With autumn upon us, it’s time to start thinking about how to melt your chilly soles into warm soles on first touch. There are many ways to get your toes toasty and heat up your feet before you step foot on a client. Nothing is worse than cold hands beginning a massage – except maybe for cold feet!
What’s the difference between the AshiatsuBarefoot Massage that you’ve heard of for years and our new FasciAshi?! ↫ Do you see the word “Fascia” in there? That’s the key to our work.
We teach anatomy based, Fascia-focused strokes that have been developed by a team of experienced and highly trained barefoot massage specialists. FasciAshi (our nickname for MyoFascial Ashiatsu Barefoot Massage) started in San Antonio at Heeling Sole, but quickly found a collective movement of barefoot massage therapists across the country who wanted MORE out of their cookie-cutter feeling sessions, and it grew into its place as part of the myofascial barefoot massage movement you see today.
Ashiatsu Barefoot Massage is a growing niche in the massage industry – and just like there are many different styles of sports massage or hot stone courses in the Continuing Education market, we are presenting a drastically different new style of Ashiatsu.
Why would we ask you what makes you a remarkable massage therapist? The word “remarkable” comes from France in the early 17th century: remarquable, from remarquer means to “take note of”. In other words, what makes you different from other massage therapists?
If you are not remarkable in some way, why should clients pay to have you massage them?
Have you given it a thought?
From a marketing standpoint, we need to know what makes us different from another massage therapist. If we don’t know how we stand out above the competition, we have no inclination of why people would prefer our services.
It wasn’t until after I had become a massage therapist that I began to understand the benefits of stretching in a massage session. My friend Dave had gotten a massage internship of sorts with a semi-pro hockey team, and he specialized in stretching and sports massage to keep the guys limber and injury free.
Up until that point, I had thought that most clients primarily wanted to lie there like a pancake, flip over, and be pried up off the table when “done”.
The gear you use in an Ashiatsu Massage makes all the difference, especially once you start to figure out how to use different options to your benefit! When I first started offering Ashiatsu, I used those typical circle-shaped bar stools. (I actually still have the first pair that I bought for class!)
I think I waited too long to upgrade my barstool to a different shape. I’ve got long limbs and long toes, I had no issues reaching my clients, so why fix something that ain’t broke!? Well, turns out that getting closer in proximity during the supine neck work will open up more options to how you massage with your hands and feet simultaneously!
Most of us can figure out that ashiatsu barefoot massage is going to be deeper than hands-on massage simply by seeing that gravity does a lot of work for the massage therapist. How much pressure can you get with barefoot massage versus hands and forearms?
Today we have an easy-to-do cool little trick is for you. All it takes is your massage table (you can use your dining room table to check your hand/forearm pressure if you’re at home), a scale, and a board. The board simply gives a solid surface for the scale. I used a cutting board. (You can skip the board if you’re checking this out on your eating table.)
Put the scale on the floor to see how deep you can go with your foot if you don’t have ashiatsu bars!
Have you gotten sucked into the Pinterest vortex yet? It’s is such a great place to learn about amazing products and projects, to reference articles that you’ve seen but don’t have time to read just yet. Ready to learn more about all things barefoot massage? Head on over to our FasciAshi boards! If we get started on Pinterest, time flies,…
In almost every massage I receive, I adjust the preset face cradle position as soon as I lay down in it. Sometimes it’s still set to the person who was on table prior to me, or maybe the LMT just snapped it into a random setting right before my session. Most of the time, I adjust the face cradle postioning because I know that an uncomfortable pillow can RUIN my entire experience during the massage.
…I can’t be the only massage therapist who does this, right?!
Read on, and watch the video below to see how we position a face cradle for an Ashiatsu Barefoot Massage.
Ashiatsu is my favorite style of deeper massage to receive, hands-down. Or feet-down, however you want to say it. As a solo practitioner, I don’t have easy access to good quality barefoot therapists close to me. Our instructors who have a team of ashi therapists have set themselves up well for both business purposes and for being able to conveniently receive ashiatsu. (Yes, they are smart ladies in many ways.)
Sadly, there are times when I don’t have half a day to block myself off for my 2-hour barefoot massage sessions. The ashiatsu massage therapists currently I see are about 50 minutes away.
When I can’t receive my barefoot bar massage therapy, my second choice is to get my hands-on deep tissue massage from a man. My other choice is from a tall, well insulated woman. (Stay with me here–there’s a point to the big vs smaller hands-on therapist!)
I like getting hands on massage from men and big, solid, farm-type women for two specific reasons:
This question of “how do I go deeper in a massage so I don’t hurt myself” recently came up in a massage group in which I belong. Of course, my obvious answer to learn barefoot massage and directed her to our website.
Sometimes it’s just not possible to take an ashiatsu class anytime soon. Maybe the kids are back in school, your rottweiler just had a hip replacement, or perhaps taking time off work and traveling simply isn’t an option at that moment.