Yes, I know, and it is nice to see someone sleeping so peacefully, but let´s say you fall asleep at the beginning of the session, are you conscious of what the person is doing with your body afterwards? Can you say that it was a good session? And you, as a therapist, are you going on with all the sequence? I love it when there´s some feed back now and then, like a "qué rico" ...

As to the shirt, maybe it was a little bit bulky, about 3 sizes too large, that´s why there was a kind of muddle down there so I wasn´t comfortable to work on it.

Modules 18 and 19 - shoulder transition and summary

First of all, thank you very much Shama for your kind reply and your explanation concerning the sleep during a session - I am sure you´re right and I´ll try to see the good side of this.

As to the shoulder work I followed your advice and worked on my partner and also on my daughter. So I´ve had two experiences which were quite different. First I worked with my partner as usual. He liked a lot the upper body twist but didn´t care much about the "8", the arm pulling (which I personally like a lot), and the lower spinal twist was very difficult for me to do (actually I had to let it go), because of his weight ... The summary was great, I tried to focus on the energy flow and feel that it worked quite well. So, then I worked with my daughter. She´s quite a skinny but athletic person, very flexible and therefore much easier to work on, she´s also more sensitive. We practiced the upper body twist, the lower body twist, figure 8, and she found it great! The same happened with the summary (quote, but I don´t know how to say that in English: she felt a lot of "buena vibra"). The only thing she didn´t care much about was the arm work, the 3 lines kneading whereas my partner enjoyed that a lot (well, like I told you, he fell asleep). Is this due to the body weight maybe? My partner has this strong big arms whereas my daugter´s are very thin ... Ah, and she is quite ticklish, so doing the move below the ribs was a little bit complicated! But all in all it was a very good session, we both felt good and once more I was surprised that I could work on just someone´s upper body for one hour!  

Now I´m looking forward to the prone sequence!

Modules 20 and 21 - prone legs 1 and 2

I´m very pleased to note that there are quite a few different ways to do one move (I´m referring to the calf stretch and the leg pulling), so if I forget to do it in the supine position I can always do it in the prone position!

The elbow work was amazingly good, I say amazingly, because I wasn´t right sure if it would feel good or not, but my partner enjoyed it and me, too, it´s quite a relief to work with different parts of the body and not only with the hands and it brings more variety into a session. However, my partner was not very relaxed in the position of module 21 (thigh work with forearms). I had to place a pillow below his lower leg to make the position more comfortable for him, so I don´t know if we did that in the right way ... Maybe I should have moved up more?

Concerning the move on the lower leg using the knee, I really didn´t feel how far I could go (using elbows is challenging, but I still have more feeling in my elbow than in my knees!!!), so feed-back and the number-method were very necessary and helpful. 

Modules 22 and 23 prone legs 3 and sacrum/glutes

Hi again! Thanks for the good news - I also have some: we went on practicing module 21 and every day it´s getting more fluent, also the transition from one side to the other which I found a little bit complicated at the beginning. I also feel more confident using my knees on the lower leg, but I found it very very very difficult to use them on the glutes! Especially the "up-and-down-and-left-and-right-move" and also the one where we simultaneously use the knee on the glutes and lift the hip. So we keep on practicing these two ones ... Sacrum work was wonderful like you were saying! First I was wondering if I  could find the right place to work on but it was not that hard, actually it´s easy to detect and the whole sequence was very very relaxing. 

One question: When you were showing the blood-stop in the supine position you mentioned that it should not be done on a person with varices. How about all the other leg work with forearms, elephant walking, etc. - can we do that on a person with varices in a very slight way or is it advisable to let it go? In an oil massage the recommendation was not the knead, so what kind of leg work can we do in that case?

Modules 24 and 25 - prone back 1 and 2

First I want to tell you that after practicing the move I found so difficult in module 23 (knees on glutes) now it is just fine, actually, I don´t understand why I could not do that. Maybe I was concentrated too much on the technique that it could not flow ... Now it just feels good, this rocking-swinging-shifting from one side to the other, I like it and my daughter, too (this time I was practicing with her).

The moves up and down the erector muscle are very very nice. It took me a little while to find the right breathing and leaning in/out rhythm, but then it felt very good. The elbow and knee techniques are again challenging ... More the knees. And I feel that my partner is holding against me although I did the moves very slightly. Again, I was a little bit tense when using my knee, but with the 1 to 10 method we could handle it quite well, and the second time we practiced it I felt much more relaxed. Anyway, I repeated the other moves (which can be considered like a warming-up of the erector muscle?) then the knee move worked much better. However, I think I prefer the elbow technique, like I have more sensitivity in my elbows than in my knees ... I hope that this weekend I will get the chance to practice with my daughter just to try the same things on a different body and see how it goes!

