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Healing Power of Deep Self Massage Continued
Whenever I have massaged the neck and shoulders of children, even
very young children, I have been amazed to encounter many of the same
little lumps and strands I find in myself and other adults, only less
pronounced. I have not massaged babies, but I doubt very much that we
are born with these spasms.
I have a more immediate and personal reason, however, for believing in
the theory of muscular armor. Many years ago, in the course of therapy
with a Reichian therapist, after several months of intensive bodywork
which included a lot of deep tissue massage during which I was
encouraged to yell out the pain, I had a sudden and totally unexpected
upwelling of deep sobbing and grief over an episode in my early
childhood—an episode I had not even thought about for years. As this
happened I could feel how all those stiff and sore places in my
shoulders, abdomen, and face were participating in the convulsions of
sobbing. And the bodywork had clearly done it! No amount of talking,
thinking, or even psychedelic experience had ever unlocked that place
within me. Since then I have continued to dissolve armor and release my
inner child, and deep self-massage has played a vital role in this
process.
The muscular armor is a pattern of muscle spasms which gradually
develop in the course of the child’s continual effort largely
unconscious—to master their urges and emotions in the face of societal
pressures and personal suffering. It is a monument to self-restraint,
to holding back. But what may have been necessary in childhood often
becomes stifling or crippling in adulthood. Posture and physical
structure become distorted, leading to further problems. Current
emotional stress is piled on top of the unrecognized emotional burdens,
unresolved conflicts, and character patterns of the inner child. New
layers of tension collect around the core muscle spasms of the past.
Accidents traumatize already tense and fragile tissues; injuries are
exaggerated and healing is retarded.
I’m presenting these ideas here because I think it is good for people
to hear them, but more particularly because it underscores my
conviction that deep tissue massage is a healing technique of major
importance. Few people may want to go so far as to deal with the
muscular armor of the inner child, where I believe the ultimate release
from tension is to be found, but at the very least regular deep massage
keeps a body from ossifying and can play a very significant role in
relieving stress, healing and even preventing injuries, and promoting a
more vital well-being. When you give your patients deep massage and
then show them how to give it to themselves, you are giving them a fine
gift indeed, a lifelong gift that will make your work go much farther.
(Back to Top)
I tell people that the basic principle of any sort of deep pressure
massage is to hold the pressure steady at a level you can accept, then
gradually increase the pressure as the tense tissues get used to it and
begin to give in. Never force it, let the tissues call out for more. If
a particular spot just continues to feel unpleasant, hang out with it
at a level you can accept. Just be there with the feeling. Try a little
slow movement of that part of your body as you maintain the pressure.
Breathe into it. Try giving your muscles a voice; complain or make
whatever sounds express the feeling in that muscle. More often than not
spots that start out feeling unpleasant become more pleasurable as they
begin to accept the pressure. Numb spots begin to come to life. There
may be little tremors or sensations of warmth or energy—all signs of
release. The hard knot may perceptibly soften, or may seem to shift.
You can follow it, letting the pressed skin slide over the underlying
muscles; it may lead you along a whole path you had not anticipated.
Sliding can be facilitated by use of lubrication or cloth over the
skin. When you’ve finished with one area, release the pressure and move
on. (Back to Top)
After an area has been well worked out, I suggest moving it
around and stretching it; see how it feels now. Massage of the torso
may open up your breathing; let your breathing expand, and enjoy it. If
people say they don’t know where to massage or how long to do it, I
encourage them to explore around and follow their feelings, find their
own "Aha!" spots. Self-massage helps you learn to listen to your body.
You don't always need an expert to tell you A, B, C.
This is what I tell people. But of course you as the expert can tell
them whatever fits your particular healing discipline, whether it
involves sliding strokes, cross-fiber work, or specific pressure
points. In any case the actual experience of your treatment, your
touch, will be the greatest teacher.
Let’s take a look now at the massage tools I would recommend for deep
self-massage. Nowadays of course the stores are replete with massage
gadgets that are little more than novelty items or toys. They may give
some superficial pleasure at first, but will do little or nothing for
the deep muscle spasms that really need attention. Among the serious
massage tools, although some are very versatile, no single one is
perfect for everything. Each has its sphere of excellence, its reason
for being. Let’s start by considering the small, hand-held massage
tools, beginning with one of my own:
The Knobble®,
which looks somewhat like a wooden doorknob with a rounded wooden
shaft, is a dual-use massage tool. You can use it manually on yourself
or others—it is very comfortable in your hand and can be used with a
variety of grips—and you can lie on it or place it behind you in a
chair to do your back, buttocks, hamstrings, and other hard-to-reach
areas. The Knobble, then, is an ultra-portable all-purpose massage
tool. It has been around since 1981 and I’m delighted at the wide
acceptance it has received among bodyworkers of all kinds. (Back to Top)
The Indexknobber®,
is molded in plastic and feels very good in your hand. It is basically
a "pistol grip" tool, in which the massage knob-tipped "barrel" slants
down along your pointed index finger and thumb. The knob and the butt
of the handle can be employed in a variety of other grips also, and you
can turn the tool around and get a sort of "brass knuckle" effect over
your fingers. Like the Knobble, the Indexknobber is often used by
bodyworkers to save their hands when working on tough spots, and can
likewise be used for self-massage. The Indexknobber puts your hand and
wrist in different alignments than the Knobble, and changing back and
forth from one to the other in long massage sessions could be restful.
