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A common exercise I have people do in my workshops, is to quantify how much they enjoy recieving massage, using the numbers 1-10. Assigning numerical values to what we like is a good way to understand a lot of decisions we are faced with in life.

When weighing decisions, such as to moving to a different town for a better job, we do this all of the time. Consider the pros and cons of each choice, and then we make a selection.

Most of these decisions we make are FULL of variables to consider, such as(in the moving for work example) How much more money we would make, how often we would meet our old friends, how long it would take to get make new friends, how our kids schoolyear would be affected, or how secure the new job would be. I could go on and on here, as could you. Even small things, such as not being able to visit your favorite restaurant(or massage therapist for that matter) come in to play.

What does game theory have to do with massage?

Usually, I’d say not too much. But what this article is supposed to do, is to persuade you to massage each other more. So, do this quick exercise in your head:

Answer these 2 questions:

1st, On a scale from 1-10, 10 being the most pleasureable, how much do you enjoy recieving a massage?

A lot of people draw blank, as they have never had a full body massage, but you HAVE recieved massage at some point in your life. How good does it feel?

2nd, On a scale from 1-10, 10 being the most painful thing you have experienced, how much displeasure or inconvenience is it for you to GIVE a massage?

Now, compare these two answers…

In my workshops, About 80% answer an 7 or above on the pleasure recieved from massage. It feels very good, and If the person has even a little training, the number their partner later uses always climbs.

As for the amount of misery the giving massage causes(Q#2), about 80% answer 3 or less. Some even misunderstand the question, and say it GIVES them pleasure to massage, but I am looking for how much the work done wears on you.

Conclusion:

If you and your partner massage each other equal amounts of time, then the output in work is categorically less than the amount of pleasure created by doing this as a habit. Giving 30 minutes of massage to recieve 30 minutes back in return is more than worth it.

This shouldn’t be complex of a ‘calculation’ at all. You don’t need to make it as complicated as moving to a different town for me to prove to you that you have to massage each other. Only look at these two variables when you make you decision for the evening.

1: How much it “costs” to give massage, and

2: How much is “pays” to recieve a massage.

Naturally, it’s more complex than this. If you massage each other for 10 minutes every night, you are creating *$7000 of value a year for each other. You are changing what the ‘role’ of your partner to you, and vice versa. You are creating a ritual of giving to each other to look forward to every night. You don’t even need to be lovers to do this for someone you care about.

A beautiful mind.

I have obviously studied game theory to persuade you from this angle to massage each other. Remember that Russell Crowe movie A beautiful mind? This clip shows, that you can be massaging eachother in your own self interest.

So, If you are spending 30 minutes at a “pleasure” level of 8, and 30 minutes at an “inconvenience” of 2, then it should be obvious that you are much better off in the end of the hour, than in the beginning.

Clearly the REWARD outdoes the EFFORT.

So, if you only have a few, read this article, which will explain how you can go about massaging each other tonight.

If you have a little more time, start with this article series, which will teach you how to do it like a professional.

If you want some more game theory, check out the *chicken/meat metafor. 

Otherwise, please tell me how this made sense to you below!

Judging from the title alone, this technique is rather counterintuitive. Most things you learn here are merely concepts, that you might never have thought to try at home.

Leverage your body.

In this technique, we want to massage the muscles that attatch on the shoulderblades, and in the area between the shoulderblades and the arms. We will move in a different way, and remember - there are no limits to what you can try at home. I am including techniques with titles like these to free your mind,(*matrix link)and because I know that these ones work well.

Good stuff now, great stuff later.!

As with everything else I am writing here, I am working on getting you (1) workable knowledge now, but with the intent of making you (2) VERY skilled later. I’m you mister Miyagi. And I am not unlike Michelangelo carving David out of a block of marble, slowly chipping away at every part of you that isn’t a massage therapist.

You will eventually be able to do advanced work, such as learning how to *fix carpal tunnel syndrome. This technique coming up actually is something I’d have someone suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome recieve from their partner to prepare for the work I would do professionally. So, do this every night, along with technique #6 and #10, for a while before you read about how to fix *Carpal tunnel syndrome.

