Did you sleep wrong 😫 Massage Therapy for Neck Pain Relief, Sore Muscles, Deep Tissue Upper Body

[Music] hello welcome today I'm going to be doing a neck and chest massage for the lovely Sophia let's go ahead and get started if you don't have time to watch this video right now go ahead and save to your watch later and just watch whenever you get a chance i'm going to go ahead and grab my oil and definitely want to make sure that I'm not using too little or too much oil today sophia is someone that prefers kind of a more medium touch so go ahead and just place my hands to start and you always want to make sure when you're working on a more sensitive area that your client's comfortable with that and this can be really grounding for your client and yourself just place hands and I'm going to start just moving diagonally across these pec muscles and without losing contact I'm just walking my hands back up starting at the sternum at that attachment site if you're a more deep tissue focused therapist it can be um a challenge to sometimes practice restraint and not go too deep for the clients that don't you know really need it or want it as deep just feeling for any adhesions any pockets of tissue that need to be stretched out and worked through patience is the name of the game when you're working on an area like this where the adhesions can be really small you don't have a lot of surface area to work with and doing deep tissue work with the fingers is always just harder not deep tissue even just more like precise type work [Music] when in doubt when you're working on this area move closer to the sternum towards that attachment when in doubt when you're working on this area just move closer to the sternum towards that attachment site and if you get some good technique going in here that release can travel all the way down the pec major muscle and just working at a diagonal here a technique that can be really effective if your client wants deep tissue is to work from the side of the table and work with your elbow it's actually easier for someone that likes more medium pressure this is perfect and I'm going to go ahead and work more locally i'm going to land on this left side with my left hand not losing contact and I'm just going to support my left hand start working with a little more precision here it can feel really good to pass over that shoulder [Music] joint and just pay attention to your client's body language if they're starting to lift their shoulders if they're starting to furrow their brow you're probably going too deep and it can actually be just uncomfortable for your client to say something if especially if it's their first time getting a massage or working with you and it's totally quiet so it's really good to just pick up on body language nonverbal cues and to keep the communication open too you don't want to be blabbing your client's ear off but you want them to feel comfortable enough to talk to you if they need to if you're new to this kind of work and you feel like you're not sure what you're doing just using a broader surface area can be really helpful because all of this is going to feel pretty good to most [Music] people as you start to get a better sense of what you're doing you can start to work out some of those adhesions that you find with a little more precision i'm just going to be doing this left side today for filming [Music] purposes and again it can feel really nice to just glide over that shoulder joint [Music] and before I transition into the neck I like to do something for both sides and I'm just going to start to swoop my hands around the shoulders and into the neck dragging this oil onto the neck so being pretty um moderate with the amount of oil that I'm using go ahead and relax your head just encouraging your client to really let their head feel heavy let their jaw relax [Music] and I might need to grab a little bit more oil sometimes I'll just grab some for my forearms if I grab too much from the beginning and just a really easy way that you can um kind of pace yourself with the amount of pressure you're offering is just add a little more oil which makes it naturally more difficult to go very deep but you don't want to soak your you know drench your client in oil they don't want to feel gross when they leave and right now I'm just gliding over this upper trap as it narrows into the neck really focusing on that muscle to start you typically don't want your finger joints to bend that way but I kind of make an exception here and I'm just keeping that awareness of my own body so that I'm not hurting myself as I work and I'm going to start focusing a little bit more on the sub oipital area i'm feeling for any swelling any imbalances from left to [Music] right you could honestly spend like 10 minutes doing this and it would feel really nice to your [Music] client i am going to glide over that SEM muscle and just same thing i'm feeling for imbalances from side to side and feeling for any swelling working the soft tissue very gently but it's hard to work on the SEM without turning the head and working on it from an angle be very awkward in this position but sometimes you know people have very limited mobility in their neck it hurts to turn their neck so you have to have some good techniques up your sleeve that you can use when you need them and I'm going to go ahead and just hold Sophia's hand of head with my hands and I'm going to do little circular movements across this occipital ridge and just reminding myself you know that Sophia doesn't need deep tissue today i'm just using amount of pressure that she's happy with especially on a really sensitive area like this it's really easy to go too deep too fast too deep in general and honestly sometimes the more subtle work can be the most helpful and the most effective [Music] you can really encourage your client to just relax their jaw their tongue as you're working this kind of work can be a lot more effective and [Music] healing at this point I might start to just hold on areas that feel more contracted that need a little more attention and making sure that my shoulders are nice and relaxed they [Music] work at this point I'm going to go ahead and just turn Sophia's head a little bit and I'm going to um shift the angle I'm working from just working on this right side and for filming purposes just doing this right side [Music] today using all of my finger pad to make it feel a little more soothing [Music] and I'm going to kind of settle into this upper trap again and just start coming in from a different angle and just slowing way down if this feels uncomfortable because of the angle of the fingers you can always use a soft fist this actually feels a lot better again just reminding myself to not use too much pressure [Music] and transitioning into the scaling muscles and this sem just working the soft tissue today [Music] just bringing a lot of mindfulness and care but not too much pressure [Music] this arage technique feels so good on the scan muscles one of my favorite ways to work on muscles it's a very gentle way to work on this as well and landing on the sub [Music] oipitals at this point I'm just kind of deciding okay there's IA need a little bit more in any area before we finish up and just a little bit more on that SEM going from on a scale of 1 to 10 from 2 to four maybe this is a muscle that can um you know the muscle tissue can easily become damaged if you try to work it too aggressively um so it's just important to really take your time and the goal is you know to add to the health and wellness of the muscle tissue not to damage it i don't typically do a lot of trigger point work if somebody doesn't want deeper work kind of keep things moving more a whole lot of sustained holds i like to just wrap things up by focusing on that upper trap [Music] make sure it's nice and relaxed and I'm going to go ahead and just turn Sophia's head and we're going to finish with something for both sides just some nice slow e strokes and that is all for today 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