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.
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!
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.
Where do your start your massage? At the feet? Perhaps at the client’s initial complaint area? At their upper back or in their neck? With their breath?
There’s not a wrong answer here, it all has to do with the theory you choose to approach the massage with.
Having procedures and protocols can produce results – but every client and every condition is different. Learning a routine massage and always sticking to it is like being on autopilot: it might always produce the same results, but you may be bored, uninspired… and your clients progress may plateau.
Read a few of the ideas below, and see if changing up the sequencing of your next massage helps you and your client get the results you are looking for!
Our faculty and alumni all have their own ways of adding their creme, lotion or oil during sessions. One massage lotion application is to squirt the lubricant onto your foot, then do some smearing strokes to work it along the area you’ll be focusing on… then DO YOUR THANG! (You’ll need to have a holster on your hip to hold that lube tube!) This version definitely helps to avoid getting your hands slippery, which alters your grasp on the bars.
We love to teach you tricks like this in our FasciAshi Fundamentals classes!
Read more below:
Stepping up to your massage table to start an Ashiatsu massage can be tricky sometimes. Placing ashiatsu step stools near your massage table can help make your life easier. Maybe the table is set real high. Maybe you aren’t the type of person who takes 4 stair-steps in a single leap when you run up the stair case! Lunging that far repeatedly overtime might put some extra strain on your knees (or KNEE if you tend to always step up with the right more than the left!)
Honestly? I was stubborn about this for years. I never had my table set obnoxiously high. I have long legs. I used my Ashi-strap (read more about that here) to help me up. I love to sneak in secret work-outs by engaging my own muscles to create a slow-mo stair climber exersize when I got up on the table. I would try and remember to take turns stepping up with my right foot this massage, and my left foot during the next massage. I would reverse the action when I was getting down off the table, and lower myself in a controlled, eccentric movement to play with that secret strengthening idea during each session. It was a nice meditative focus to maintain while I worked… and help me stay toned.
I never thought I ~needed~ any step stools.
Did you know that your portable massage table has many settings and FEETures that work awesome specifically for Barefoot Massage?
Have you ever been sitting at home wishing you could practice some of your barefoot moves on your partner or kids, only to find yourself frustrated about bolstering and the challenge of maintaining cervical alignment?
That massage table is so much more supportive and comfortable than just the floor or a yoga mat!
You lie them down prone and prop some towels under their head. Maybe you place a pillow under their chest so they’re up high enough to breathe and maintain alignment, never really feeling entirely satisfied with the results.
The FasciAshi faculty is lucky to be rooted in a strong network of “Sole Sisters”, as many of us have been friends, colleagues and online buddies for years. Even though we are all about a half days travel away from one another, we talk almost daily, so when we do get to meet up it’s as if no time has passed at all! With Jeni, and 4 other instructors all in the same place at the same time this week at the Barefoot Massage Summer Camp in San Antonio, we thought we’d make today’s “Tuesday TOESday” tip all about how you can combine forces with another massage therapist friend to grow BOTH of your businesses and careers in Barefoot Massage!
…read more by clicking on the “continue reading” link below~
In 2006, at a massage convention, I ran into the author of the article that saved my back from pain, Richard Rossiter. I told him that I had been studying his work through his online website, DVDs, and books since discovering the powerful effect Rossiter had on my back. Since my wife, Mickey, was the only person who had worked on me thus far, I asked if I could sample the foot of the master.
Eager to grant my request, he invited me to hit the floor and proceeded to apply weight with much more authority. It was definitely more difficult to move through the stretches, but the effect was much more profound.
My back felt even better!
A year later, I was a Certified Rossiter Coach, and through continued advanced work on my legs, I experienced the ultimate back pain relief that continues to the writing of this article.
All Rossiter work (for my situation) was done on the inside of my thighs (adductors). The work was done in less than thirty minutes, and my reward was a back that felt like it did when I was in the prime of my dance career.