Enough of this - So how does this work?

For this one, Ill start with the video first. Watch it, and then I will explain it to you.

INSERT VIDEO

By doing this, you can apply pressure from a different angle. Were you professionally trained, I’d put it “Bilaterally from outside angles of the person recieving, applying the pressure towards the centerline…”(not that that makes any sense).

Your hands end up in the area outside the recipients shoulderblades, and on their ribs. Before I explain how to do what you just saw and the muscles involved, I want you to feel for a certain area on your body, so you know what I am talking about.

Do the exercises I tell you to do.

Try this: Lift one arm up to a 90 degree angle. Then, take the THUMB of your opposite hand, pointing upwards, and place it deep inside of your armpit. Now, relax your arm down again. Wrap your fingers around your back muscles in that area, and begin to knead the area between your thumb and fingers.

INSERT VIDEO

If you move downward slightly, you might be picking up more muscle. Move upwards enough, and you will end up at the ‘*tendon’ which connects your ‘*Latisimus Dorsi’ to the ‘*Humerus’(your arm). Besides massaging on top of the shoulderblade(which needs no demonstration), this is the area I want to massage with this technique. It is VERY tender at first, mostly because you virtually never get touched there. So dont worry.

How to begin this technique:

This is how to get into the position: Start by [in your chair] opening your legs wide. put your hands in front of you in a prayer position(just for now - I don’t need any commitment as such from you for this). Then, lean forward some, and release your hands, resting your elbows by the knees and on your inner thighs. Now, you can rest your hands on the recipients back as the video showed, and use the heel of your hands as contact points, again permitting your thumbs to rest. To apply pressure, tighten your thighs. You can also assist with your *pectorals(your chest)

How to perform this technique:

There is a lot you can do here. Apply broad pressure with your hand, either statically, or in circular rubbing motions. The recipient will like this, as you are working on an area you have not been working on yet, and a slow circular motion is always relaxing.

Or you can ignore all of that set up time, and grip the muscles in that area with your thumbs on the back and your fingers reaching around to the front, massaging. If you can go deep, which I doubt for the first few weeks, you can rub the muscle like you would rub money, between your thumbs on the back of the body and the index and middle fingers on the front.

What was this technique about?

Were this the only entry you have read, one would wonder why there was all of that set up time, and then barely have any explanation on how you perform the technique.

In this entry, I introduced a new muscle to work on, and a new way of leveraging your body. It is VERY relevant later on to understand how to leverage your body, and not even professional massage therapists do it right. If you come to learn these things from me, you will know them BETTER than many professionals I have met some time from now.

But this is WAY down the road. I just showed you some other parts of the body to work on, and a new way to massage your recipient. You don’t need to follow any instructions you are getting here, at this point. Just learn from the instruction provided.

Previous lesson: The thumbs-stretch technique. Next lesson: Both hands on one side of the body.

Introduction to the TV massage series:

Technique # 1: Using your Thumbs and four fingers as a unit.
Technique # 2: Heel of hands and four fingers as a unit.
Technique # 3: Four fingers pushing downward.
Technique # 4: Using your knuckles.
Technique # 5: Using bony parts of your hand.

Introduction to the intermediate techniques.

Technique # 6: One hand on front of body.
Technique # 7: The thumbs-stretch technique.
Technique # 8: Leveraging your body.
Technique # 9: Both hands on one side of body.
Technique # 10: The cocktail party trick.

Introduction to the advanced techniques.

Technique # 11: Leveraging your body.
Technique # 12: Massaging the neck. Mmmm…
Technique # 13: Aligning the body of the recipient.
Technique # 14: The Navarronian death grip.
Technique # 15: Scalp Massage.

Water. My brother Dave Navarro always jokes that our mother made this great drink for us as kids. It was two parts H and one part O. Well Dave, that’s technically wrong, as an Oxygen molecule is some sixteen times larger than a Hydrogen molecule.*water - SO technically it should be eight parts O and one part H.

