Here we are: 2 weeks into the second annual Barefoot Massage Open, a weekly massage challenge for ashiatsu therapists – this Friday we’ll step into WEEK 3! But lets not get ahead of ourselves…. lets focus on the now! Today is Tuesday, which means it’s #2sdayTOESday & also massage day in our #AshiatsuChallenge…
When massage therapists are first learning ashiatsu barefoot massage, it can be like starting massage school all over again. It’s especially humbling for therapists that have been doing massage with their hands for many years.
But the same learning concepts for learning traditional massage in massage school can be applied when first learning to massage with your feet.
1. CLOSE YOUR EYES or LOOK UP!
It may feel strange at first but for the sake of proper body mechanics and improving your barefoot skills you have to learn to look up more. When you are first learning, once you get the stroke and go through the movements a couple of times, try closing your eyes or looking up as you massage with your feet. This will help develop the sensory pathways to the brain by taking the visual interpretation out and heightening the sensory awareness of the feet.
The brain can’t rely on what it SEES; it has to rely on what it FEELS. This concept is evident when training students to learn barefoot massage for the first time, and clients give feedback in our LIVE classes. It never fails that the client thinks a stroke feels better when the student isn’t directly looking at their feet. Of course, there’s always going be times when you need to look and make sure you’re in the right spot or avoiding areas that you need to avoid, but that’s where the next point comes into play.
2. KNOW YOUR ANATOMY/LANDMARKS
There are familiar landmarks and bony prominences that are easy to find and we, as massage therapists, frequently use to orient ourselves to where we are and the muscle attachments.
Some examples may be the sacrum, the trochanter, the iliac crest, and the scapula — many of these landmarks we use to begin and end strokes. Being able to palpate and orientate yourself with your feet USING these landmarks will go a long way in developing your barefoot skills and allow you to utilize appropriate body mechanics like looking up more.
3. SLOW DOWN!
When first learning barefoot massage you have to slow down. While your feet have the CAPACITY to feel and palpate knots and tightness they usually aren’t sensitive enough to do it in the beginning.
You want to be able to feel the different textures and muscle layers so you can gauge the appropriate pressure and strokes to use. The neural pathways from your feet to your brain have to develop. It’s a process that comes with time, and there’s a natural progression of adaptability and sensory input from your feet.
4. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE
It never fails for a student to say in class, “Wow, you make that look so easy!” Or, “You’re so graceful!” Well, I’ve only been practicing it for 18 years. That’s eight years longer than with my hands! So with practice, it will come. You have to be consistent.
If we made it look hard, why would you want to learn it?
Consistency can be a problem for some Massage Therapists when they get back to their practice, and they feel limited or intimidated by the types of clients they have.
Barefoot massage isn’t always about finding the perfect kind of “body” to work with. There will be clients who have contraindications that may not allow for the use of your feet, but that doesn’t mean you can use them somewhere else. 99% of my client base receives some form of barefoot bodywork.
For that 1%, I may still do barefoot bodywork, but I restrict it to the appropriate areas. So every day that I’m working with clients, I’m using my feet. By using my SOLES every day, they are JUST as sensitive as my hands.
These are just a few of the ways you can increase your sole sensitivity in your barefoot massage sessions.
When your clients start saying, “Wow I didn’t even have to tell you what was going on today and you figured it out!”, That’s a huge accomplishment and a high five moment for barefoot massage. Our soles are just as capable of providing safe, therapeutic and EFFECTIVE pain relief to our clients as our hands. We only have to put in the time and effort to develop them.
Today’s guest post is brought to us by our fantastic Durham, NC instructor, Julie.
You can find her Rolfing with her feet, teaching at and running her multi-therapist barefoot biz, Bull City Soles.
“In 3 days, we’ll teach you to intuitively use your feet like you do your hands.” This is true, but there’s more to learning barefoot massage than that.
Sometimes we get therapists who look ridiculously amazing when they are in their barefoot massage training class for the first time. Sometimes they have a dance or ice skating background, and other times they just look fluid because that’s how they move.
Sadly, I’ve often seen that those who look super graceful on day 1 look pretty much the same when they come back for an advanced class 6 months or a year later.
On the other hand, some therapists really struggle. They get frustrated because their feet don’t cooperate or perhaps because they can’t palpate yet. Or maybe they have a hard time because they can’t regulate their pressure.
If they stop there at day 3 in our student clinic and give up, their class was pretty much pointless (other than at least they got their massage CE’s).
It’s the therapists who sometimes struggle in class but are determined to be amazing who realize that the class is an event, but practicing is a VEHICLE to get them to where they need to go.
We aren’t all beautiful when we learn barefoot massage. I was one of those people who truly wanted to be amazing, who NEEDED to be excellent, because I knew my career was on the line. After 3.5 years of hands on massage, I knew I was hitting the end of my massage lifespan.
And yet, I’m the person who still hits my head while closing the door of the car I’ve had 8 years and missteps on stairs I’ve been treading for almost 18.
So it’s not like I’m graceful in real life.
What makes the difference between those who really want to be good and those who are naturally good is that the former is more invested in being better. It’s easy to become complacent if you’re doing well. And unless your clients have gotten barefoot massage from someone else, they probably think you’re doing ok.
As long as you don’t clock them on the head or step on any bones, they think it’s a nice massage.
But it can be so much better if you take that vehicle, the words of wisdom, and travel a path you’ve not yet been.
If you’ve been following our blog, you know that we’ve been giving Ashi Challenges. Why?
Because sometimes we all need to mix something up. The challenge recently was to massage with your “Goofy Foot” for 20 minutes. (That’s your non-dominant foot.)
Other than when I was using 2 feet, I did an entire 90-minute session with my left foot.
What I learned:
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I got more creative with my moves
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some things worked just fine when I tried something new
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some things were terrible for my body mechanics
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I discovered new ways to access muscles in a different way
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it was a good reminder of why we teach body mechanics that work for the therapist
You see, this challenge was an incentive for me to take another ride into creativity. And that’s what we ask of all of you. The more you practice and get inventive / creative, the more your vehicle gets its oil change.
Once you have a good concept of your pressure and the moves, practice getting more fluid.
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How can you glide off with one foot and on with another?
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If you start with the “wrong” foot, can you transition it into another stroke?
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Try something new and check in with your client and see how they like it.
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Hold and sink (“weight and wait”) and see how that affects the tissue as well as the amount of relaxation the client has.
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Try moving more gracefully on the table with fewer steps.
Your vehicle can be a Mercedes, which is a comfortable and smooth ride, or it can be a Kia–perfectly fine for the job at hand but not the most comfortable or fun.
Which do you want to be?
Know anyone who may find this useful? Share away!
I have been an Ashiatsu instructor for almost ten years, and many types of massage therapists have come through my training studio. A few newbies fresh out of school and some seasoned massage therapists that been in the field for several years. But learning ashiatsu can level the playing field when it comes to length of experience for many massage therapists.
Unlike other massage CEUs massage therapists take to when they get out of school, we’re not only learning massage theory; we’re learning to use different TOOLS altogether: the FEET!
I’ve found three things make a great Ashiatsu therapist. Talent, Practice, and Passion. These are the words of a great visionary and architect, Frank Lloyd Wright,