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Friday, August 29, 2008
Thai Massage: danger for the lower back
I know I am kind of stuck on Thai Massage right now, but I came across this one video clip and thought I need to share this with you.
I don't want to criticize the therapist in the video, but I want to add something to what I said yesterday.
The main problem that I have with Thai massage is that you have to be extremely cautious and sensitive to the client, because some of the Thai moves are not for everybody.
I will talk here mainly about the lower back.
The video starts with pushing your hands with upper body weight into the lower back. This doesn't make any sense. The normal curvature of the lower back is already a lordosis, which means it bends towards the front and this moves would just increase the lordotic pressure of the spine, which is not a smart move.
But let's put this into a broader contents. Usually the lower back muscles tend to be tight and short, while the ab muscles have a tendency to be weak and overstretched. You get in many people the typical forward tilt of the hip, which is one of the main indicators for this fact.
If I press now somewhat perpendicular into the lower back you increase not only the lordosis, but you also stretch the anterior (front) connecting muscles of the spine and further weakening them.
But this is not enough there a several more moves that put the person into a hyper-lordosis (extreme back-arch) with simultaneous pressure in the lower back area. Stay away from that. It can easily give somebody a back ache, who has never experienced such problems before.
These moves are only for the extremely flexible (not for the normal Joe Blow) and it is still questionable to me, what purpose they have, what is done to counteract these movements and how it supposedly help the spinal health.
Anyway I know that I'm not an expert on Thai massage matters, but as a licensed massage therapist and exercise physiologist I urge therapists to be responsible enough to say in a video, that this things should not be practiced at home, unless you know what you are doing.
Anyway you can make up your own mind about it now.
Back Thai Massage - The most amazing videos are a click away
Click here to see some really nice Thai massage videos
I don't want to criticize the therapist in the video, but I want to add something to what I said yesterday.
The main problem that I have with Thai massage is that you have to be extremely cautious and sensitive to the client, because some of the Thai moves are not for everybody.
I will talk here mainly about the lower back.
The video starts with pushing your hands with upper body weight into the lower back. This doesn't make any sense. The normal curvature of the lower back is already a lordosis, which means it bends towards the front and this moves would just increase the lordotic pressure of the spine, which is not a smart move.
But let's put this into a broader contents. Usually the lower back muscles tend to be tight and short, while the ab muscles have a tendency to be weak and overstretched. You get in many people the typical forward tilt of the hip, which is one of the main indicators for this fact.
If I press now somewhat perpendicular into the lower back you increase not only the lordosis, but you also stretch the anterior (front) connecting muscles of the spine and further weakening them.
But this is not enough there a several more moves that put the person into a hyper-lordosis (extreme back-arch) with simultaneous pressure in the lower back area. Stay away from that. It can easily give somebody a back ache, who has never experienced such problems before.
These moves are only for the extremely flexible (not for the normal Joe Blow) and it is still questionable to me, what purpose they have, what is done to counteract these movements and how it supposedly help the spinal health.
Anyway I know that I'm not an expert on Thai massage matters, but as a licensed massage therapist and exercise physiologist I urge therapists to be responsible enough to say in a video, that this things should not be practiced at home, unless you know what you are doing.
Anyway you can make up your own mind about it now.
Back Thai Massage - The most amazing videos are a click away
Click here to see some really nice Thai massage videos
Labels: thai massage video
Comments:
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I can tell you as a senior Thai massage teacher who has taught over 1,000 practitioners that this is not a dangerous technique if done with the sensitivity and control that one would expect from a professionally trained bodyworker in any modality. These things are not done in isolation, but as a choreographed sequence that involves many other techniques. You cannot pull a specific Thai bodywork technique from an hour or two hour sequence and dissect it without knowledge of how the entire treatment fits together. Flexion stretches are interwoven with sequences like this that work the back in a shortened position.
Low back pain may in fact be entirely the result of myofascial trigger point referral from the iliocostalis and other longitudinal back muscles, in which case compression and stretch will be required to resolve the pain, not to cause it.
My program is clinically-based and I have made intensive anatomy training a core part of the program. If you would like more info please see www.thaimassageschool.net.
Thanks,
Chuck Duff
President
ThaiBodywork.com
Low back pain may in fact be entirely the result of myofascial trigger point referral from the iliocostalis and other longitudinal back muscles, in which case compression and stretch will be required to resolve the pain, not to cause it.
My program is clinically-based and I have made intensive anatomy training a core part of the program. If you would like more info please see www.thaimassageschool.net.
Thanks,
Chuck Duff
President
ThaiBodywork.com
Chuck,
I'm glad that you commented on my post, and I totally respect your professional experience.
If what you are saying is true than I think that the moves should be put in context then, but they weren't.
Many massage videos on the net are watched by fly-by viewers. Sometimes people try to find ideas on what they could do on their partners, friends and family.
I mentioned that I didn't want to criticize the MT, but I have an obligation to warn people not to do that, if they are not well trained. I don't know why you have a problem with that.
You have one experience and I have a different one.
I am doing Yoga for many years and I have seen many people get hurt by partner yoga or even just a yoga teacher trying to increase a stretch in a posture (even though he might have been careful in his own view).
So no matter how much good you have to say about this technique, I'm not convinced that what I said is not true sometimes (and therefore contains a risk and that's why I brought this discussion up).
I personally don't think that neither the leg and foot are a sensitive enough tools to do these moves. Just my experience.
But I'm sure there are great Thai massage therapists.
If you would follow my posts regularly you would know that I also don't encourage people to do reflexology or lymph drainage just from watching a video.
You need to see my comments in context too, instead of being just defensive about it. I'm not trying to put down Thai massage (but maybe you never checked my website and posts), I just see it as my obligation to warn people and to tell them why I do it. That's all.
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I'm glad that you commented on my post, and I totally respect your professional experience.
If what you are saying is true than I think that the moves should be put in context then, but they weren't.
Many massage videos on the net are watched by fly-by viewers. Sometimes people try to find ideas on what they could do on their partners, friends and family.
I mentioned that I didn't want to criticize the MT, but I have an obligation to warn people not to do that, if they are not well trained. I don't know why you have a problem with that.
You have one experience and I have a different one.
I am doing Yoga for many years and I have seen many people get hurt by partner yoga or even just a yoga teacher trying to increase a stretch in a posture (even though he might have been careful in his own view).
So no matter how much good you have to say about this technique, I'm not convinced that what I said is not true sometimes (and therefore contains a risk and that's why I brought this discussion up).
I personally don't think that neither the leg and foot are a sensitive enough tools to do these moves. Just my experience.
But I'm sure there are great Thai massage therapists.
If you would follow my posts regularly you would know that I also don't encourage people to do reflexology or lymph drainage just from watching a video.
You need to see my comments in context too, instead of being just defensive about it. I'm not trying to put down Thai massage (but maybe you never checked my website and posts), I just see it as my obligation to warn people and to tell them why I do it. That's all.
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