Modules 26 and 27 - prone back 3/prone upper back

I have had some very positive feed-back in my back massage during the last few days. I´ve worked with two different persons and they both agreed that the galloping rhythm feels better than the elephant walk, at least on the back. The forearm technique was more pleasant for my partner than it was for my (very boney) daughter, but  neck, shoulder and trapezius work were simply wonderful. However, I had a problem in module 27 - the shoulder-blade pulling. My partner was very uncomfortable with his position (the arm bent on the back), on the other side he liked the pulling. So is there another variant to bring the shoulder blade out? I have tried to change the angle of his arm, but it did not work and I did the move with his arm resting on the floor, but of course it´s not the same. It also worked better on his left side than on the right side. So can you recommend me any other method to loosen up his right shoulder? On the other hand, the upper body twist (circling) was very welcome.

Thank you - I´m already looking forward to more shoulder work!

Module 28 - Summary prone position

And again thanks for the summary, I like a lot the whole sequence, it took me about an hour to do it with my daughter and she was very pleased with almost all the moves. What she didn´t enjoy that much were the elbows on her feet and the knee on her lower leg. As to the move on the feet I don´t want to let it go just like this because it´s the only one we did in this position, so I used my thumbs instead of the elbows, is that ok? And on the lower leg I just did some elephant walking instead of using my knee. I have practiced a lot the transitions, so - it´s getting better and much more fluent. As to the moves on the back, some are on the far side of the spine and some on the near side. Is it better to finish one side of the back and change position or stay in the position and work on the two sides?

Thank you so much for your reply the elbow issue and the back sequence - I´lll keep on practicing ...

Modules 29 and 30 - side position 1 and 2

Palming the leg and especially sitting on it was very very nice, my partner felt this warmth in the leg and found it wonderful, although he doesn´t like the side position that much. Maybe the mat that I use is still too thin. Could you tell me how thick it should be at least and how you call it exactly?

As to the other moves, elephant walking and using the thumbs were just fine, but the ones where I had to lift my partner´s leg for the inner thigh and hip stretch and the hip, quadriceps and lower back stretch where really challenging. In the video you just lift the leg and start doing the stretch, it looked very easy - and when I wanted to lift my partner´s leg, I couldn´t do it so easily! His legs are so heavy and it cost me quite an effort to keep them in the right position. I hope I can practice that with my daughter one day to see how it should work ... Regarding the spinal twist I´m not so sure, I felt that my partner always wanted to hold against me although in my opinion I tried to do it very slowly and hardly stretched him, so I suppose I should do it even more slowly?

Next week I will travel to Germany and I won´t be able to see the new modules neither practice them (my mother is getting a surgery). It´s only for two weeks, on 19th of November I´ll be back. So I hope this is not a problem, after the 19th I go on with practicing the remaining modules!

Thanks for the hint - my mat is also a foam mat, but not more than 1,5 cm thick, and it was the thickest I could find. So I could try to place one above the other.

Regarding the stretches and the spinal twist - I practiced that with my daughter and it all worked fine! My partner is about 20 kg heavier than she is, so there´s quite a difference between the two! However, I´m glad that we could do the stretches without any problem and that it even felt nice for both of us. 

Modules 31 and 31 - side position 3 and 4

These are very nice moves, especially the ones that include a trapezius massage which is always very welcome. The arm circling with shoulder stretch took me some time to get a rhythm, also the lifting and pulling back of the scapula, but the second time I felt much better about it. Rotating the shoulder by leaning on trapezius felt just right and nice to do it, also the shoulder and arm traction and stretch. Regarding the scapula moves - they worked much better with my partner than in the prone position where he felt quite uncomfortable with his arm on the back, but I could not really hook my fingers in there because his scapula is like glued to his body. I hope that with more practice he will become more flexible there.

So now I won´t post until I´ll be back in town (and practicing) in about two weeks! Thanks for all your support! 

Hi again!

Modules 33 and 34 - Sitting position 1 and 2

This is a really challenging position for people who have problems with keeping their back straight and   sitting comfortably with the legs crossed (my partner ...). BUT since he loves neck and trapezius work he already begins to like the position because it is really perfect for working in this area easily. What he most enjoyed (and me, too) was squeezing the neck with both palms of the hands. This is simply wonderful! First because of the move itself and second because of the body contact.

We had some initial problems with the back stretch, not because of the balance, but because my parter felt uncomfortable with my knees in the back and we had to use a pillow, then it felt fine for him.

The forearm techniques are very nice, too,  especially the second one, where the recipient can rest his head on the therapist´s thigh and I feel that the back is better supported with the side of the leg than with the knee(s). 

What I found a little bit complicated was to find a flowing transition from one move into the other because we have to keep the recipient´s back supported. Overall, I do like the sitting position, and I would build it in for example between the supine and prone position.