Thai Massage Course Chiang Mai Blog

How Yoga can help your Thai massage practice

remcovandevisch@hotmail.com (Remco) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:00:00 +0000

How Yoga can help your Thai massage practice

One of the contributing factors of the the growing popularity of Thai Massage is the popularity of Yoga. Yoga and Thai massage are somehow closely linked to each other. Often Thai massage is even called yoga for lazy men. As both a yoga and Thai Massage teacher (in Chiang Mai) I am exploring in my teachings how we can create a synergy from practicing both.

From the origin of Thai Massage, Yoga has been a great influence on Thai Massage, especially on the Thai Massage stretches, but lately also on the alignment, body mechanism of the massage therapist. Although they are closely linked to each other they are also distinctively different.

Why as a Thai Massage practitioner we should practice yoga?

1. For Thai Massage practitioners the body is their tool.

In my work I come across a lot of massage students who body is or too stiff, out of shape, overweight, etc when they start studying Thai Massage with me. I always tell them that they need to realize that Thai massage is done on the floor and your body needs to be in an ok shape, need have some form of flexibility and that it is important to have control and balance. I always advice them to do Yoga to acquire these qualities.

2. Yoga helps in understanding your and other peoples body

When you understand your body, you know which part of the body are more open or are more stiff. This can and will give you insight in how to use your body when giving a massage and how to avoid to use your body in ways that will cause injuries. If one start to understand one own body and how things are connected it is much easier to understand somebodies else's body and also how different stretches are affecting different muscles, joints, tendons, etc

3. Yoga increases body awareness and understanding of alignment

This point is interwoven with the last point. Awareness of your own body is a step further though. When we have a good body awareness we know immediately when we are putting our body in a position which is not beneficial, if we combine this with knowledge of alignment, we are able to correct ourselves directly.

4. Knowledge of Yoga (or stretching) helps us to help our customers

At the end of the massage it is always good to give some feedback to your customers and possible to explain them some stretching (or Yoga postures) which can be of further assistance in helping to open their body more

Thai Massage and body mechanism

remcovandevisch@hotmail.com (Remco) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:13:00 +0000

For sure one of the most important principles of a good Thai massage is having the right body mechanism. In my teachings at the Blue Garden Chiang Mai (www.thaimassagechiangmai.com) I work intensively with my students to make sure they will get this right. The reasons herefore are that once you master this, to give a good Thai massage gets so much easier and also very important it will save your career as a massage therapist; once you understand the right bodymechanisms you know how to massage without injuring your body.

No muscle power

The first aspect is that we are not using muscle power, but using our bodyweight. By shifting our bodyweight on to our palms (or thumbs, elbow, etc) we are creating pressure. Important hereby is that we relaxing our body, which means that our posture is not creating tension for our selves. In practice this can be quite difficult, because in every day life we are so used to use force and power. One of my teachers use to say if you can not be relaxed your self while massaging how can your client be relaxed. In other words you will be transer you tension towards your client

The difference between bodyweight and muscle power for pressure is that the first one feels much softer (less sharp), allows the therapist to go deeper, and makes it possible to transfer energy much more freely.

Massage from the center of your body

Further aspects of good body mechanisms is to always massage from the center of you body, so you are not un necessary twisting you back or reaching away. When you learning massage always give your self the time to find the right position. Just remember that once you get in the habit of mis using your body you will do this day in and day out and over time you will create injuries.

Always be in a 90 degree angle to the point you massaging; for example with a single palm press, look at the line form you shoulder to your palm (to the point your applying pressure) they should be in 90 degrees angle.

Common mis alignments of the therapist

1. The lower back is rounded or over arched; Try the have the lower back in its natural position

2. Rounding our upper back

3. Hunching the shoulders, goes together with 2 (rounded upper back). Keep upper back straight and draw your shoulders down the back

4. Bending the elbows. Very often going together with hunching the shoulders. When you draw your shoulders down the back automaticly the elbows will go straight.

