Barefoot Massage Open Challenge: 2024.1
Week 1: Addressing imbalances felt in your Hip Flexors while working
The next 4 posts are a part of our sorta-annual “Barefoot Massage Open Challenge”… and I think this post is the longest one of the bunch! This challenge trend of ours started in 2018 and was created to coincide with the CrossFit Open (if you know you know) so here we are in 2024, bringing it to you without the heavy lifting :)
This year’s topic for the “Open” is on common physical imbalances of Barefoot Massage Therapists that could result in injury. Our instructors have been talking behind the scenes A LOT about all the things that make up “body mechanics“… things like your alignment while working, as well as what movement possibilities and what common restrictions Barefoot Massage Therapists are working around. Together, we’re compiling tips and tricks, videos, exercises and “blablabla” food for thought content for everyone that will help your body be ready and pain free to give a long career full of barefoot massage sessions!
What’s in this post?
Blablabla: deep reads for deeper feets from Jeni Spring
Hip movement awareness with Sara Newberry
Hip felxor strengthening with Dawn Dotson
Self-myofascial release rolling with Sharon Bryant
TLDR recap
But first, some “blablabla”:
In our online posts and in class instruction, we at the Center for Barefoot Massage very often talk about making your Barefoot Massages “effortless.”
Not everyone finds that effortlessness: in fact, many LMT’s seem to make the work harder on themselves!
After training, while working on your clients with the new material, we all tend to to make tweaks to our bodies as we fit the work to them. Hopefully, we are gradually, mindfully, intentionally, building the strength and adapting the movements to our body’s movement capabilities. Sometimes this is where Barefoot Massage Therapists get a little off track and may start to develop un-intended repetitive strain injuries.
If you powered through a stroke because it worked for one client, sometimes that carries into the next, and the next and the next. Next thing you know you are 8 steps away from the original intent of the stroke, and you are wondering why your hips hurt after a day of pushing clients!
One of the reasons why we teach our FasciAshi Fundamentals class with cream/lotion is so that as you are learning, you’ll have a glide that helps make the new body movements easier.
Too much lotion and it’s a practice of almost constant contraction in controlling your speed/direction. This is where Barefoot Massage Therapists tend to hold them selves up in the bars, hold up their legs to keep from slipping, eccentrically pull back their strokes to put on the brakes, and hold tension within their limbs trying to control the speed. The pressure feels lighter, the strokes tend to move faster, and the fascial engagement is hardly there. Bambi on ice. I’ve seen forearm, elbow, neck, hip flexor, adductor and hamstring/knee injuries on Barefoot Massage Therapists who work like this daily.
Too little glide underfoot for a new Barefoot Massage Therapist can create a near-constant effort in forcing the movement to happen. This is where we find people pushing through their legs, pushing up into the bars, pushing against the walls, dragging themselves across bodies by pulling on the strap or bars through pure strength as their foot tries to move. The pressure might feel deep, but this is anything but effortless for the practitioner! HULK SMASH! Injuries that show up from a practice full of daily Barefoot Massages like this tend to be in the hip rotators, shins, knees, SI joints, QL’s, lats, shoulders and more.
Mindfully experimenting with how your body reacts to the balance between the two extremes of glide versus grip is 1 important step towards finding an effortless, body-saving approach to massage.
We recommend PurePro’s Deep Tissue Cream for beginners - using less and less, eventually transitioning to something more sticky (like a wax, stay tuned for what Hillary is brewing up) as your body and skillset evolve.
The deeper you get into our training, the more we encourage you to reduce the lubrication and use your developed sensations to let the tissue and gravity do the work, more than your strength and force. This is the beginning of the effortlessness that we hope you find. Come to class and we’ll make your work life easier.
Before we get to the exercises, first things first: continue your training. Our Fundamentals class, or ANY entry level Barefoot Massage class is just a baby step into the world of massaging with your feet. It’s not enough. At the very minimum, someone offering more than 25% of their weekly workload in Barefoot Massage services should be at least trained up to the Intermediate (Supine/Sidebody) level. If your clients are needing so much pressure that you are pushing into them, then the Advanced FasciAshi class will give you the skills to work safely with these clients in ways that are easier on your body for the long run. So many LMT’s stop after their beginner training and “figure out” strokes for the rest of the body, and that is where the body strain starts to come into play. People are often doing it the hard way. No need to reinvent the wheel: let us help you excel faster through further training!
Week 1: Hip Flexor Help
All that “blablabla” above is some insight for your insoles to put into practice next time you massage. Now lets get into the real meat for your feet: we challenge you to do these following exercises for a week, and notice how it changes your sessions.
Awareness
Lets start with our Missouri instructor, Sara Newberry. Sara has been practicing Barefoot Massage since 2011. Among her many studies and experiences, Sara’s scope of practice was extended into facilitating group experiences for mothers, guiding them into a greater awareness of their nervous system, and how to apply this awareness into their everyday lives. She is also a Roll Model Method trained practitioner that uses movement and props to educate the public about their bodies. She shares an awareness practice that you can do anytime: but lets start with it in a seated position. Take it to the next level during your next Barefoot Massage, and find your way back to checking in on Sara’s awareness queues while you work for the entire next week.
Strength
In the following video, our New York instructor, Dawn Dotson shares some tips to help your hips feel great. Dawn has been a Barefoot Massage Therapist since 2005. Her scope of practice as a Crossfit Coach, Crossfit Mobility Coach, an ERYT yoga instructor with Yin Yoga specialty training, as well being a Roll Model Method practitioner allows her the ability to teach strengthening and movement exercises: and man does she bring you the good stuff: follow along!
Roll
Lastly, wrapping this week’s Hip-Flexor focus up with a nice, well-deserved self massage is our Alabama instructor, Sharon Bryant. Sharon has been practicing Barefoot Massage since 2009. Her scope of practice was extended into teaching the public self-myofascial release and interoceptive awareness through her training with Jill Miller and the Roll Model Method: which is what you’ll be benefitting from this week! Pull out your massage balls, and lets feel the real deal together:
Stay tuned for next weeks content: we tap into the lower legs contribution to restrictions that may be holding back your true Barefoot Massage potential!
Want to contact any of our instructors? Find them here.
Want to attend one of our Myofascial Barefoot Massage classes? Check out the training schedule here.
TLDR?
Watch all sections of this weeks content in 1 video:
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So much good information here! I can’t wait for the coming weeks to see what is in store for everyone!