In this entry, I’m not going I bore you with the ins and outs of how our bodies are mostly water(but I WILL provide a funny article here), but focus on the relationship of massage and the drinking of water.

Toxins. How do you think you get rid of them?

Throughout our bodies, we have restproducts of all kinds of chemical processes. Lactic acid for example, which is a byproduct of  doing exercise without access to enough oxygen (which isn’t bad for you, it just tells you that you are running) is one you are certainly familiar with. In our bodies, scores of processes happen all of the time, and produce wasteproducts. Now, every single chemical process doesn’t get flushed out of the system immediately. Trash, in the form of things that dont really need to be stuck in the muscle tissues end up here, and over a period of time get flushed out. At the same time new toxins enter the system.

*It is very important to exercise. Read about the lymphatic system here.

Days you recieve bodywork, it is important to drink plenty of water both prior to the massage, and afterwards. The kneading of muscles, and deep strokes [always in the direction of the heart] stir up a lot of toxins. At a higher than natural rate, these[toxins] are expelled from the muscle tissues. This entry can be summed up in the next paragraph:

After recieving a massage, the toxins that were in your muscles are now in your bloodstream. If you do not drink water, they cannot get “flushed out” of your system.

So the toxins might keep circulating in your bloodstream, which often give flu-like symptoms.

So, drink water when you get started massaging each other. It’s the LAW. 

Massage therapists are actually required by law to tell you to drink water after a massage, not unlike a drug company has to tell you of all of the potential side effects and dangers of their drugs (unless they pay the FDA a lot of money).

So when is this important to you at home? Probably not when you first get started, as I strongly discourage you massaging each other for more than 10 minutes for the first few nights. After a while, when you increase you “dosage” of massage(you have no idea how many ailments it will fix!) and you are covering more tissues, then it becomes imperative to increase your water intake.

If you have any questions - ask them below!

My favorite technique:

The major theme of what you have learned so far has been to “preserve your thumbs”. If you look at it from the “weakest link breaks the chain” angle in regards to when your massage ends, that is the most important thing to do.

Ergonomics is about not wearing yourself out by using improper technique or posture. This technique doesnt fall into that category, as massaging using this method will not only give your thumbs a break, but actually get them ready for more work quicker than were you just resting.

STRETCH YOUR THUMBS, RIGHT NOW.

INSERT PIC ON SIDE OF TEXT

Try this right here. Secure your thumb with your hand, and move your hands in opposite directions. You might even have done this before. This stretches the thumbs. What I want you to do, is to try to stretch your thumbs while giving the massage in a likewise fashion.

So, not too dissimilar from the last technique, I want you to with one hand secure the shoulder of the recipient. Then, place your massaging hand, thumb pointing downward, on the trapezius. And do as follows:

INSERT VIDEO

This is, hands down, the coolest massage technique ever.

Relaxing your thumb as you push your arm forward isn’t quite as easy as when you are holding it with your own hand, so it might take a few nights of attempts before you can figure this one out.

When massaging, do the following: Instead of only pushing forward with your massaging hand, anchor the entire area of the thumb and the inside of the index finger against the trapezius(to include the bony point at the beginning of your index finger - feel for the bony point, right beside you knuckle). Then, rotate your elbow back and forth, and if done right this will alternately have the thumb stretched as you apply pressure forward, and use the inside of your knuckle as you apply pressure downward as you go back to the beginning of the motion.

Lets try that again.

Step 1: Hold up your dominant hand, thumb pointing down, in front of you(go ahead, do it - this technique is hard to convey).

Step 2: Bend your arm, so that your elbow come straight out to your side, in a 4 o clock position(or an 8 if you are left handed).

Step 3: To simulate the trapezius, place your hand on to the top part of the forearm of your opposite arm(the thickest part of it close to the elbow).

Step 4: Move your elbow back and forth, as if you were to straighten your arm out in front of you, but your hand is “locked” against your forearm. When you push, your thumb should open as much as it can, and as you pull, you can rotate your hand so that it rubs against the top of the muscle on the way back.

