Common Occupational Hazards

We are delighted to reproduce this article by Susan Findlay from the North London School of Sports Massage

Are your arms and shoulders tired at the end of the day, does your lower back ache regularly, do your hands suffer after a days massaging?

Like your table, your body is an important tool, and how you choose to use it will significantly lengthen or shorten your career as a massage therapist.

T his article will look at the possible biomechanical causes for common complaints associated with the occupational hazards of massage. It will also address some of the solutions that can ease your condition and improve your technique as a massage therapist. (Your clients will love it!)

The importance of developing “self body awareness” is key to the longevity of your career. This can be defined as being mindful of how you work and move. Utilizing your sense of touch, movement, & sight, by encouraging & developing heightened awareness to optimize your abilities as a massage therapist.

Three Steps to Increased “Self Body Awareness”

1. Video Analysis

Since we cannot step away and watch ourselves massage, ask someone to video you. (beg or borrow, not steal, a video camera, try offering a free massage .... ) This will be useful for self evaluation purposes.

Ask yourself these questions:

a)Is your head upright or tilted to one side?

b)Are looking down at what you are doing?

c)At what height are the placement of your arms in relation to your shoulders, what is the angle, are your arms hanging down closer to your sides or are they more horizontal?

d)Are your shoulders relaxed or hunched, protracted (rounded)?

e)Where is the placement of your feet, do you have a wide base, or are you feet close to-gether?

f)Is your trunk rotated, or do you have your hips square on to the direction you are moving?

g)Do you move around the plinth in a flowing manner, do you look relaxed?


2. Blindfold

Next, wear a blindfold, this is an amazing tool to develop your own spacial awareness. Take a moment to sense where your arms are, the placement of your feet and your hips.

a)Do you shift your weight when you stand? Do you bear your weight on one side more than the other?

b)Sense your speed, how fast are you working, slow, thoughtful, or fast, “trying to get it all done”?

c)Do you perspire while you work?

d)Do your fingers or hands shake when try to apply deeper strokes?

e)Are you feeling the tissue or are you pushing it without noticing all the subtleties and differences beneath your hands?

f)Are your hands relaxed or stiff?

g)Is your thumb leading or is it working as a team with the rest of the hand?

h)Where is the tension in your own body, legs, lower back, shoulders, and/or arms?

i)Is your breathing relaxed?

Possible solutions:

Look at the height of the bed, if it is too high it will not allow you to relax the shoulders and extend the arms low enough to be at a 45 degree angle. Alongside this, the actual power of the movement needs to be coming from the legs. By relaxing the upper body and using the momentum from the lower half of your body, the energy required from the upper body will be minimal, yet the power of the stroke will be controlled and strong.

3. Massage

What we do and how we take care of ourselves in our own daily lives, is relevant to our practice. We develop postural and movement habits which we carry into our treatments. As therapists we tell our clients about the benefits of regular sessions, few are the therapists who heed their own words. How many times have you heard your clients say “I was not aware I was tight there”. You got it, it’s about self awareness, it is the beginning of change. Hence, the last exercise is for you, the therapist, is to have regular massages, thus enhancing your own body awareness through touch.

Once you have developed a greater sense of your own body, what it is doing, & how it is feeling by taking on board the above self evaluation exercises, you can identify movement habits and start developing an effective self care strategy that will increase the longevity of your practice.

It is about making choices between optimal body mechanics that will provide a long career as a massage therapist, or movement that precedes occupational injury.

Please feel free to contact me for further advice.

Susan Findlay
BSc RGN, Dip SMRT
MISRM, MSMA, MGCMT
Director of North London School of Sports Massage
020 8375 3518
www.nlssm.com

susan@nlssm.com

Submitted by: North London School of Sports Massage

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