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I have interviewed a lot of couples about their massage experiences. I help them fix what they are doing wrong, which are commonly very easy steps, but that would have taken them years of experimentation to figure out on their own. Or, as it usually is, things they do wrong that have kept them from massaging in the first place. This is not rocket science - but if no one ever taught you to do them, you might never figure them out.

Quick tangent here - if you aren’t currently massaging each other, then you never figured it out. Now, most people don’t massage each other. Learn everything here as if every one of your neighbors do massage for each other all of the time.

Its nice that I give a lot of advice. However, that has no newsworthyness ala’ man bites dog. The interesting thing about this, is that the help people need is so universal, and I end up giving the same advice to everyone. This reading can have so much impact on your life, I can barely contain myself. I hope you are as excited learning it, as I am writing it.

Here goes:

The most important thing to know - don’t wear out your thumbs!

The # 1 ender of a massage is that the giver uses their thumbs too much. So use your thumbs as sparingly as possible. If a professional would continuously use their thumbs for 3 minutes, the massage would be over. Same goes for you. It is not that you have weak hands - its all about poor technique in the past.

While we come with opposable thumbs(which makes us cooler than larger brained dolphins), the muscles are not strong enough to repeatedly pump the hand the way you do when massaging. So mix in all of the other techniques demonstrated in this article series, and you can enjoy the giving of recieving of massage with your partner.

Don’t massage too long on one spot!

Leave that for the professionals. If you work too long on one spot, you might end up causing bruising on the recipient the following day. Which is a horrible way to start massaging each other. So when massaging, treat the entire muscle, not just the spot that hurts. Move an inch to another spot on the muscle, and spend some time there. Once you become comfortable with this, I will eventually make you proficient enough to fix trigger points, Sciatica, and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. All here on this website. For now however, don’t do this wrong. Read at least the next two articles, and get started next time you are with your partner.

Ask for feedback from the recipient. It’s about them, after all.

Before I became a professional massage therapist, I bought “massage for dummies” to learn some good stuff. Reading this, I made an interesting observation. About 1/3rd of the book was devoted to the RECIPIENT of the massage. Now, 1/3rd of this website isn’t devoted to recieving massage, but -

Later on as a trained professional, I realized that the recipients experience recieving massage really affected the overall quality of the session. Besides being better at getting into the groove and properly relaxing, the experienced recipient gives FEEDBACK without qualm. I never understood why someone would pay what a professional massage costs and then not actually tell the therapist that they are either working in too deep, or not deep enough.

You know the recipient. Make sure they give you feedback about pressure, music, and anything relevant under the sun.

Massage slower than you normally would do.

A massage stroke or squeeze should take two seconds to perform. One Mississippi two Mississippi. EVERYONE does the mistake of massaging too fast at first, so be mindful of doing it slower.

In conclusion, a few DO NOT’s:

Do NOT ask them to “moan when it feels extra good”(which is a true story about a professional therapist), but DO ask them to tell you when you are on a really good spot.

Do NOT be a primadonna and massage the session YOU want to massage - its about the recipient.

So, let us move on to the TV Massage articles:

* TV Massage - Introduction.

*Technique # 1: Using your Thumbs and four fingers as a unit

*Technique # 2: Heel of hands and four fingers as a unit.

*Technique # 3:

*Technique # 4:

*Technique # 5:

*Technique # 6:

*Technique # 7:

*Technique # 8:

*Technique # 9:

*Why do massage in front of the TV?