Why would you want to do an 8 hour massage day?
Here are some damn good reasons.
Bills are due.
You’re trying to build a massage business.
You have a massage business but want to take it to the next level.
You need to double your annual income.
But isn’t that a recipe for burnout and injury, Mark?
If you did an 8 hour massage day every day, yes.
But if you’re using 8 hour massage days strategically, as part of a plan, then an 8 hour massage day once a month, once a week or even twice a week is not going to hurt you.
Why am I so confident that you can handle this without getting hurt?
Two words.
Massage tools.
Well, two words and a sentence: When you know how to hold a massage tool without hurting your hands, you can deliver light, medium or deep pressure (static or gliding) effortlessly.
Come on, Mark, effortlessly?
Yes, effortlessly.
But before I show you how to use a massage tool effortlessly, let’s lay down some ground rules for an 8 hour massage day.
8 Hour Massage Day Ground Rules
1. Be strategic about saving your body starting with the first massage of the day.
When you start your 8 hour massage day your fresh and you feel good.
So what happens during massages one and two of the day?
You press your thumbs into everything.
Don’t.
Use massage tools from the get-go so that you’re thumbs and other body parts don’t ache at the end of the day.
Here’s another example of being strategic. If you stood at every moment during a massage in an 8 hour massage day your legs would probably rebel somewhere around hour 4 and your form would get sloppy.
Preempt fatigue by resting your legs starting with the first massage of the day by leaning into the table or grabbing a seat on a stool whenever you can.
2. Stay fueled.
The time you make mental mistakes happens when your brain glucose is low.
And by mental mistake I don’t mean you don’t know if you’ve worked your client’s right quad and have to go back and check for oil residue.
I mean you stop getting in the best position to deliver pressure because you have no energy. Or you forget to use massage tools because your thinking is cloudy.
How do you solve brain glucose lows?
Eat complex carbohydrate snacks between clients.
I wrote this article for Spirituality & Health about the effects of low brain glucose and how to avoid it.
Okay, now we have the ground rules down for an 8 massage day. The next thing to do is to become competent with massage tools.
I’m going to give you the most practical primer I can.
Ready?
Massage Tool Primer
1. Hold a massage tool so that it doesn’t hurt your hand.
This is how I was taught to hold a T-bar in NMT school.
See how my finger tips are squeezing the end.
Can you guess what my fingers felt like at the end of the massage with a T-bar?
Exactly.
They felt like crap.
Here’s one way I hold the T-bar without gripping.
Fingers are relaxed and happy here, right?
In this article I show you the basics for holding without gripping.
Once you get the hold down, then you need to…
2. Press with a massage tool while leaning.
Why leaning?
Because it’s an efficient way to deliver pressure with minimal impact on your upper body.
Leaning is not difficult.
It just takes practice.
Here’s how you do that.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE9P3BOdxAM[/embedyt]
Now there’s only one more thing you need to be able to do:
3. Glide with a massage tool while leaning.
Gliding with a massage tool is essential to know if you want to incorporate massage tools into all aspects of your relaxation massage.
Again, it’s not hard to learn, but you do need to get your reps in.
Here’s how you glide with a massage tool.
Okay, let’s put this all together.
8 Hour Massage Day Playbook
Before you actually start the day have your physical and mental preparation done.
- Pack snacks to eat in between clients.
- Think about how you can save your body (rest body parts) when working.
Speaking of saving your body, don’t wait for massage #3 to break out the massage tools. Break out the massage tools at the very beginning of the day. Use them whenever you can.
To become competent with massage tools you need to learn how to (1) hold a massage tool, (2) press with a massage tool and (3) glide with a a massage tool.
Bam.
The 8 hour massage day is yours:-)
Want to learn more about massage tools and saving your body?
I have online, home-study CEU classes.
This one will get you competent with using a massage tool: How to Use a Massage Tool (Fearlessly and Effectively), 2.5 CEU.
Also, to get my latest weekly information, sign up below.
It’s free:-)
