Making your self-massage match professional treatment.
Here is the formula to follow.
Warm Up
Soft Tissue massage
Deep Tissue work
Accessory Deep Tissue Work
Movement and Soft Tissue Massage
Rest and massage another day.
As for anatomy knowledge, you’ll learn as you go by referencing a good source. A good book is Andrew Biel’s Trail Guide to the Body.
Alternatively, book a consultation with me and I’ll guide you through everything.
It may be local to one body part or a bigger area. You may also find yourself repeating steps as you work due to the time it takes to fully work through an area.
That challenge can be overcome in 2 ways. 1 - Spend as much time as needed on one muscle/area before moving to the next. 2 - Spend less time on one particular area to instead cover more ground on your body before repeating steps to work on the area you started with.
Overall, treatment time takes between 30-90 minutes depending on a few factors, when you get proficient it’s most often 30-60 minutes.
Then you can do the fun part of massing yourself in 1-3 minute windows throughout your day if the area you're focusing on is small.
Warm-up - Get the body warm.
This could range from, going for a brisk walk, light jogging, skipping, soft tissue massage techniques, and spending time in front of an infrared heat source such as a heater.
Soft Tissue Massage - the feel-good portion
This allows the fluids in the body to start exchanging and further warms up the connective tissues and muscles. If you haven’t done a good warm-up, or you’ve cooled down already spend extra time doing soft tissue work. A little apprehension is fine but none of it should hurt. If it hurts ease off on the pressure.
Percussion Massage. The correct technique is to not pound the muscle but instead provide vibrational therapy to it. Try using a face washer to provide some padding with a slight angle to the gun or put it at a 45-degree angle and is providing more of a rubbing motion. As you work the area your body contours and curves, and you’ll have to follow your body by adjusting the angle, direction and pressure.
I recommend purchasing a team doctor vibessage as it’s a vibrational massage tool with a large application pad
Rubbing. Alternate between rubbing the skin, shaking the tissue connective tissue by providing a little bit of grip and rolling over the muscle by gripping deeper/stronger. If done right it will warm up and provide a “feel good” or loosening sensation to the area.
Quick Rolling. Foam roller or massage ball, nothing too hard. If you only have hard equipment, wear extra clothes as padding.
Deep Tissue Massage - the bulk of the work
It’s this stage that requires some anatomy knowledge. Good thing is, you learn as your treat yourself. A good book to reference is Andrew Biel’s Trail Guide to the Body.
Here are the main techniques for deep tissue self-massage:
Digital Ischemic Compression. That’s the fancy way of pressing and holding with your thumb. You can use tools such as a small massage ball, wooden massage stick, or thumb saver but your thumb provides feedback. I recommend learning with your thumb first and only using tools after you’ve gone through a complete session using just your thumbs.
If you’re a larger individual or have thick skin, I recommend learning about a part of your body that’s less padded before using tools.
The Traditional Chinese Medicine concept of this is “acupressure”.
This takes the longest amount of time but it is also the safest and most effective massage. Measuring the muscle you work by the units of your thumb width will teach you which areas to focus on more and how long it will take. Press and hold until the pain on the spot or referral pain is completely gone (if you’re using the slow method) or until it’s a 1-2 alongside using muscle in a relaxed manner (quick method).
The full patient version of this as outlined by Dr James Stoxen in his Human Spring Approach to Thoracic Outlet Syndrome is up to 3 minutes (average amount of time for 8/10 pain to disappear) 3 times over.
Personally, I found results with 30 seconds to 2 minutes of pressure with pain going down to a 2/10, 2-3 times over when movement is applied to the associated joint (movement is applied when the pain has dropped below 5/10), followed by further soft tissue work and movement is applied afterwards
Joint Mobilization. Provide compression to an associated area directly near or on the joint and move the joint in a relaxed manner. The more relaxed the better. If you can lie down while doing this, lay down, other with sit or lean against a wall.
If you can’t use your hands to compress and move the joint, use the joint itself but provide slight drags to the compression as you move the joint. I use the word “drags” not “drag” because you may find as you do one joint movement, the direction may have to change to prove more force, more relaxation, more space, more compression or more movement.
Accessory Deep Tissue Massage
Pin and Stretch (Dynamic Release). Pin a portion of the soft tissue and move the joint. Be sure the pin is strong enough that it becomes a physical effort to move the joint or provide a very warm sensation to a much larger area close to the pin. Be sure to do multiple movements to provide the area with good relief
Myofascial Release. Grip and glide the area you are working on. If you are using a thumb, entire hand or fingers only is for you to decide. Be sure to be gripping enough that the skin is being pulled so the glide is being rotated by the tissue underneath it. This can be done similarly with a Pin and Stretch if you also move the joint around.
Movement and Soft Tissue Massage - the cool down
Provide yourself with soft tissue massage again so your body metabolizes and processes what just happened. Then move the muscles around, the joint/s around do some movements and go for a 3-5 second walk.
This kickstarts the body’s integration process as the nervous system is taking on board how the metabolites that were previously sending pain signals are now gone.
Rest - live your life and massage another day
Rest up and repeat the process later in the day, the next day, days after, or on an as-needed basis.
Sounds simple enough?
Good. There are many factors involved with all that, such as how long things take, what’s the real pressure we’re using, how to endure the fatigue on your thumb, which areas to massage and which areas not too.
I’d recommend starting with one muscle first and learning your anatomy from there. Otherwise, book a consultation with me to get the cheat sheet.