Unlike the Knobble, you cannot do your own back with the Indexknobber.
The Jacknobber®
looks like a large jack (as in the game of "jacks") with four knobby
ends of two different sizes. Like the Knobble, the Jacknobber can be
used hand-held or as a lie-down massage tool. The new plastic version
is smoothly curved and comfortable to hold, and comes in some beautiful
translucent jewel-like colors. The Jacknobber’s appeal seems to be more
popular than professional, but it is never the less an ingenious tool
capable of serious work.
The Hand-L® looks rather like a wavy stick, with a comfortable
hand-grip in the middle and two slightly different rounded massage tips
projecting out from your hand at either end. Like the preceding tools,
the Hand-L can be employed with a variety of grips which use your hand
and wrist muscles in different ways, and the massage tips hook around
at an angle, which can give you a good "angle of attack" for certain
applications. The Hand-L is made of stoneware clay, and is strictly for
manual use. (Back to Top)
Let's look now at a couple of massage tools designed specifically to
lie on or place under various hard to reach parts of your body so that
gravity supplies the pressure, with no need for exertion:
The Ma Roller® is the grandmother of serious lie-down massage tools.
There are two versions: the Mini-Ma, which looks rather like a wooden
dumbell, and the regular Ma, which has large extensions off the sides
that serve no purpose I can understand. There are many variations of
this design around, since the Ma’s patent has long elapsed, and it
still holds up as an admirable invention. It has the advantage that you
can roll from spot to spot, rather than having to release the pressure.
This advantage diminishes greatly in bed, however, since you have to
"roll" toward the head or the foot of the bed to shift spots, while in
a chair you cannot roll at all. The Roller sinks down into the mattress
or upholstery, which is okay if you want less pressure but frustrating
if you want more.
It is also too blunt to do much for your neck. For these reasons I invented
The Diskin®, a wooden tool consisting of a 7 inch circular platform
with two large spherical massage knobs. The platform provides stability
even on a soft (and comfortable) surface such as a bed, armchair, or
car seat, while being gentle on your upholstery. You can grab it with
one hand and place it wherever you want, so it is easy to use at times
like the middle of the night when you can’t sleep or on long car trips
when your back, buttocks, or hamstrings are bothering you. The
simplicity of this massage tool belies its great usefulness.
Another useful class of massage tools is the cane-style massagers, such as
The Backnobber® and The Theracane®, and the Body Back Buddy™. These are
like large-curved walking canes you can hook over your shoulder or
around under your armpit to work on your trapezius, rhomboids, and
other hard-to-reach trouble spots. The current version of the Backnobber – produced like the other two "knobbers" by The Pressure Positive Company
– is S-shaped and detachable into two sections for traveling or
storage; while the Theracane is cane-shaped with a couple of projecting
handles and two extra massage "nubs" for extra grip and technical
possibilities. The Body Back Buddy is sort of a hybrid, S-shaped like a
huge Backknobber but with two projecting handles and seven extra
massage knobs and nubs like a burgeoning Theracane. All three tools are
plastic. (Back to Top)
Cane-style massage tools are very convenient to use and have a wide
reach. They do, however, require arm exertion, and if your shoulders
demand a lot of pressure this can be strenuous and not so relaxing. One
way to solve this problem is to pass a loop of rope or webbing, or a
large belt around your thighs as you sit in a chair, and hook it on to
the bottom end of the cane massager, thus in effect securing the tool
to your thighs.
There is another, more unusual class of massage tools, which I would
refer to as "nutcracker-action." As far as I know there are only two.
Before these appeared, I used to tie two baseball bats together at the
ends and use them like a nutcracker to massage my outer thighs. This
device was limited in its applications, and at times I idly wondered
how the concept could be expanded and refined. So I was fascinated when
for the first time I saw The Acumasseur®, a plastic "nutcracker-action"
massage tool consisting of two long handles connected at one end by a
short plastic strap serving as the pivot. Each handle has a single golf
ball-like massage knob, and the knobs are set facing each other a short
distance up from the pivot. The knobs are screwed into either of two
threaded holes, which provides some slight adjustability. At first this
device seemed promising. But the non-adjustable pivot strap posed a
severe limitation: you could work on your neck very well, you could do
your calves to some extent, and you could do a rather weak pinch on
your trapezius, but that was about it. How could you devise a more
adjustable nutcracker-action tool?