Get it? Don’t worry if you don’t.

Between your partner and yourself, you will figure this one out, I promise. If you have been using my “basic tecniques” for some time, this read should come to you easily. Otherwise, return to it later - everything in the world(including mathematics) is easy to do once we have learned to do it.

Previous lesson: One hand on front of body. Next lesson: Leveraging your body.

Introduction to the TV massage series:

Technique # 1: Using your Thumbs and four fingers as a unit.
Technique # 2: Heel of hands and four fingers as a unit.
Technique # 3: Four fingers pushing downward.
Technique # 4: Using your knuckles.
Technique # 5: Using bony parts of your hand.

Introduction to the intermediate techniques.

Technique # 6: One hand on front of body.
Technique # 7: The thumbs-stretch technique.
Technique # 8: Leveraging your body.
Technique # 9: Both hands on one side of body.
Technique # 10: The cocktail party trick.

Introduction to the advanced techniques.

Technique # 11: Leveraging your body.
Technique # 12: Massaging the neck. Mmmm…
Technique # 13: Aligning the body of the recipient.
Technique # 14: The Navarronian death grip.
Technique # 15: Scalp Massage.

If you have tried technique # 14 already, you are probably not in the mood for more pain. Which is why the last technique is a bonus, of sorts, aimed at feeling good.

This technique doesnt require too much interaction.

All the recipient needs to do here, is to remove any hairpieces that might be in your way, or holding up their hair.

Getting your scalp massaged feels great, and in a relationship you should do it for each other whenever you can. There is a minor drawback, as you ruin hairdos by doing this massage.

Now, since you are reading this, I seriously doubt that you have never tried this before. The pointers I’m giving here are different techniques to try, and it probably a set of items you havn’t thought of yet, or at least thought to express this way.

Here goes:

There are 3 different techniques you can employ for scalp massage.

I take that back, as there are no rules. But I want you to remember to always do at least these 3 different techniques.

So, when  you massage each other, think to do 3 different motions, and you will remember these techniques.

Here goes:

• The shampooing technique: With the tips of your fingers (and thumbs), move your hands through the hair of your partner in circular motions. Rub the scalp as you do so, just as you would when shampooing. The important thing is to touch all over the scalp, to stimulate as many nerves as possible. Feel free to use your fingernails to scratch the recipient’s scalp as you do this.

• The scalp rubbing technique: Next up, keep doing basically the same motion, but keep your fingers anchored on the scalp as you do it. Do it for a few seconds in one spot, and then begin somewhere else. Transition back and forth between techniques for better effect. This affects the scalp even more than the previous technique, and actually decreases the pressure in the head for days. You can rub in circular motions, or go from the front to the back, or up and down with your fingertips, all while anchored on the skin.

• The “hair pull” technique: It feels great to get your hair pulled. Do it to yourself right now, and you know what I am talking about. If you’re worried about pulling too hard, here’s how to do it without accidentially hurting the recipient: Place your hands and fingers pointing upwards, with your palm flat against the recipients head. Then, gently , slowly and firmly form a fist with your hand. Doing this instead of grabbing on to some hair and pulling, guarantees a gentle squeeze, and to not accidentially rip at a too small piece of hair. So again, slowly make a fist until your hands are closed, with hair captured in your fingers. Then, you can pull slightly, by rotating your hand away from the head of this recipient, by keeping the heel of your hand against their head. And always talk to the recipient - they may be tense enough to actually want you to pull a lot harder than you would usually guess to do.

INSERT VIDEO

So, remember to do these 3 different techniques every time you massage someones scalp. The first two are distinct from each other, and should be done a lot.

You can do scalp massage while facing each other, seated or standing. Imagine getting massaged when you are talking in the kitchen about balancing the budget, or about the kids grades. Had you not read all of the other articles and been doing massage for each other for some time now, this paragraph would seem absurd, but it makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?

So, that just the beginning.

