How do you get good at applying the right pressure with a massage T-bar?
Don’t press and hold the T-bar when you’re first working on an area. (I’ll explain why later).
Instead…
1. Find the area you want to work with your finger, knuckle or thumb.
2. Then press down with the T-bar to the depth of what was needed to find that area with your finger/thumb.
3. Next ease up on your pressure slightly.
4. Last step: Increase the pressure until it feels like the same pressure you would use to work the area with your finger or thumb (probably similar to your palpation depth).
This seems pretty straightforward, right?
But it’s slightly more complicated than that.
Here’s what I mean.
Grip Versus Hold
If you grip the T-bar like this…
…or if you grip any massage tool too tight or for too long the tool is going to hurt your hands.
Been there, done that.
Okay, but isn’t gripping going to give me fine-tune control of the T-bar, Mark?
Yes, but there’s another way to have great control over the T-bar without gripping.
It starts with a relaxed hold.
Relaxing your holding hand does two things.
- The more your T-bar-tool-holding hand is relaxed, the more it needs help from the other hand to keep the T-bar upright.
- Two hands supporting the T-bar together make it easier to hold the the T-bar without gripping.
Supporting the Massage T-bar with Two Hands
Here’s a picture of a relaxed hand hold with support from the non-holding hand.
If I look way comfortable here, it’s because I am.
See all the points of contact (fingers on back) that are supporting the T-bar?
That’s a really stable configuration.
The T-bar is not going anywhere and my hands can chill.
But where’s the control if I crank up the pressure?
Those fingers are going to have to tighten around the T-bar, right?
Not if I pin the T-bar between my hand and the tissue I’m working on.
Pinning the T-bar
How do I pin the T-bar?
I lean into it.
So, instead of pressing the T-bar using my shoulder and arm, I “balance” some of my body weight on the T-bar.
My body weight is doing the work.
How much I lean determines how much pressure I’m exerting.
Here’s what it looks like sitting:
I know, balancing on top of a little, wooden T-bar doesn’t seem so fine-tuned.
But it is once you get comfortable pinning the T-bar.
This should help you out with pinning and leaning:
Alright, let’s let’s go over this pressure trick one more time.
The Massage T-bar Pressure Trick
Don’t immediately press and hold an area with a T-bar.
Why?
Because you want to mimic your thumb with the T-bar.
To do that you need to establish different “feels”.
You need the palpating the trigger point feel (the deeper pressure).
And you need the lighter pressure feel.
Now you have the two end points to work in between.
Here are the finding-the-right-pressure steps:
1. Find the area you want to work with your finger, knuckle or thumb.
2. Then press down with the T-bar to the depth of what was needed to find that area with your finger/thumb.
3. Lighten your pressure a little.
4. Slowly increase the pressure (by leaning) until it feels spot on with the pressure you’d be pressing with your finger or thumb to work that area.
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