Therapeutic Full Leg Massage for Tired Legs & Circulation Boost | For Deep Relaxation

[Music] hello welcome today I'm going to be doing a full leg 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 [Music] so I'm going to go ahead and move Sophia's arms so that I'm not running into them and one of the best ways that you can start work on the hamstrings especially is to work on the glutes so I'm going to work on just this glute max and keep it very simple and I'm going to start by just some firm compressive holds and this is a great way for Sophia to just settle into greater body awareness and settle into the [Music] table just doing longer holds of anything [Music] i don't find that I'm able to really do much work in the glute max unless I'm using a pin and stretch technique or something to just really isolate the muscle tissue a little more but because it's the beginning of the massage I'm taking it nice and easy and just stretching out the soft tissue on a scale of 1 to 10 like for this to be about a three or four definitely don't want it to be more than [Music] that but you do need to offer some amount of firmness to really be able to stretch that [Music] tissue be slightly [Music] uncomfortable not spending a whole lot of time here i just always feel like I'm missing something important if I skip the glutes and am hamstring focused holding the leg like this you're in kind of the perfect position with these hamstring muscles shortened we can do a really nice warm up down the leg as well just a really nice flow [Music] i'm always after the massages that I offer i want them to be fun to give and enjoyable to receive and just feeling like I'm in flow kind of does the trick [Music] usually and that's about it for that glute max so I'm going to go ahead and just start to do some compressive holds down the hamstring muscles and it really helps for to be in this position so the hamstrings are shortened and it's going to be a lot more gentle to work this way especially if you're working on someone that just worked out are really sore this is a good way to [Music] start so as I go from shorten to long I'm going to start at the bottom and I'm going to start to just lengthen these muscles and Just stretching this muscle fiber a little more and just encouraging your client to stay connected to their breath and what you're doing you know if your client is totally tuned out the massage is going to be a lot less effective you can just walk your way [Music] down again once you reach the [Music] top and I'm going to just land on these calf muscles [Music] really important that you land on both heads of the gastromus muscle get that full release into the Achilles and the heel and I am sinking my thumbs into that connective tissue that begins about here and turns into that Achilles tendon and this kind of work is definitely pretty delicate it's a lot easier on someone that really likes deep tissue but it's harder to do sometimes if you're working on someone that doesn't need it or want [Music] it it's really important to just cater to what your client needs and I'm going to go ahead and grab my oil grabbing just enough so I don't have to keep getting more and just remember that the leg is very long so it takes a second or two to really find your flow usually just offering a really light touch in the beginning as you get that oil on the leg really helps so if you try to just you know press your hands in without the oil being on the skin you're going to feel really choppy in your effage technique one little trick that I use as I'll just cut my hand slightly as I work my way up the leg so that I have more control over where the oil goes once that oil is on there I might just walk my hands this is also fine if you feel more comfortable just walking the hands up the leg if you don't really like the longer stroke some combination of both [Music] i try to always include the IT band and the connective tissue around it when I'm doing this kind of leg [Music] work and I'm just going to land with these soft fists if you're working on a smaller person you might just want to transition to one hand [Music] you can even walk your fists so that you're not losing [Music] contact and I am just warming up the soft tissue here [Music] [Music] at this point we might be ready for a little bit more my favorite way to transition into deeper work is how we did the warm up so you just kind of shorten that muscle and just gradually [Music] you know offer a little bit more when you get to the top you can bring that leg back up it's kind of funny how on days where you're having a hard time it takes like hand eye coordination to do this sometimes sometimes those signals get crossed but today's a good day just going from short to [Music] long and at this point you might be picking up on some adhesions just pockets of tissue that have collected within the muscle fiber and you can actually if you want you can hold on those spots shorten and lengthen it's a pretty gentle way to work through some of that congestion [Music] i'm going to do just one more pass of the leg with the muscles shortened to start it's easier to locate the adhesions when the muscle is long [Music] [Music] and I find it to be a little bit awkward to use a soft fist up the IT band here i will use the heel of my hand but you don't want to go overboard with that angle of the wrist it can really hurt the your wrist so just paying attention to my own body and stepping down towards Sophia's feet or less of an angle in my wrist as I work on this IT band usually when a therapist says "I'm going to work on your IT band," they are referring to the tissue around it it's the most helpful spot to work on if you want to create a little more space freedom of movement and I'm going to transition into the lower leg [Music] i love using the petetro technique on the lower [Music] leg it's also a chance to sometimes you're bending over quite a bit when you're working on the hamstrings and whatnot so it feels nice to just stand up a little taller for a [Music] minute and you can offer a more therapeutic approach by just grabbing and lifting a little bit more but you feel like your client's a little uncomfortable just slow down a little bit that can help you to tune in a little more [Music] [Music] i really love this technique for the gastrochemius because you can offer nice even pressure to both heads and sides of it working towards Sophia's [Music] feet you want to work on that solius as well and I will land on the Achilles that tendon just work my way up [Music] it can feel really good to for your right hand to land on that foot just to stretch that Achilles out a little bit you don't want to overdo it you can also use your forearm like offer a little more [Music] pressure if you want to use a distraction technique you can kind of rock your way up the leg feel really nice [Music] and I like to kind of go back and forth between different techniques a little more pet before finishing the [Music] [Music] massage and I really like to end with just a few epher [Music] strokes and that is all for today thank you so much for joining me today if you like today's video you should check out our Patreon page where you'll find some really great exclusive content i look forward to seeing you there [Music] [Music]