Congratulations! If you have just read all 15 articles on “TV Massage”, your should already be recieving and giving an average of 10 minutes of massage to each other every night. Which is worth *this much.

If you havn’t yet, sign up for the *freemassagetips.com email, and get a downloadable PDF with all of these techniques for you to have beside you on the couch while massaging.

Also, If you havn’t started doing this, please start *logging the time you have devoted to your massages for me. It only takes a few seconds to do, and by doing it, I know how much value is being created by this website. A lot of Religions make it seem like the afterlife is a crowded place, and I need bragging rights in heaven.

Which is why I am doing this. No cute stuff here - thanks for reading.

Previous lesson: The Navarronian death grip. Next lesson:

Introduction to the TV massage series:

Technique # 1: Using your Thumbs and four fingers as a unit.
Technique # 2: Heel of hands and four fingers as a unit.
Technique # 3: Four fingers pushing downward.
Technique # 4: Using your knuckles.
Technique # 5: Using bony parts of your hand.

Introduction to the intermediate techniques.

Technique # 6: One hand on front of body.
Technique # 7: The thumbs-stretch technique.
Technique # 8: Leveraging your body.
Technique # 9: Both hands on one side of body.
Technique # 10: The cocktail party trick.

Introduction to the advanced techniques.

Technique # 11: Leveraging your body.
Technique # 12: Massaging the neck. Mmmm…
Technique # 13: Aligning the body of the recipient.
Technique # 14: The Navarronian death grip.
Technique # 15: Scalp Massage.

Not for the feint of heart, there are a lot of [painful] things you can do to a muscle that is good for it, but include hurt that most people are not willing to subscribe to. *Rolfing versus Swedish massage is a good example.

Yes, this technique hurts, but is a great way to open up the trapezius muscle.

Remember the rope metafor? It’s like that, but better.

If “better” means “more pain”, that is. Writing other techniques, I have likened the trapezius to a rope, with muscle fibers being the same as those of a rope. There are many techniques, such as *(INSERT TV TECHNIQUE HERE), and the*rubbing money technique, where I make reference to undoing adhesions in our muscles.

This is one of them, and a fun one at that. Did I mention it hurts a little?

Now, what were the previous advanced techniques again?

Interactive for the recipient!

Without further ado, start off like in technique # 9, massaging with both hands on the same side of the body. By now, I really don’t need to explain anything all that too much.

This is how this technique works:

1: With your thumbs joined, and your index fingers joined, squeeze the trapezius VERY hard(as hard as you can, for most people)

2: The RECIPIENT should now AS SLOWLY AS POSSIBLE raise their shoulder towards their ear, tilting their hear a little towards the side being worked on towards the end of that motion.

3: Again, AS SLOWLY AS POSSIBLE, the recipient should lower their shoulder back down to the neutral position.

INSERT VIDEO

OK. What does that do?

Grossly oversimplified, the different fibers attatch on different spots. When the length of the muscle is changed(by the recipients *contraction), but you are firmly securing the part of the muscle you are squeezing, The fibers are torn apart from each other in a crazy fashion. Which is good.

Quick note on technique: It’s the meaty part of your fingers and thumbs that should be in contact with the recipient, not your fingernails. Using the pointy part of your fingers would result in your fingernails cutting into their skin.

So, it hurts a lot. Certainly there are things to consider…

So, the first time you do this, only do it once on each side. As you get used to it, you can do it several times, always gripping a slightly different spot on the muscle. If you didn’t read it already, the *Rolfing versus Swedish massage is a great article to put this into context.

Previous lesson: Aligning the body of the recipient. Next lesson: Scalp massage.

Introduction to the TV massage series:

Technique # 1: Using your Thumbs and four fingers as a unit.
Technique # 2: Heel of hands and four fingers as a unit.
Technique # 3: Four fingers pushing downward.
Technique # 4: Using your knuckles.
Technique # 5: Using bony parts of your hand.

Introduction to the intermediate techniques.

