Have you ever had a client who has back pain while lying on their stomach to receive barefoot massage or even hand-on deep tissue massage?
This is often caused by hyperlordosis. An excessive curve in the lumbar (it’s sometimes seen in the cervical dish as well) can be caused by structural issues such as:
1. kyphosis AKA “dowager’s hump”
2. discitis
3. obesity (especially with a large stomach)
4. spondylolisthesis
Muscular imbalances:
1. weak glutes, hamstrings, and abdominal muscles
2. tight erector spinae, quadratus lumborum (QL), and hip flexors (especially iliopsoas)
If your client is not comfortable lying on their stomach, try using a small pillow between their pelvis and rib cage.
You can use a travel pillow (mine has feathers, which makes it squishy and moveable) or a toddler pillow (with cotton/polyester fill). The toddler pillow is a little smaller.
Check out our Tuesday Toesday Tip video to see how Mary-Claire uses a small pillow to make her clients more comfortable. (It’s just 3 minutes, 35 seconds.)
Next week will be another tip for when you need to bolster women for side-body massage (you do work on clients on your side, don’t you? )
If you haven’t learned sidelying massage, definitely look into our Intermediate class, where we’ll teach you amazing anterior barefoot massage (mmm..quads! pecs!) and super effective side-lying barefoot massage-you’ll reach muscles your clients may never knew they had.