A further question haunted me: could this type of tool be designed in
such a way as to double as a lie-down massage tool? You would have the
long handles projecting out to the side where you could grasp them for
easy repositioning of the massage knobs, rather like Knobbles attached
to a handle. But how could you get the knobs to face upward for this
purpose, when they needed to face each other for manual use? I mused
over these questions off and on for several years. At a certain point I
decided to really focus on this invention, and what finally emerged was
The Batando®, a fully adjustable combination nutcracker-action and
lie-down massage tool. It consists of two cylindrical wooden handles
with a hole bored through the axis.
A stout rope passes through these holes, connecting the two handles and
acting as the pivot. The rope is stopped by a knot at the end of one
handle, and by a rope lock at the end of the other handle. The rope
lock is a small wooden ball with two parallel holes through which the
rope is looped; you can easily pull the rope in either direction
through the rope lock to change the effective length of the rope at the
pivot area between the handles, but under tension the rope lock jams
and "locks" the rope. Two massage knobs set 90° apart project from each
handle near the pivot end. Since you can rotate the handles, the knobs
are free to face each other for manual use or face upward for lie-down.
You can choose to face one knob up or both—either way they will not
fall over as you put your weight on them. (Back to Top)
All this may sound complicated, but actually the Batando is
quite easy to use. Manually, utilizing the great leverage, you can do
deep work on your neck, scalenes, trapezius, iliac and false rib area,
arms, and legs. A pull on the rope lock adjusts the length of the
pivot: short for the neck and long for the trapezius and waist. When
lying on the Batando or placing it behind you in a chair you’ve got two
massage knobs on each side of your back—or one knob if you so rotate
the handle—which can be positioned up or down, closer or farther from
the spine (unlike rigid tools like the Ma Roller or Diskin), using the
convenient long handles.
The Batando may even adjust vertebrae. There are various devices on the
market sold as foot massagers. Some consist of parallel rows of little
balls rotating on rods held in a framework, rather like an abacus.
These may be pleasurable but they are not deep massage tools. Others
are rollers, such as the original Footsie Roller®. These generally
sport rather sharp ridges touted as acupressure-point stimulators. This
claim seems to me to be spurious. Acupressure and acupuncture involve
precise stimulation of precise points in a certain order depending on
what particular healing purpose you are trying to accomplish, not just
a "scatter gun" approach. But some people find the ridges satisfying. I
personally prefer to press my feet on the smooth, round knobs of the
Diskin, or on rubber balls; and if you really want to do specific
points the Knobble or one of the other hand-held tools would be better.
(Back to Top)
Speaking of rubber balls, these can be quite useful. They come
in a variety of consistencies, from softer ones like squash, handball,
tennis, and various toy balls, to harder ones like lacrosse balls. You
can lie on them and roll around, or – especially with the firmer balls
– even use them manually to some extent. Then there’s the widely used
"tennis balls in a sock" idea, which of course could be used with any
balls, depending on the consistency you prefer. The disadvantage of
this method is that it is a bit floppier and harder to control than a
solid tool.
The balls in a sock idea has been elaborated in an interesting way by another massage tool:
The Utemoto Massager consists of a single rubber ball snugly encased in
a 3 foot long tube of stretchy fabric; the ends of the tube are looped
so that you can insert your hands or forearms and manipulate the ball
by pulling it against various parts of your body or holding it in place
as you press against the wall or lie on the floor. The ball is a bit
soft for deep tissue work, and indeed the Utemoto is especially
designed for use by people with injuries who cannot stand too much
pressure.
It should be noted that massage tools made of hard material can always
be softened by padding them with a folded towel or other material. You
can also use them on a soft surface where they will sink down, or you
can place a cushion under your body to raise it up a bit in relation to
the massage tool. Conversely, if you want more pressure or need greater
"reach," as for example getting up into the hollow of the lumbar area,
you can raise the massage tool on top of a cushion or folded towel.
There’s always a way to set things up to suit your needs!
Once you are set up in the most relaxed and comfortable way, I would
like to re-emphasize that the important thing is to apply pressure
gently, holding it steady at a level that feels acceptable, and
increase the pressure gradually as the spot on which you are working
gets used to the pressure, gives in, and feels like it wants more
pressure. That’s one of the great virtues of self-massage: you are in
control, you can apply the exact amount of pressure you want at each
instant. You can also do it whenever you feel like it, on the spur of
the moment, and linger on a favorite spot as long as you like without
fear of tiring anyone out. What about the fancy electric vibrating
massagers? In my opinion they may have a nice relaxing effect on some
people, but I don’t believe they will really get in there and work out
the deep spasms. The same with the expensive motorized chairs with the
moving "thumbs." When it comes to dealing with the deeper stuff, I say
simple—and inexpensive—is beautiful!
Biography: Richard Hoff is a Reichian practitioner, inventor, and
inveterate self-massager. His patented inventions include the Knobble®
and two later massage tools--the Diskin® and the Batando®. Richard
lives and works in near Occidental, California. (Back to Top)
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