Technique # 6: One hand on front of body.
Technique # 7: The thumbs-stretch technique.
Technique # 8: Leveraging your body.
Technique # 9: Both hands on one side of body.
Technique # 10: The cocktail party trick.

Introduction to the advanced techniques.

Technique # 11: Leveraging your body.
Technique # 12: Massaging the neck. Mmmm…
Technique # 13: Aligning the body of the recipient.
Technique # 14: The Navarronian death grip.
Technique # 15: Scalp Massage.

I love explaining this one to people. It’s as usual, “non-commonsensical” as I have so many times begun describing a technique.

But again, if it were common sense, I wouldn’t need to show it to you, as by now you have some serious talents going.

Everyone, including professionals, massage the neck poorly in the seated position. This entry is one of the hardest one to explain, and It’ll take a while before I demonstrate the technique. Be patient.

First off, try this on yourself, and you will know what Im talking about:

By now, I should have won you over on doing the excercise that follows.

The reason that the muscles in the back of your neck and your Trapezius are tight is as follows: Those muscles never get to rest during the day, as they are always holding up the weight of your head.

To understand better, try the following: (you might have to read it twice)

1:  Reach your left arm across your chest, and grab on to your right Trapezius. Not unlike rubbing it on your own. Feel how tight it is.

2: Place your right forearm on the desk in front of you, so that the weight of your arm is supported by the table and your shoulder socket.

3: Keeping the muscles in your right arm relaxed, use your left hand to squeeze the relaxed Bicep of your right arm.

4: Notice the difference in tightness between your Bicep and your Trapezius. If you were relaxed, your Bicep, though much larger, will be softer.

Why is your bicep softer than your Trapezius?

The reason is pretty simple. Your Biceps get to rest most of the day, while your Trapezius is helping balance and carry the 8 pounds of head you have on top. And it only gets to rest when you sleep.

Now, try this next thing, and then you will understand why to not massage a tense muscle:

1: Flex your bicep, as much as possible. It should become very hard.(your right arm)

2: Now, massage your Bicep with your other hand.(your left hand)

3: Take note of how poorly you can relax a muscle that is flexed. There should be no therapeautic effect whatsoever from this.

Enough of this - lets learn how to massage someones neck.

So, here we go. This is what it should look like: The recipient sits straight, with the base of their neck directly above the base of their spine(previously, I havn’t cared if they had a slight slouch in their posture, but it matters for this one). After that, they let their head “fall” forward towards, as if they were asleep.

Technically now, the muscles in the back of their neck are relaxed, but they are in a lengthened position, which makes it hard to massage them. So, put the length of your left index finger against their forehead, and lift slightly. Now, their muscle should be relaxed, and you can massage their now relaxed muscles, in a way you have never been able to before.

Insert video.

Were not done quite yet. I could expound here about how you can massage with your thumb on one side of the spine, and your four fingers on the opposite, or how you could massage on only one side of the spine by “pinching” the muscle, and other variations.

But I won’t. By now, you can come up with variations on your own.

There is one more thing to negotiate, however.

So, we aren’t done yet. This requires a little more skill and understanding of human psychology. Confused about that statement? That just means you are still paying attention.

When touching someones neck, you have to be understanding of that it is a very personal place for pretty much everyone, and while the recipient can be relaxed about everything else, they might tighten up when you massage that spot. Professionally, I have gotten someone into a relaxed state after 50 minutes of massage, and they would still tense up when I try to move their heads around a little.

Start watch this video clip, and You will be good to go.

Insert video.

Preparing to do this to someone is fun, as most [non-yoga students] out there have a hard time letting go and relaxing.

Previous lesson: Leveraging your body. Next lesson: Aligning the body of the recipient.

Introduction to the TV massage series:

Technique # 1: Using your Thumbs and four fingers as a unit.
Technique # 2: Heel of hands and four fingers as a unit.
Technique # 3: Four fingers pushing downward.
Technique # 4: Using your knuckles.
Technique # 5: Using bony parts of your hand.

Introduction to the intermediate techniques.

