Chair Massage Techniques - Body Use Principles Part 1

Chair Massage expert, Eric Brown, has developed 8 principles for effective body use that he encourages you follow to minimize the stress on your joints. This the first of a four part series of articles:

Principle 1: Maintain your back in a neutral position

The back needs to be kept in a neutral position. The curves of the back shouldn't be emphasized or minimized. By maintaining this posture, there is minimum stress to the intervetebral discs or the ligaments that support your spine. Because we frequently have sedentary lifestyles, we tend to lack the strength and awareness needed to stabilize the torso in this posture.

As a result you need to be extremely conscious of maintaining the back in this neutral alignment. This stabilization is vitally crucial and lets you as the practitioner to transmit your weight efficiently into the client's body.

You should lunge when performing most of the massage techniques. If our torso is aligned in a lunge position, you will notice that you are glancing at the floor. This is an unnatural position. We have a very instinctive orienting reflex that makes us want to align our gaze to the horizon. So your habitual tendency will be to lift up your head and extend your back into a very vertical position to see straight forward. This takes the back out of an aligned position and causes hyperlordosis in the low back. This makes it a lot more strenuous to stabilize the lower back and causes unnecessary stress to the joints and discs in the back.

It's essential to fight this reflex and to keep a very neutral alignment of the low back. At first it will feel really unnatural. Interestingly enough though, as you direct your focus to your back you'll soon start to be aware in a kinesthetic way why it's the right thing to do. At the beginning it will take great effort to keep this neutral alignment. But over time you'll start to become more comfortable with the feeling of this position and it will become very comfortable to maintain.

Here's a easy exercise you can do to develop a strong sense of stability in your torso in a neutral alignment.

Exercise for an neutrally aligned spine...

Coming from a background in ballet, I've been made aware of alternate ways of thinking about the body and how it moves through space. Dancers don't have a lot of technical knowledge about the body's anatomy so they regularly communicate movement using imagery. One image they habitually use, whether standing still on stage or jumping into the air, is the image of pushing your feet into the floor. It's like Newton's third law of motion: \"Every action has an opposite and equal reaction.\" The more they drive into the floor, the more their back elongates and lengthens.

For this first exercise, simply stand quietly in one spot with your feet shoulder width apart. As you stand quietly for a moment, be aware of the sensations through your body. Scan your body with your mind's eyes. While you are standing there in a relaxed way, think of pushing into the ground with your feet. Imagine making an effort to push the floor downwards. As you do this, identify what occurs in your body. Notice how your legs feel as though they become more firm while at the same time staying relaxed. Feel your pelvis move into an upright orientation so that it feels like a bowl that supports your abdominal contents. Observe how your back appears to lengthen without any effort and how your body lengthens around a central axis.

Repeat this a number of times letting your body relax and then engaging your feet into the ground to really recognize that lengthening feeling in your back.