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Tag: supine

Scoot your client up for supine neck work!

As I mentioned in our last blog post, our Tuesday Toesday tips aren’t usually rocket science. Sometimes they are easy fixes that just take us a heck of a long time to figure out for some reason. Today’s tip for scooting the client up is one of those — super easy but with big results.

Although I am normal height (5’5″), my legs are short. So for years when I tried to do seated anterior neck, shoulder, and pec work, I’d get myself into some bad body mechanics.

The client was all cozy on the massage table like they were in bed for the night, far away from the head of the table.

Since I couldn’t reach their neck our shoulders well, I’d try a variety of, shall we say, interesting positions.

Perhaps you’ve tried these too:

  1. scooting the stool forward so you can reach the client’s neck and therefore giving yourself no back support.
  2. leaving the stool nestled by the wall and keeping your back there but scooting your rear end forward, giving you no lower back support.
  3. tilting your stool forward, praying that it doesn’t tip over and thrusting you on your client’s head!
  4. hunched like Quasimoto with a foot on the floor and the other foot on your client and using no stool

Wrapping a Mother Earth neck pillow for massage

Today’s Tuesday TOESday tip is a simple one for all massage therapists, whether you do barefoot massage or not. A small Mother Earth pillow under the client’s neck is a lovely accoutrement. Clients love it and frequently comment on how nice it feels when I place under their cervical spine.

The small bolster feels great under the client’s neck when they are supine, and it warms the tissues well. This makes it even easier to get in deeply with your toes or fingers.

But it’s a pain to take the cover off, and worse to put it back on. They need to be washed each time they touch the client’s skin, and they have to hang dry.

And if you accidentally put one in the dryer, good luck getting it back on the pillow! I learned this the hard way. It was, I imagine, about as easy as putting a girdle on a walrus.