Insiders Tip

One of the easiest adjustments tips is to imagine that you are opening your heart. If you imagine this your chest will sink in and automaticly your lower and upper back will be straight and you will draw your shoulders down the back

Different body types

People are build differently, not all techniques will be suited to be performed by everybody, or can not be performed on everybody. Be sensible towards this. Same if a client is asking for more pressure, but you are leaning in with all bodyweight, do not start using muscle power, It is always very easy to compensate with muscular power or take an unnatural position. But by doing this you are creating tension in your own body, which overtime will create problems. From the very beginning of your instruction, if a particular movement is causing you pain, you should stop. You should not push yourself, as is often done in various types of exercises, but realize that either the movement is not being done correctly or something in your own body mechanics is not right. There always many alternatives which will not hurt your body. Just think about this: How can you heal someone if you are hurting yourself?

Some last words

A good posture should not cause pain to your body, allows you to relax your body and by shifting your weight you can increase or decrease the pressure.

A new carreer as Massage Therapist

remcovandevisch@hotmail.com (Remco) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:35:00 +0000

As a Thai Massage Teacher I meet a lot of people who for many different reasons decided they want to become a Thai Massage Therapist. In this blog I do not want to discourage you but out of my experience of working with my students I want to give you some food for thought.

Becoming a good therapist takes time.
Like everything to become good at something takes time and practice. Sometimes I meet students who think that after a 1 week or a 2 weeks course they will be good therapist, and then when the course is finished they are dissapointed because they really believed that in 1 or 2 weeks they would master Thai Massage. A 1 week or a 2 weeks course is a good start but there is just a limit to what you can learn within this period. The first course I did took about 3 months and after these 3 months I still had not the idea that I was able to give a good Thai Massage. So be patient when learning massage.

Know your own body and limitations
Thai Massage is a form of massage which is usually given on a mat on the floor. As a Therapist you will be sitting on your knees, toes or buttocks, and you need to move around a lot. So it it helpfull that your body is somehow good shape and flexible (Hamstrings legs, hip flexors, lower back) and that your are not carry too much weight with you. If you have a very stiff body you just need to accept that in the beginning you will go through pain and that you need to do some yoga or stretching to open up your body. When you are overweighted a lot (a little bit is not a problem) giving massages on the floor and being on your knees is gonne be hard on your body.

Make sure you are learning how to use your body
When massaging your body is your instrument where you will be working with, so it will be very important to know how to use your body in the right way. When not using your body right it is very easy to hurt yourself, an average carreer of a massage therapist is somewhere between 3 and 5 years. Then he/she needs to stop because of injuries. So make sure that you choose a course which will emphasize body mechanics, if you learn the right body mechanism from the beginning you will not grow in bad habits, which will be late on hard to correct.

Comfortable touching people
This one may sound a bit weird, but when giving massaging you are touching somebody else, how comfortable are you touching somebody else? Sometimes I come across a student who doesnot have a clue or feels scared touching other person. Off course with practice this can and will change.......

Learn different type of massages
When you are in Chiang Mai studying massage do not only study Thai Massage, do some short courses Oil Massage or Foot Reflexology. As a therapist this will make you more flexible when you are going back to your country and learning different kind of massages helps to develop your general massage skills.

These were just of few pointers hope they can be helpfull for you. If you are not sure if you really want to make a carreer in Thai Massage, the best thing to do is just give it a try. Do a short course and see if you like it.

Take care

Remco

First Blog

remcovandevisch@hotmail.com (Remco) — Fri, 23 May 2008 03:37:00 +0000

This is my first Blog about Thai Massage (courses) in Chiang Mai. I am Remco van de Visch and I am a Thai Massage practioner/teacher and Yoga in Teacher at BlueGarden Chiang Mai. The reason for this blog that I would like to share my experiences about studying Thai Massage in Chiang Mai, the different schools you can study, the different styles, different teacher, etc, als I will also discuss different aspects of Thai Massage. Furthermore since I have been living in Chiang Mai for 4 years now in some of the blogs I will give usefull information for students who are planning staying long time in Chiang Mai. With this blog I am trying to help anyone who is intrested or want to study Thai Massage in Chiang Mai. I you have questions, comments you can place them here or Email me.

Remco