulder blade, her levator scapula, her trapezius,
03:36rhomboid muscles, supraspinatus, even some scalings in there.
03:42All of these muscles are the ones that people complain about when they say they have pain
03:47in between their shoulder blades.
03:51Right there is a little boy infraspinatus work, that's the muscle that lies directly
03:56on top of their scapula, and that references pain and wraps around all the way to the front
04:02of the shoulder blade.
04:04So once again, a good area to work, and I moved down to finish off on some lower back
04:11pain, because she also had that going on.
04:14So we're going down the erectors, and stopping right at the top of the pelvis, the iliac
04:20crest, and then we're holding those erectors and the QL muscle, quadratus lumborum.
04:29This muscle, I believe, is the culprit for almost all back pain, and it attaches right
04:35to that lowest floating rib.
04:38So it's really good to press your knuckle upward towards that rib spine attachment.
04:46And once again, a great note is when we are going this deep, go slow.
04:52I'm not speeding through the body, I'm allowing it to welcome me and let me go through
04:58the tissues.
05:03Number three, we're starting with some simple petrissage on the neck, the cervical spine.
05:10So once again, using a lifting, squeezing motion, really encompassing the whole neck.
05:16I'm not nipping at her neck, I'm putting the entire length of my fingers as far as they
05:22go, compressing, and then pulling up, and then alternating that technique between my
05:29two hands.
05:31This move will send tingles down anyone's spine.
05:35It feels very good, and this area, as most people know, is where we carry the weight
05:41of the world, all of our work stress, family stress, life stress, it all kind of gets pushed
05:47into here.
05:49And what I'm doing with my top hand is angling downward and hitting more of her upper back
05:56area.
05:59I switched the angle here, so now I'm getting a lot more of that sub-occiput, getting right
06:05up into the base of the skull, and then going down up to the top of the shoulders at that
06:11levator scapula.
06:15Really spending some good time at the base of the skull before I move into digging with
06:20my knuckles right at the top of the shoulder blades.
06:24And all this area loaded with trigger points that leads to headaches.
06:30If someone has a headache, you need to be doing these techniques and working the area,
06:36and also working both origin and insertion.
06:40You have to go to the attachments of the muscle.
06:44Because it's important that you release the base, or what's really holding that tension
06:50in place, and not just work the middle where the pain is.
06:55You have to work the entire area.
06:59And as a good finishing move, my bottom hand slid down her back there, once again just
07:04connecting the whole massage.
07:10And last techniques of the video, this final massage, different from the other three, is
07:16aimed more towards relaxation and flow.
07:20The first three were very deep tissue therapeutic based, but this one, we're doing long gliding
07:27strokes, generally towards the heart.
07:31Not really going too deep, we're using our palms, not knuckles, not forearms.
07:38In this, we're going lighter, but firm.
07:41This is how I warm up every single massage, including the first three you saw.
07:48And it's getting a lot more of the skin and fascia involved, and then some of the top
07:53layers of muscles.
07:55But we're certainly not getting to the deep, deep layers of muscles.
08:02I'm having a nice broad grip, going all the way, using the sides, down the whole of the
08:08back, around the shoulder girdle, and continuing that flow.
08:18Now I have moved into a little bit of forearms, but this is still not deep tissue.
08:24You can see I'm connecting the flow by never having my forearms leave the body, and once
08:31I'm done using one forearm, which creates a nice broad pressure, I'm switching it right
08:38into the other forearm, so it feels like one long, continuous stroke.
08:49Different angle, just to showcase the same thing.
08:52And as we have warmed up a little bit, there's that cervical technique I just showed.
08:59Once we have warmed up a little bit, we can start thinking about going deeper, so I switch
09:04to knuckles.
09:07Once again, not doing anything crazy deep, but switching to knuckles and switching to
09:13forearms does allow us to start moving into that deeper tissue, which is ultimately what
09:19every single one of my massages ends up being.
09:25The client, they're going to start receiving a lot of increased blood flow, which is going
09:30to help out the nutrients, they're going to be insanely relaxed, and it is going to help
09:35get rid of pain and tension, maybe not just the deep trigger points that can refer a lot
09:42of pain and cause a lot of issues.
09:46A nice, slow hold there, right at the traps and levator.
09:53I was shifting my weight back and forth between my feet for a sec, and that just added a slight
09:58vibration to the stroke, but look at how long I've just sat right there and let the muscles
10:06release under my pressure.
10:09I always say it, but I'm not pushing through the muscles, I'm simply allowing them to let
10:15me pass.
10:20Finally, once they do allow me to pass from that deep work, we go back and make nice with
10:27lighter work and follow the stroke all the way down.
10:32You never want to have incomplete strokes where you stop halfway through the back or
10:37halfway up a muscle, you always want to do your best to follow through to the very end
10:44of where that muscle attaches.
10:48As we finish up, a final note is that direction when it comes to light massage doesn't really
10:54matter, I did a lot of all over the place and even over the spine because I was going
11:00very light, but I did finish up with a few traction pulls and of course some effleurage.
11:08But thank you guys for watching, I do hope you enjoyed the video, give it a like if you
11:12did and subscribe to the channel for new content every single week.
11:16I'll see you guys on the next video, have a good rest of your day.