Module 13 – Hip stretches 2

Yes good pain and bad pain is definitely a thing, people often start laughing, or suddenly cry!! Very interesting. But bad pain is not fun and also scary as a therapist but like you say avoiding it is also not a good practice. For groin pain there is also often knee pain so doing your gentle wiggles and scooping at either end of the muscle attachments is nice, and having the leg a little raised makes a big difference I feel, not done that before, and its also easy to use that method in a table massage too.

The 'wiggling knee move into the stretch' is very clever and yes my dummy today was not very able to do the hip 225 but the wiggle he could handle. The hip pie 315 though there was no way his leg was going there without bringing one side of his hip up high and putting an uncomfortable stretch into his back, so will have to try that on someone else.

I know what you are saying about not following a book from picture 1 to 100 but working with what you feel the client needs in that moment. I had a lady come after a few months away and she said she wanted the exact same massage as last time!!! Oh dear!, I do a have a massage routine as such but its definitely not set in stone, and it shouldnt be because we all change from time to time.

Module 14 - hip rocking:

Module 15 - abdomen & chest: 

Thank you for that advice, very much appreciated:)

Oh im happy you have the same "helping clients problem". Yes I tell them that, then tell them again, annnd tell them again haha especially with the head many really wants to help lifting it, but also with arms and legs, which I also mention in my next reply : 

Module 17 - arms and hands

Yes, arm & hand massage are soo underrated and simply fabulous. If asked noone wants an arm massage - until tried! Funny how such an important limb gets so little attention and love from most.

Initially I forgot to circle the body and just did side to side rocking to move the hands up and down the arm, but then remembered and 'Guinea' said it was nicer when doing the body circle, it just flowed better. Doing the thumb rotations up and down the arm takes bliming ages but it is very nice and worth it so thats ok, but definitely the favorite is your squeeze/pull/slide/rotation and especially all combined, I almost fell asleep myself when I did that on her! I often feel clients are unconsciously tense in their arms so often use your wiggle technique to trick them to relax before carrying on, that works very well thank you. The palm opening squeeze also get good responds

In reflexology the space between the finger bones is very important for lymphatic drainage and most also says it feels super relaxing to be massaged there, and then after rubbing each hand and all the fingers some clients also like having their fingers pulled, whilst others freak out! Personally i really like having it done, altho it makes a nasty sound! 

Module 18 – Shoulders and transitions

Im starting to realize that you have very long legs Sharma! And is more flexible too. No way I can get from the side to round the head in one leg swoop, I tried standing up instead whilst moving, that wasnt actually that bad, but still needed several steps. More practice needed on that for sure. The standing arm pulling is absolutely amazing, very relaxing both for me n the client, and for once because of my height I didnt have to stand funny like you do, it just fitted with my guinea, but maybe not on someone with very long arms... However again on the seated positions I am struggling with the short legs over their body to give the leverage (my legs really are not that short but it feels like it in this! ) so am at a mixture of can tell the shoulder rotations and twists are wonderfully relaxing for the client and meanwhile im definitely sweating here haha! I tried to sit on my heel instead of sitting behind the heel so my knee is still in their Deltoid, that was better. Had to think about where their arm goes though as on my 1^st attempt my friend was rubbing my thigh, which is fine cause she is a friend, but others might not find that appropriate. I see your model either has her hand by the opposite shoulder or across your arms. The figure of 8 feedback was that she felt it also made her neck really relaxed, yeah for once she didnt 'help':) I also tried this in a table massage but that was a little unusual as I dont normally put a leg over the client like that in a sportsmassage, and so ended up just doing the rolls on one shoulder at a time but then didnt quite get that head roll effect the same, but still very useful for relaxing the shoulder. (Also tried this on a a 3rd client with an extremely tight neck/scapula and wow it was impossible haha hmm it was like rocking a tree-trunk!)

Module 20 – Prone legs.

I really like the push and pull moves and this one is easy to remember as we also did a similar move in supine. I have been using it a lot when I see people lying “what they think is straight” on my massage table so thank you for that technique. I just realized I missed resting my arm whilst doing the ankle rocking though, so will have to try that again and feel the difference. Elephant walking is also just great and good of you to point out about the squeeze-and-roll for the calf's, My guinea said that definitely made a difference to just leaning down, and also that I could just keep doing the “walk” all day:). Its also fascinating how peoples calf's are so different. I don't like to jump onto my massage table with clients, but the calf's I can easily do in a table massage also so that is very handy:)

I did a pregnancy massage course ones, hoping there would be a lot about using props, but sadly there wasn't. Yes a big chest is sometimes complicated, so is a big belly:/ So am looking forward to the side lying lessons:)

Module 21 – Prone legs 2

Like you have pointed out before the feet placement can tell a lot about the hips, so yes have noticed some people cant lie with their feet pointing in. Sometimes I correct them but then they are more uncomfortable ah its confusing at times.

For the first move where you slide under the legs my client said it was fine for her but to some it would be too much twist in the pelvis. (Possible because we hadnt warmed up much as we were just practising this and the following modules) Well other than that I though it was a fabulous compression technique, powerful yet zero effort, yeah!

The next position where she is more on her side hip is super good too. It really gets in the groove where you cant normally reach.

Its always funny when trying the prone leg triangle stretch on different people and notice how flexy or not at all flexible some people are. This guinea is very flexible so thats handy. She found the kneecap massage very “spot on” and the Glutes triangle stretch strong but good. All rocking moves are very nice as usual:)

yes that is very true:)

Module 22 – Prone legs 3

I did the heel to buttock stretches on 2 people, one flexible one, she really liked the heel to the side with the hand compressing into the thigh. The other guinea was a long legged tight construction man, and oh my he could hardly even get the heel to 90degree so that was quite a shock, but also funny to then have to work around that.

I found it a bit daunting sitting on my guineas hip (the flexible one) but it was fine and a very good stretch for her too. Indeed the pressure on the hip made a massive difference in the stretch. And also in this module: the knee work into the Glutes definitely woke my guinea up, and as Ive mentioned before, Im so amazed how easy it is to add more pressure without making it harder for me:)

Module 23 – Sacrum and Glutes

Such a small area with some many things to do! Guinea really liked the percussion and the karate chopping. I also quite like doing the thumb rocking and leaning in and out. I struggled a bit with the knees in the buttocks shake at first so that was a very bizarre moment. Yes there are indeed many people out there with tight pelvis's so found this module very useful and good.

Add on- Just did this module on a new guinea pig and she felt swollen in the sacrum and Glutes! She really liked all the different techniques and the buttock-knee-shake went a lot better this time too. I spend close to half an hour just on her Glutes and sacrum, incredible 🙂