We’ve just put a canopy on our back deck and had some patio furniture delivered. I’m now having breakfast and sometimes dinner out on the porch and it’s fantastic! Of course, it reminds me that I need to do more weeding, but I can overlook that for the view and pleasant breeze.

In the past week, I’ve had three clients describe massaging spouses or friends. Their hands started hurting after about five minutes. So, this month, I’m covering some hints of how to keep your hands from hurting when massaging others (use it and your spouse or significant other will appreciate it, I’m sure!). Self-massage this month is for all my clients with kids going back to school, and I’m including information on Hot Stone Massage.

Enjoy! --- Heather Wibbels (615.294-6672)

Many times, at the end of a long day, we come home with tired necks, sore backs, or hands and feet that just need a break. Offering a massage to a spouse, friend or family member to massage those sore and tired areas gives your spouse a break, relieves their achiness, and relaxes them. All of these things make the people in your life much more pleasant to be around – especially after they’ve had a difficult day at work. However, how do you massage someone for more than five minutes without your own hands or arms starting to hurt? There are some easy ways to do this – methods and strategies I use every day.

1. Use Lotion. This sounds simplistic, but massaging hands or feet, for instance, without lotion, is much more difficult on the giver than using some lotion on the skin. The extra friction of working skin to skin (or through clothes) without lotion means that the giver must use more pressure to push the fingers across the skin. Just using lotion or oil can extend the amount of time you’re able to work. Lotion evaporates more quickly than oil, so be prepared to reapply lotion while massaging. However, try not to over-lubricate the skin; it makes it hard to control your pressure and your hand. You’ll slide all over the place!

2. While using your hands, push with your legs or body, not with your hands and arms. The key to keeping your hands and arms pain-free is to stand or kneel so that you get pressure not from pushing down with your arms, but by locking your arms and pushing into the receivers body using the weight of your body. If you can position yourself so that you can work with legs apart and bent knees, you can stand in a lunge, and use pressure from your back foot to press into the body – without applying force with your hands. If you’re working on the floor, kneel so that your torso can lean over the body, and use the weight of your torso to translate into pressure while your hands are on the body.

To experiment, have the receiver lay face down on a cushion or blanket on the floor. Kneel next to the body and put your hands on the back. Push down while sitting on your heels, just with the strength of your hands and arms, without moving your torso over the receiver. Pause, then lean over the receiver’s torso and lock your arms. Let your body weight press your arms into the back. Ask your receiver if they can tell a difference. If you’re working on a bed, you can do this same thing by standing next to the bed and pressing down with your arms and shoulders, then get to deeper pressure by locking your arms and leaning over the torso with your hands on the back.

3. Start lighter, then work deeper. Many people think massage has to start out deep and work even deeper. But, unless you practice massage every day, you might injure yourself giving massage. You have to warm your body and hands up slowly, just as the receiver’s body has to get used to your touch. Start the massage using lighter strokes, kneading or compressing the area lightly, and making sure you get lotion or oil on the whole surface you’re working. If you’ve gotten a massage from me, you’ll notice I do the same thing – warming up the area before going in deeper to do specific work. If you go into a muscle too deep too quickly, the muscle will lock up in an attempt to “defend itself”, and won’t let you in to work on it – no matter how deep you go. You’ll only be eliciting a pain response without getting any muscle relaxation.

After warming the area up, move slowly to working specific areas with deeper pressure. Check in with the receiver frequently to see how the pressure feels to them. If they’re wincing or pulling their body away from you, that’s a clue you’re going in too deep. However, if they give you the go-ahead, go in deeper. To get deeper pressure, push with your legs and torso, and go slower. The body perceives slower paced strokes as deeper than the same pressure moving faster.

4. Use the Palm of your Hand. Rather than put a lot of pressure on your fingers, use the palm of your hands or a soft fist to work on the receiver. Using the palm distributes the pressure you apply to your whole hand, rather than just your fingers or thumbs. If you press down with the palm of your hand with the pressure focused on the heel of the hand, it will feel deep. If you press down with the palm of your hand and the pressure focused on the center of the palm or the base of the fingers, it will feel lighter to the receiver.

5. Don’t Overuse your Thumbs. Your thumbs are wondrous, flexible and talented digits. However, your thumbs are probably the most fragile part of the hand when massaging. It’s easy to overuse the thumbs when you want to put deep pressure on a small place on the body. Putting the body weight behind your as described in tip #2 lets you put a lot of pressure through the tip of your thumb, but it also demands a lot of the thumbs’ joints. Stabilize the thumb by holding the thumb joint with your other hand, keeping the joint from bending back too far.

6. Don’t Massage Directly on Bone. This tip is for the comfort of the receiver. Massaging directly on bone can be very painful. Massaging directly on the vertebrae (rather than on the muscles beside and between them) does not feel good. When you’re giving a massage, make sure you feel a little cushion between the bone and the skin – this will be the muscle. Ask your receiver to tell you if you work in a place that is painful, or if your work feels too deep

7. Ask them to breathe. Doing lighter touch on someone when you’ve directed them to take 3 or 5 or 10 deep breaths is very relaxing and it isn’t much work for the giver. Pace your strokes or pressure with their deep breaths and the massage will be very relaxing – both to their mind and their muscles. You can start and end by having them do a number of deep breaths while you do general, lighter work on them.

It does take time to build up endurance of the body, hands, and arms to do a 30-minute or 60-minute massage. However, most people can easily do 10-15 minutes if they follow the tips above, go slow, and start with lighter pressure. Share these tips with your friends and family, so that you can all enjoy massage from one another – without hurting your hands.

More on Massage: Hot Stone Massage
Heating up with Rocks

Hot Stone Massage is just that. It’s a type of massage that uses hot and cold stones increase circulation in the body, relieve stiffness, and relax the body/mind connection. The stones are placed on the body and used as tools during the massage itself. It combines thermotherapy (heat/cold therapy) with massage through the use of natural stones.

While there are many types of hot stone therapy, it was first introduced by Mary Hannigan in Tuscon, Arizona. She calls her stone therapy LaStone therapy, and it’s based on Native American healing traditions. She combined it with thermotherapy because heat and cold have long been used by western medicine to treat injuries, stiff muscles, and aches and pains.

In a session, basalt stones are heated to around 125F, and are placed on the body – either on the skin or on the sheet covering the skin. The heat from the stone penetrates deep into the body, warming the muscles, joints and bones beneath them. Some are placed on energy centers, like the chakras, to stimulate healing and energy balance. The therapist places others along the spine, the limbs, and on the hands and feet. Sometimes stones are placed between the toes, or on the face. The therapist may also use cold marble stones on parts of the body, or alternate the cold stones with the hot stones. The massage may also include using the stones as massage tools – using them directly on the body to massage tired and tight muscles.

Advocates of stone therapy assert that it is a powerful method to bring the mind, body and spirit together, and say that it is capable of inducing states of relaxation beyond that of traditional massage. Through the use of natural stones to manipulate and change the energy patterns throughout the body, the therapist is able to generate deep calm and relaxation in the client.

• ‘GETTING STONED’ About Stone Therapy
• Experience the Art of LaStone