Technique # 6: One hand on front of body.
Technique # 7: The thumbs-stretch technique.
Technique # 8: Leveraging your body.
Technique # 9: Both hands on one side of body.
Technique # 10: The cocktail party trick.

Introduction to the advanced techniques.

Technique # 11: Leveraging your body.
Technique # 12: Massaging the neck. Mmmm…
Technique # 13: Aligning the body of the recipient.
Technique # 14: The Navarronian death grip.
Technique # 15: Scalp Massage.

This technique, and the *technique # 11, are great techniques that do belong in this lineup. They are distictively different from the others, in the way that the lessons learned with them are here to hint at things you will learn in months from this website. For the full body massages, and how to diagnose a body.

But for now, just enjoy the technique. This one is a little tricky to get at first. But its fun to do, as it is fun to look at the recipient during this one. And marvel. Because by now the both of you should feeling a lot of love for each other again

And now, for something completely different…

Not unlike the *last technique, this one requires a certain amount of interaction from the recipient. It’s a little trickier, however.

With this technique, you massage the recipients entire back, which generally isn’t where you should spend the seated time massaging(you do the lower back better lying down).

Watch the video first, as its VERY hard to explain.

Insert video.

So to get started, do the following:

1: Have the recipient place their feet flat in front of them, about 1 foot apart. 

2: Then, place their elbows on their knees, leaning forward.

3: Look at the alignment of their UPPER ARMS and their SHINS. For this particlar technique, you should have your shins and upper arms forming one continuous line, as seen from the side.

Sort of like the “one hand in front of body”, right?

Yes. If the video didn’t make it apparent, the purpose of sitting like this is that the Giver of the massage can apply horizontal pressure without pushing the body of the recipient forward.

This is hard to get right, and might require the recipient to see the video at first. Check this video out:

insert video

So, if the recipient can secure their body properly, you can apply pressure on their Rhomboids and move between their shoulderblades just like above.

Otherwise, it is a great way to massage the entire back, again while applying horizontal pressure you otherwise couldn’t have done.

For extra fun: You can even use your feet here, by resting your heels against the floor, and pushing in with your toes.

From here, you can access all of the muscles of the back.

The *Quadratus Lumborum(aka QL), the *Latisimus Dorsi, the *Rhomboids, the *Erector Spinae, and our favorite, the *Trapezius are all easily accessed here.

The most natural way of massaging the lower back is to have your thumbs close to the spine, and the fingers wrapping around the body. Don’t do that too much, as it wears you out, and is way too little contact area with the body.

Try instead to have your pinky fingers together, fingers pointing downwards, and your palms facing the recipient and to THEN apply pressure. Circular motions with your fingers, and with your palms are the way to go. You can also interlace your fingers(as if you were praying), and apply pressure with the bony part of your hands, like in *technique # 5. Enjoy!

Almost done. Keep reading now, or wait until later. These last 2 ones are more a bonus than anything else.

Previous lesson: Massaging the nexk. Mmmm… Next lesson: The Navarronian death grip.

Introduction to the TV massage series:

Technique # 1: Using your Thumbs and four fingers as a unit.
Technique # 2: Heel of hands and four fingers as a unit.
Technique # 3: Four fingers pushing downward.
Technique # 4: Using your knuckles.
Technique # 5: Using bony parts of your hand.

Introduction to the intermediate techniques.

Technique # 6: One hand on front of body.
Technique # 7: The thumbs-stretch technique.
Technique # 8: Leveraging your body.
Technique # 9: Both hands on one side of body.
Technique # 10: The cocktail party trick.

Introduction to the advanced techniques.

Technique # 11: Leveraging your body.
Technique # 12: Massaging the neck. Mmmm…
Technique # 13: Aligning the body of the recipient.
Technique # 14: The Navarronian death grip.
Technique # 15: Scalp Massage.

This one is easy to explain, as opposed to some of the previous ones. Believe me, it is a daunting task to try to explain all of these things online.

Using your body as a prop.

