Wouldn’t you love to have a professional massage therapist right there in the room with you showing you and your partner how to give an incredible massage at home AND giving you lots of tips and trade secrets?

Getting a massage from a professional massage therapist might be the very thing you need because they have been trained to work on your muscles, but they may not be available when you need them. For example, at 11:00 pm when you have an awful kink in your neck from working at the computer all evening, you ask your partner to rub your neck, but they don’t really know how, or their hands are simply too weak to get the job done.

Taking care of yourself is more important than ever. Stress affects your health. Watch this fun video that explains what happens to your brain when under too much stress: VIDEO: The Effects of STRESS

Here are a few tips to get you started.

TIP 1: YOUR WONDERFUL HANDS

Do you have raggedy talons and sandpaper palms? Since the person you’re massaging has their eyes closed and are at the mercy of your hands, make sure your skin is soft and your nails are trimmed short and filed smooth. You can make your hands much softer with the following technique: put some salt and olive oil in the palm of your dry hand and rub your palms together for a full minute. Then rinse with water till all the salt is gone. This makes your hands super soft and yummy.

TIP 2: FOCUS

When you give the massage, your ONLY focus is going to be on getting your partner to relax. This is about showing them that they are important to you. This can’t happen if you’re in a hurry. You need to be really committed to spending some time here. Don’t think about laundry, dishes, paperwork, kids, Facebook updates, Instagram, yada yada yada. Take this valuable time to invest in your relationship.

TIP 3: MUSIC

For total relaxation I recommend music that has no vocals. Music with vocals makes it hard not to listen to the words and that, in turn, makes it hard to completely relax. You want them to get lost in your touch and drift down Happy Lane to Destressville! Play something that is very slow and without a strong beat. Allow the person getting the massage to choose what they like. Hopefully you can decide on something you both like.

TIP 4: GO DEEP

One of the complaints I hear from my clients when they try to massage at home is that their hands are not strong enough. The SPABALL® Massager and golf ball will help you apply more pressure to those tight muscles, if that’s what your partner wants. They will be happy that they can have the deep pressure they need, and you will be happy that it’s not as much work as it used to be.

I invented this tool because I wanted a way to push the golf ball deeply into muscles but also disperse the pressure of the hard golf ball in my palm. Furthermore, it needed to be small enough to allow my hands to continue to glide on my client’s skin. Use it all over their whole body. It feels surprisingly wonderful. Win win win!

Side note: My clients often ask me “What is a knot in a muscle?” This quick video will explain: VIDEO: What is a knot in a muscle?

TIP 5: ONE AT A TIME

If you both want a massage, avoid doing both in one evening. Chose one evening to focus on your partner’s massage, and a different evening for you. This prevents the ol’ “I massaged you for five minutes and now it’s my turn” type of situation. Plus, it helps you focus.

“The most desired gift of love is not diamonds or roses or chocolate. It is focused attention”. – Rick Warren

TIP 6: LOTION OR OIL?

I prefer massage lotion instead of oil. I only say this because oil can be hard to wash out of sheets and can actually make your sheets smell rancid after a while. If you have special sheets just for massage, and prefer oil, then go for it. Coconut or jojoba oil is really nice if you prefer oil. Choose actual massage lotion, not hand lotion. Hand lotion absorbs into the skin and dries up quickly. It gets sticky and loses its slipperiness, which becomes annoying to the person being massaged, since their skin will experience friction.

TIP 7: GO SLOOOOOOW

I can’t stress enough that when you are massaging, take your time. If you think you are massaging slowly already, go just a little slower. When you move your hands slowly it communicates that you are not in a rush. It feels, to the person getting massaged, absolutely wonderful. If your partner is really stressed out, and their mind is going a mile a minute, your unhurried hands will start to slow their racing mind down. The human touch, especially from someone who loves you, is down-right therapeutic.

FYI, Even though massage can be very therapeutic, make sure it is medically safe to massage your partner. Have them check with their doctor. Some conditions are worsened by massage. A few contraindications include fever, inflammation, high blood pressure, infectious diseases, hernia, osteoporosis, varicose veins, broken bones, skin problems, and some cancers.

WANT TO LEARN MORE?

I have recently released a “Learn To Massage Yourself At Home” kit that contains the SPABALL Massager, a golf ball, a 45-min training DVD, massage techniques & trigger point guide, and a velour travel pouch. I’m very excited about this because it’s all the info I teach my private clients in one kit. The SPABALL Massager is the same tool used by therapists worldwide, so it’s the real deal.

You will learn …

  • how to give a relaxing therapeutic massage.
  • how to set up your bed at home for comfortable and effective massages.
  • how to use the SPABALL Massager to apply more pressure in tight muscles with less effort.
  • benefits of cooperative massage from psychologist Christopher Burr, PhD.
  • tricks that massage therapists use to relieve stubborn muscle knots through “trigger points.”
  • how to give a massage without hurting your back.
  • tips that will put your partner in an extremely relaxed state.
  • self-massage tips that address the most common muscle issues.

VIDEO: About the SPABALL MASSAGE KIT

To purchase visit: spaball.com/shop

Please contact me with any questions or comments. I would be delighted to hear from you.

Heather Karr, LMT

 

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