I had a client come in today that wanted REAL DEEP pressure in their massage. OK, now, where did I put that steam roller?
Many massage therapists, especially if you are not physically strong, dread the moments that they have someone that wants real deep pressure for their massage. I can remember one guy at school that was having a bad day as three of his clinicals clients wanted deep pressure.
You see, to put that much pressure on takes a lot of strength, mostly upper body. Now, not all of these clients are ‘pain puppies’, but there are those that like every ounce you can give them, and more. (I can remember many clients in school telling me to put on more pressure, and then writing on the evaluations that it was not enough.) I have managed to find a way to give most of these people the pressure they want, but by the time the massage session is over, I need to change my shirt as it’s wet (I know... TMI**).
But luckily, I now have a new weapon in my arsenal… Lomi Lomi massage movements. I did what I could for his back, and when I moved to the other areas, I started using the Lomi Lomi movements. I even remembered to turn my hand so that a sharper part of my arm was pressing in, he still kept asking for me to give him more pressure. Wow. He told me that he was pretty much impervious to pain.
I continued on with the massage, putting all my body weight into to movements. At one point in his leg, I did the Lomi Lomi compression, leaning into it as I was taught, when my client said “OK OK. That’s too hard!” He admitted that he never expected to hear himself say that. I do have to admit that I had a brief moment of sadistic glee when that happened. But in truth, I had been giving him all my strength for an hour and 15 minutes. I knew I had a limit. It was nice to see that he had one too.
** For the uninitiated... TMI - Too Much Information