Thai massage is bodywork that’s designed for those who do yoga. I’m consistently amazed that Thai massage hasn’t taken the yoga community by storm but I believe modern yoga is slowly starting to catch up.
Thai massage puts one through a series of poses similar to yoga poses and stretches many of the same muscle groups, like the hamstrings, glutes and calves. The difference is that a good Thai therapist can get about 10% extra stretch out of muscle and you as a receiver can just relax and let go. Typically in yoga you’re working many muscles to release a few. There’s no substitute for a regular yoga practice but Thai massage can help those who do yoga pin point problem areas to work on and excel in their practice.
The compressions in Thai massage on some areas like the glutes and hamstrings is something that’s difficult to achieve on your own. Bringing fresh, highly oxygenated blood into the area is good and generally refreshing. The letting go that happens during Thai massage allows the spine to stabilize and balance while the hips to open so you can sit and meditate, which is what yoga is designed to help your body do to begin with.
“Thai massage is to yoga as chocolate is to peanut butter.”~~Robert Gardner
https://www.robertgardnerwellness.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Robert-Gardner-Wellness-Header.png00Robert Gardnerhttps://www.robertgardnerwellness.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Robert-Gardner-Wellness-Header.pngRobert Gardner2012-10-24 08:31:032012-10-24 08:31:03What is Thai massage? pt.2
This continues our series on Thai massage in a seated position. The video shows work that’s used on an extremely common problem area, the upper back where it meets the neck. Levator scapulae are the muscles that go from the top of the shoulder blade to the base of the skull and they’re often tight and tense. The use of the elbow saves your hands, allows you to work effectively without strain.
Share these with friends. They’re easy to perform techniques that post little risk when done in communication with those you’re working on. Ask those who receive from you how it feels. Better still show them how to perform it and trade. The best way to learn is to give and receive.
See you soon for a Thai massage class here in Austin, Texas.
This new video shows work around the scapula or shoulder blade. For people with constant upper back and neck issues this is a good way to begin the process of opening the chest and having that slumped forward posture start to change. This usually brings some relief from upper back pain albeit temporary. This particular stretch is easy to do while someone is seated on the floor or in a chair so it’s good to use on friends and family at parties.
Opening the rhomboids, trapezius and erector spinae addresses some of the core issues that come from computer work. This chin jutted forward slouch is bad for posture long term.
Thai massage classes including certification are ongoing in the new year. Look for emails and updates here and on facebook/twitter. See you all soon.
Happy New Years everyone. I wish us all a happy, healthy and prosperous 2012.
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This is good for people with upper back and neck pain. It’s an easy way to help someone open their chest and allow their shoulder blades to begin the process of coming off of their upper back. You’ll want to avoid this movement on people with herniated discs or any sort of spine surgery like fusions but otherwise go slow and communicate with whoever you’re working on. When in doubt, don’t.
This is a simple, easy to use Thai massage technique for family and friends. Those who just took my Thai massage class around Austin will notice that this is done seated. We learn the seated series in the Thai massage certification track. You’re pressing into the posterior neck muscles and those with headaches, TMJ dysfunction or chronic neck pain will love you for doing this to them. Try it at a party around Austin, you’ll make many friends.
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Thai massage has it’s own story. As with any story, the best one wins. The best story is that Dr. Zhivago created traditional Thai massage while he was the Buddha’s doctor. Along with Buddhism, Thai massage spread into Thailand from nothern India. There the work was preserved by monks who used it to aid their health and facilitate meditation practice. Monks worked on each other to help them with the rigors of sitting and meditating for hours. Then the work was used as a health regimen for those in the villages who went to the monks for healthcare. The sick and infirm would receive the work from monks as the monks worked on their practice of loving kindness and compassion.
Thai massage was surely influenced by Chinese medical doctors who passed through the area and also influenced by traditional indigenous medical practices in Thailand. In the end, regardless of the truth of the story the work has been practiced for so long in Thailand that it’s just considered traditional bodywork in its homeland.
Over time the work was shared. Not until recently has Thai massage been promoted and used in the west. Harald Brust or as he was called, Asokananda, was a German gentleman who learned the work by observing, receiving and asking questions about the work from monks and practitioners in Thailand. Over time he was accepted as a qualified teacher of the work and began teaching it to westerners who wandered through. He helped translate the work into other languages and wrote books on it in addition to classes he taught.
My teacher learned from Asokananda amongst others and taught me, so you see the lineage goes back for a long time traditionally but is fairly new to the west. The work is easy to learn, it does take some practice and doesn’t really resemble massage as we think of it in the west. It looks much more like someone doing yoga to someone else, thus it’s commonly being called lazy yoga. Thai Yoga Massage is more of a dance with a client than table work. You’re moving the client and they move with you.
