When I asked Merrill Lund about which of his massage tools to try, I was a bit surprised when one of the tools that he sent me was the Effleurage T-Bar.
For one, I already had a lot of effleurage tools on me, like my hands, knuckles, fists and forearms.
So, why would I need another?
Secondly, here’s what the Effleurage T-Bar looks like:
Not the friendliest looking massage tool you’ve ever seen, right?
But from a functional design standpoint, this tool is balanced and feels good in my hands. (Hands is not a typo. The Effleurage T-Bar is a two-handed tool in my book. More about that later.)
The Pluses
Here’s what else I like about the Effleurage T-Bar:
(1) It’s a great alternative to using palms, fists and forearms when doing effleurage strokes.
I believe in changing things up whenever possible in order to spread out the workload. This tool gives my fists (my main effleurage body part) a break.
(2) It’s a solid massage tool when working the lower back, hamstrings, quadriceps and IT band.
If you hold the tool with two hands and use your body weight to generate pressure, the Effleurage T-bar is really easy to use on back and leg muscles.
(3) It can be a broad and precise effleurage tool at the same time.
By pressing with more pressure on one edge of the tool you can focus your effleurage stroke on a particular area of the body with ease, which makes this tool effective and easy to use on feet, too.
The Challenges
Here are some challenges with the tool (but didn’t prevent me from buying it).
(1) The tool can look intimidating to clients.
Solution: I don’t keep the Effleurage T-Bar in a place where clients can see it.
(2) It’s heavy.
Solution: Use two hands to hold the tool and that will offset the heaviness.
I show you how I do that in the video below.
Here are the types of clients I use the Effluerage T-Bar on:
(1) Body part clients, like runners, cyclists and triathletes.
I especially like this tool when I’m working lower quads and along the IT band/vastus lateralis overlap.
(2) Full body massage clients who have leg issues and/or lower back issues.
This tool works well when effleuraging the lower back of average to large sized clients. When working in the lower back of thin clients, I’d rather glide with my hands or a small massage tool.
Bottom line for me: The Effleurage T-Bar is one of the tools that I use in my effleurage rotation (hands, knuckles, fists and a variety of other hand-held massage tools) for body-parts work and/or focus work (especially back and legs) during a general massage.
Below I demo how I use The Effleurage T-Bar on quads. You can purchase the Effleurage T-Bar from Career Extenders here.
Massage Tools Online Class
If you want to save your hands by being able to use massage tools in your massage, then this is the class for you: How to Use Massage Tools (Fearlessly and Effectively), 2.5 CEU (NCBTMB-approved), online, home-study course.
If you know something about massage tools and want to brand yourself as a focused pressure massage therapist, then check out this course: Advanced Massage Tools, 2.5 CES (NCBTMB-approved), online, home-study course.
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