Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/738894
C h e c k o u t A B M P 's l a t e s t n e w s a n d b l o g p o s t s . Av a i l a b l e a t w w w. a b m p . c o m . 77 everything happen. And when our shoulders and arms have to do it all, pushing is inevitable. Not only must our shoulders and arms muscle through that effleurage stroke, but our erectors are especially taxed: we rely on them to eccentrically contract as we lean further and further forward to push our way along the leg, and then they must concentrically contract to pull our upper body back to standing and begin the next (effort-full) stroke. The alternative can be revelatory. With a lower body that is not locked, you can keep your back and arms in nearly the exact same position for the entire length of this stroke. In other words, it is possible for your lower body to do all the pouring, and for your upper body to just go along for the ride, providing the point of contact but no force. How does this happen? At the start of the stroke, notice the position of your arms relative to your trunk: the arms and the front of your body will form somewhere between a 30- and a 45-degree angle. Keep your knees slightly bent, sink into the tissue and slide up the calf; feel the stroke powered by your hips, rather than your arms or shoulders. Depending on your height and the length of your client's leg, somewhere around the client's knee that angle between your arms and the front of your body will begin to widen. In order to maintain your contact, you'll have to reach forward with your back. Reaching, as we know, is not ideal; that's when we start to push, and that's when we tax the muscles of the back, shoulders, and arms. The solution, like always, is to adjust your feet. Once that angle begins to widen, the majority of your body weight will be spread between your hands and your front foot, and your back foot will have relatively little water weight left. As a result, that back foot is easy to move even as you maintain the stroke. Slide that back foot until it is under your upper body once again. Now, tip slightly toward the table, letting the water weight from your front foot pour into your back foot once again. That leaves your front foot free to slide forward, so that you return to your original, ready-to-pour position. With practice, this stutter step takes about a second and means you can effortlessly continue up to the client's hip: you no longer need to reach with your back to continue the stroke. Instead, your upper body can maintain that original angle between arms and trunk, and your water weight can pour, as much or as little as the client needs, from your hips into your hands. Eventually, these pouring strokes will resemble the slow, full-body fluidity of tai chi. 3 One of my wonderful teachers, Bob Altheim, described the central principle of tai chi as follows: "The motion is rooted in the feet, generated by the legs, controlled by the waist, and manifested through the fingers." The same is true when you are pouring rather than pushing. Your fingers (and all other points of contact) are just the delivery mechanism: they are manifesting the stroke, but not actually creating it. Instead, the real movement— the reason your client feels fulfilled— emerges because you have placed your feet in the optimal position, and then moved your lower body to deliver the water weight the client needs. Anything else is excess and clouds that essential, and effortless, contact with the client. W HY TO POUR Pouring feels good, both for you and for your client—no small accomplishment. But its deeper value is that it frees us from the dangerous illusion that we can—and that we must—fix our clients. If we see ourselves as facilitators rather than fixers, we will make our careers longer and more satisfying. As important, when we pour rather than push, we become a model for our clients: we demonstrate to our clients that each of us has the capacity to alter and deepen our own relationship with our own body; that we can create change gracefully. In other words, pouring can be liberating for client and therapist both. Because when we embody the principles of pouring, we are able to inhabit our bodies with greater ease and live our lives with greater effectiveness. Notes 1. A note of clarity: when performing lunge strokes along the sides of the table, your back leg should always be the leg closest to the table. Your front leg—the leg you are pouring toward as you perform the stroke—should always be your outside leg, the one farther away from the table. 2. A related problem emerges here: when we get too close to the table we tend to lean against the table. There's nothing inherently wrong with leaning against the table—indeed, for some strokes it is required— but the problem is that when we are against the table, we tend to waste our body weight, as we pour it into the table, rather than into the client. 3. The continuing education workshops of Carole Osborne offer a gorgeous glimpse into how we can utilize the principles of tai chi in our work. Like so many therapists, my work has been transformed under her instruction, as brilliant as it is gentle. David M. Lobenstine, LMT, is owner of Full Breath Massage in New York City. He combines an attention to the breath, along with deep tissue and myofascial work, to help clients inhabit their body anew. He also teaches continuing education classes to help LMTs engage with their breath and their clients' breath. Find him at davidlobenstine@ gmail.com and www.fullbreathmassage.com. HOW TO MASSAGE WITH GRE ATER DEPTH AND E ASE