Deep Tissue Massage - Back

Kenya Bailey: Hi, this is Kenya Bailey and I am going to be showing you today how to do a deep tissue on someone's back. We are going to start with the cervical area, down to thoracic area, down to the lumbar area and those are the beginning of the back, the top, the middle and the lower back. Now we are ready to apply the oil. From here, I have pretty much removed the person's draping or pushed the draping down, so I am going to have full exposure to the back.

Here, I'll put the oil on my hands and go all the way starting from the top of the back, all the way down to the lower back. This stroke -- this move here is to pretty much apply the oil for the gliding of the strokes that I am about to perform. You want to make sure the person is nice and lubricated. So -- and the reason for this is so they want for the friction of your skin to their skin and that will make the stroke a lot more beneficial and won't be irritating to the person's skin.

Once the oil is applied all over the person's back with deep pressure, I like to actually start with my elbow. The more you position your body, the better the pressure will be. You have to always remember that all the power is coming from your lower body. So you pretty much just use your elbow to move that muscle. Go in the middle, make sure you do not touch the person's spine. So you have to go up, around the scapula which is the shoulder blade, going down. It's one of the arm strokes that we do to the tissue. From here, I'll just go from the cervical area to the thoracic area, down.

Here, this is just another way of a stroke called Efflorage, but it's a deep breath efflorage. It is going into the person's body. This stroke is friction and that, the deeper, the better. You always have to ask the person is their pain tolerance. "How are you doing?" It's very important to keep communication with your client. This move right here is friction -- a cross-fiber friction actually helps the person and moves the muscle and helps break up the lesions. You come back around a scapula to the trapezius and push down. Reapplying the friction and the Petrasage pretty much together. You want to keep in mind that you want to also go to the other side of the body of this, because you don't want the person's body to be uneven. Then what we do is we usually take the person's arm and stretch. From there, I insist the person to put their arm behind their back and go under the shoulder blade. That's where you people usually tend to hold a lot of their knots. So you are feeling around for that, then I'll move my arm, my lower arm over the person's shoulder blade and go down, putting my arm over their shoulder blade, pushing it like a friction, move the person's arm out of the way.

So that's how you do the deep tissue massage on the back. Now I am going to go ahead and show you deep tissue massage on the arms.