The energy lines called sen within traditional Thai massage bear a slight resemblance to meridians in Chinese medicine but there are no points on the line, it’s just a line. For this reason I think of them as being much closer to the experiential lines one feels when you stretch deeply within a yoga pose. The line that goes down the back of the leg and to each toe, the line that extends from the shoulder joint down to the fingertips being the most common examples one would feel.
A regular yoga practice benefits the practitioner of Thai Yoga Massage and allows one to work with joints and mobility to understand how to move clients for their benefit. The work you do on yourself will help you understand physical limitations and how to work with them. Thai Yoga Massage is the future of bodywork in the U.S. It’s seed is being planted and in coming years it will grow and produce fruit. It’s far too beneficial to remain Thai in the same way that yoga is now practiced by more Americans than those of Indian descent.
Here’s a good video from an American school.
Want more? Sign up! Two classes are being offered that you can register for and more will be added over time. You do not need have experience as a massage therapist to take these classes. If you are a licensed therapist in TX I can provide continuing education units through the state. If you wish to sample the work contact me to make an appointment. The most secure way of knowing you want to learn the work from me is to interact, receive what I’ll be teaching and see if it’s the work you’ve been looking for.
Yoga and Thai Yoga Massage have arrived in Austin, Round Rock and the vicinity.
https://www.robertgardnerwellness.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Robert-Gardner-Wellness-Header.png00Robert Gardnerhttps://www.robertgardnerwellness.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Robert-Gardner-Wellness-Header.pngRobert Gardner2011-04-17 15:12:002011-04-17 15:12:00Thai Yoga Massage pt. 2
Living in an area where this bodywork isn’t common I feel it’s necessary to work to educate massage therapists and the public on this healing path. I’ve been a massage therapist for 9 years and worked with Thai Yoga Massage for 7 or so of those years. Even after all this time the work is seen as an oddity to those who’ve never had anything else but a table massage.
I remember years ago doing a demo where I lived in Baton Rouge and people walked by looking at me as if this was the oddest thing they’d ever seen. In retrospect, how does one demonstrate…massage? To put it in context we’ll have to go to where Thai Massage originates, Thailand, in southeast Asia.
Thai massage in Thailand is the traditional healing method. It’s been practiced since time immemorial and it’s no different than going to a barber to get your haircut. Young, old, infirm and in between go and get work semiregularly and it’s integrated into the culture as a part of daily life. In Thailand it’s not really massage, it’s just what we do when we ache. Massage in our culture has roots in swedish and deep tissue massage primarily and is a western anatomical model of how bodywork is done. Thai massage has more roots in yoga and chinese medicine.
Thai massage is done in public. It’s not done behind a closed door where you can go to sleep in the near dark. It’s not uncommon to be in a public space, mats on the floor and have 10 mats with 10 clients each receiving the work from 10 therapists. One of the more famous places to go receive a Thai massage is in a buddhist temple from blind monks.
The history of Thai bodywork is influenced and hard to seperate from Buddhism and the practice of yoga. They’ve intertwined and influenced each other in myriad ways but as a practitioner one has to delve into these ideas and practices to understand how well they integrate. I started practicing yoga several months before I had my first Thai Yoga Massage and the work was so seamless it seemed like the exact same thing except one was active, the other passive.
After a single Thai Yoga Massage I decided to study everything the teacher taught without exception. This work was some of the most healing I’d ever experienced. Gravitating towards feeling good and healing my body I knew this would become key to my growth and healing.
So again, what is Thai Yoga Massage? Primarily it’s passive stretches, kneading and pressing on the body and musculature to help relieve tension and pain. Swedish and deep tissue massage is wonderful at treating muscles like a sponge, squeezing out blood flow and then allowing it to return so that muscles can heal rapidly. Thai Yoga Massage in contrast seems better at working with lengthening muscles and has more focus on ligaments, tendons and joints. After a Thai Yoga Massage one doesn’t typically want to go to sleep and there isn’t the lymphatic dump that happens after a swedish session.
After a swedish or deep tissue massage many clients report wanting to take a nap or go to sleep. A Thai Yoga Massage client usually stands up and says, “I feel great. I feel taller.” Then they can return to work, but their mind is clear and that clarity seeps out into their thought and work.
So, how does feeling unencumbered sound to you? Thai Yoga Massage is the best bodywork I’ve encountered and it changes peoples lives. I’ve been working for nine years. I’ve studied, learned, pressed, kneaded and done all in my power to help people and it’s all right here. Come experience the work, take a class for yourself. It’s time Thai Yoga Massage was common in Austin, Round Rock and in central Texas.
This video is by a wonderful teacher named Kira. She also studied with Asokananda as did my teacher.