While sitting elevated over the recipient, lift one of their arms, and place your leg under the arm, with your knee 6-8 inches in front of their armpit. After that, rest their arm on top of your leg.

Insert video.

Now, their trapezius is in a shortened position, but is not tense. If you feel it before and after, it would seem like it is thicker in this position, because it is the the same amount of muscle, but now spanning a lot shorter of a distance.

You can do this all over the body, but why?

Many professional massage therapists do not have this “move” in their repertoire, as a lot of them don’t care to experiment and do this just for money.

If a muscle is in a shortened position(but not by flexing) it is less tight, AND easier to “pick up”, as in *technique # 9. You can do a lot with a muscle like this, that you cannot otherwise do.

Detoxification, for one.

There are two effects of massage. *Mechanical, and Chemical. You are welcome to read more.

For now however, think of the trapezius as a rope(which should be familiar language if you are reading these articles in sequence.), with its muscle fibers interwoven like a… rope.

Were you to massage it vigorously, you could certainly dislodge some of the fibers from being stuf to each other, or make this rope become a little frayed. This is good. Knots in muscles are when separate fibers are stuck to others.

When massaging, you can usually only affect the outside of the muscle, and not the fibers on the inside, until after a LOT of sessions when you have softened the muscles on the outside(a lot of clinical applications of massage start off by relaxing the adjacent or superficial muscles before working on the problem spot). If we shorten the muscle like this, we can affect the fibers on the inside of the muscle.

Be careful - this can hurt!

The best way to apply a lot of pressure is to increase the contact area you have with the body. Again, *technique # 9, using both of your hands together, is the way to do it. If using one hand only, your thumb will probably hurt the recipient before you get deep enough to do what we are trying to do here.

What else? FLAIR is the word here.

If you are massaging someone while watching TV, they usually always get the impression that you have incredible skills when you do this one. Not that it feels better to them(although it can have a lot of impact on the muscles).

It gives the impression that you have knowledge about what you are doing, and are making a conscious decision of how to manipulate the muscle. And by now you should. Keep reading.

Previous lesson: Introduction to the advanced massage tecniques. Next lesson: Massaging the next. Mmmm…

Introduction to the TV massage series:

Technique # 1: Using your Thumbs and four fingers as a unit.
Technique # 2: Heel of hands and four fingers as a unit.
Technique # 3: Four fingers pushing downward.
Technique # 4: Using your knuckles.
Technique # 5: Using bony parts of your hand.

Introduction to the intermediate techniques.

Technique # 6: One hand on front of body.
Technique # 7: The thumbs-stretch technique.
Technique # 8: Leveraging your body.
Technique # 9: Both hands on one side of body.
Technique # 10: The cocktail party trick.

Introduction to the advanced techniques.

Technique # 11: Leveraging your body.
Technique # 12: Massaging the neck. Mmmm…
Technique # 13: Aligning the body of the recipient.
Technique # 14: The Navarronian death grip.
Technique # 15: Scalp Massage.

I hope you have learned a lot so far. But [again] it’s not about learning, it’s about doing.

The Intermediate techniques are techniques that are ‘not intuitive’, that you wouldn’t come up with through random experimentation. Believe me, there are a lot more things for you to come up with on your own, than these five techniques I have shown you. There are techniques I love to use, but have chosen not to include, because [the techniques] feel good to too few people. Try things on your own. That is what it’s about. Experiment. Don’t wear out your thumbs.

The advanced techniques are not methods requiring flair and flexibility as out of the Kama-Sutra. The purpose of the upcoming techniques is for interaction between the giver and the recipient. This is different from most of what you have been doing so far, as you can do a lot of great stuff if you can have the recipient interact with you properly.

Again, do and invent things on your own, all of the techniques here are to open your mind and get you started.

If you havn’t yet, sign up for my *email and get a free printable PDF of all of the techniques, so you won’t have a problem remembering them when on the couch.

Also, start to *log the massage time you are putting in. I need documentation if the Nobel committe is going to have a serious look at me.

Previous lesson: The cocktail party trick. Next lesson: