The future of massage is a FOOT:
Why feet are the perfect tool for deep tissue massage
The public demand for deep tissue massage shapes the work we do as massage therapists, and how we choose to “go deep” for them directly impacts our own bodies. This deep-tissue-loving demographic is finding Barefoot Massage to be the answer to their search for the best massage. We at the Center for Barefoot Massage believe that using the feet to apply deep pressure is a win-win situation for both the client and the practitioner - so long as its actually right for the client and practitioner!
The general public likely doesn’t realize just how many different styles of massage and bodywork are available today. “Deep tissue" can mean different things to different practitioners. Some therapists may focus on specific, targeted pressure, while others might apply a broader and gentle or more intense approach. Rather than assuming that deeper is always better, which is often why a person may choose to receive a Barefoot Massage since it is perceived as “deeper than deep”, we hope to empower our audience to realize and promote the vast potential of all the different ways a massage can be described and experienced as “deep.”
This article helps to compare ways in how the depth and feel of feet are “twinning” with their traditional upper limb manual massage therapy tools. We hope it helps bare the sole of how we use our tools, and demonstrate how a skilled combination of all the different barefoot massage applications by a trained and intuitive (inTOE-itive?!) practitioner can give such impactful sessions for their clients.
What is in this message!?
10 Parts of the Foot
How much pressure do you get with barefoot massage?
Deeper tricks to try without feet
Find a deep tissue barefoot massage therapist near you
Parts of the foot, how they relate to hands and other common massage tools, and their sensation of depth
Bunion/base of 1st metatarsal head - lateral or plantar side: This can feel like thumbs, or the knuckle of a thumb, and is useful as a tool for intermittent medium depth, specific area detail work such as friction, kneading, compression, so long as it is painless for the practitioner.
Tarsal heads/ball of foot: This approach can mimic the petrissage and multidirectional friction at medium depth movements that knuckles bring. Easy to apply for long durations and varying angles and depth of pressure.
Arch: A sustainable tool that when relaxed to fit the contours of structures underfoot can feel like a hugging, broad, evenly pressured palm pressing to melt any section of the body. This medium depth compression sensation spread over a larger surface area works more with the nervous system, calming any guarding, held areas and drawing attention to the tension itself.
Whole foot: This sensation mimics a dynamic forearm, with the ability to fluctuate pressure from the entire surface area, to subtle tilts and leans that emphasize the heel (like an elbow) the lateral edge (like a bladed ulna) as well as gripping toes or balls (like gentle hand grips in the flow of a forearm stroke) the whole foot has the potential of working at all depths of pressure through compression, effleurage, tapotement, friction, kneading/petrissage (when wringing structures between two feet) and it can be effortlessly used frequently for long durations, with varying angles of pressure.
Dorsiflexed Heel edge = This bad boy definitely has the potential to feel like a sharper bent elbow or sharper, bladed radius/forearm, but rounder. It's diffused, but when you get your weight and angles lined up just right, it's pretty much the deepest, sharpest tool in the foot with a long endurance time for compression, friction, and tapotement (when percussion is applied through proximal limbs and it’s reverberated through the foot.)
Heel Base = that moment when a loosely bent elbow blends it's pressure through the practitioners Triceps, like a finishing touch? This is like that but we have the ability to make traditional massage strokes like sustained compression, friction and effleurage effortlessly deeper in range, duration and direction.
Back of Heel (plantarflexed or relaxed) = similar to a grab, or a hooked drag, even capable of skin rolling and petrissage with the hands cross body. This tool typically provides a gentle but medium depth pressure (the opposite is true if the foot is dorsiflexed and gravity is sent right through it!)
Lateral Edge = a highly used part of the foot in our work: can create skin rolling effects, friction, and sharp compression similar to a bladed forearm. Has the potential to be used for light pressure through deepest depths for long durations.
Bunionette (supinated/laterally tilted foot) = light to medium depth specific finger/thumb compression and friction work, when used in combo with lateral edge of foot, this tool works similarly to the specificity achieved with a bladed radius with a little elbow built in for pizzazz!
Toes = For light pressured gripping, squeezing, pulling, stripping, and intermittent compressing - typically the “toe prints” are the strongest point for these actions, but the “toe tips” also come into play for brief intervals, which is why short, pedicured nails are essential in our work!
*A secret tool that’s not pictured: the anterior edge of the plantar surface of your heel, right where it turns from “arch” to “heel”. While using a whole foot approach to a static or gliding stroke, you can achieve a subtle hook or hold here, almost similar to using the palm-edge of the heel of your hand with a straighter wrist.
How much pressure do you get with barefoot massage?
Most of us can easily guess that an ashiatsu barefoot massage is likely to be deeper than a traditional hands-on massage, simply because gravity assists the massage therapist. But how much more pressure can you actually get with barefoot massage compared to using hands and forearms?
Today, we have a simple yet effective experiment to help you find out. All you'll need is a massage table and a bathroom scale. Watch this video to see how, then try it on your own!
Place the scale on the floor, and test how much pressure you can apply with your foot.
The difference between the pressure applied by thumbs, hands, forearms, and one foot is significant.
The results:
Two hands stacked: 39.8 lbs of pressure
Two thumbs stacked: 24.7 lbs of pressure.
Forearm with a hand on top for extra leverage: 41.8 lbs of pressure.
One foot (with weight shifted onto the foot on the scale): 90–95 lbs of pressure.
Comparisons:
Foot vs. thumbs: 3.8x deeper (that’s almost quadruple the pressure!)
Foot vs. hands: 2.4x deeper.
Foot vs. forearms: 2.3x deeper.
It’s actually quite easy to go even deeper with one foot. In this experiment, one foot was flat, but when you work more specifically—using parts of the foot as described earlier in this post—the pressure becomes even more focused from a smaller surface, and even if the scale doesn’t register more weight, the application of pressure becomes more specific and less diffused. Even changing the vector or angle of pressure can increase the sensation of depth, giving even more variable options of treatment from your "heeling" sole.
Deep without the feet
Here are 10 tips (one for every toe!) that we commonly remind our students of - but these tricks work whether you are using your feet to massage with or not. Apply these Center for Barefoot Massage teaching points to any massage you are using your upper limbs - let us know in the comments if anything helped you get deeper!
Know your anatomy. Know WHY and WHAT you are pushing into, and work on the part of the muscle that needs it most. Know what lays underneath that muscle, because you’ll be pushing that top layer into it. (Is it bone? Is it another muscle?!)
Move with your client’s breath…. and your own.
Work at the muscle from a 90 degree angle. Wherever the fibers of that muscle line up with the underlying bone: aim for that pitch. Massaging on a shallower angle is good, but the skidding, shearing pressure takes more effort to go deeper than directly aiming at it head on.
Remember that slower is better–you’ll sink in more deeply if you take your time. Go so slow and maintain pressure so long that you forget why you are there.
If your client resists, lighten up. You are fighting an extra hard battle at that point.
Try less lubricant. Even less than you think. Or try a stickier lubricant: ever tried bees wax or butter? Creme instead of slippery lotion? What if you tried no lubricant at all?!
Put the muscle or fascial line in a stretch, then massage it as usual. It’ll feel deeper, so you won’t have to work so hard to hit the level of pressure the client and muscle “kneads”!
Get an electric table and adjust the height throughout the session to get the best angle and leverage to each body part.
Slide between your client and the table, use THEIR bodyweight for deeper pressure while your arm bones and knuckles massage.
Stack your centers of gravity over your work - some refer to these as your bandhas - the sense of stacking your joints over where you are trying to send pressure means less strength is needed.
Have fun!
…and if you aren’t having fun, if you want to challenge yourself to learn something completely new and use your body in a TOEtally different way, we invite you and your feet to join us in a FasciAshi class!!
Looking for a Barefoot Massage Therapist near you?
Experience a session with a licensed and trained professional. A good sign that you will be safe underfoot is when the practitioner asks you to fill out a detailed health intake form before your first appointment. Knowing this information helps a Barefoot Massage therapist know when, where and how to customize a deep tissue massage to best fit your personal “kneads” while also staying within therapeutic ranges appropriate for the health of your being.
We encourage you to ask the practitioner about their approach to deep tissue and their training in barefoot massage, what massage associations they may be affiliated with, why they love giving the work and how it’s helped their other clients.
Ahead of the appointment with any massage therapist you chose, it’s also important to verify their massage license status to make sure that they are legally eligible in your area to provide massage therapy in general. Not all states require this, but honestly most do! We only train Licensed Massage Therapists, and for the few states that don’t require that, we require the attendees to have completed an accredited massage school training - so if you seek out our feet, just know that we have been doing our part to keep our lineage of education reserved for the soles who are doing their part to uphold the values of the profession.