Full Body Massage Compilation from 3 Licensed Therapists, Best Massage Techniques for Stress Relief

Hi, I'm Lucinda. I'm a licensed massage therapist. Today I'm going to be doing some upper chest, arm, and hand work on our lovely model Savannah today. So we're going to start with opening up her chest and just stripping out the scalenes and the pec muscle here. So the scalenes run across both the above the collarbone and below it. So the work I'm going to be doing today is great to do on people who are on the computers all day long. Pushing that little mouse, oh my goodness, it makes their pecs so tight. So we're going to relieve that. I'm going to show you a couple of tricks to help prevent carpal tunnel. And we're going to go in and release the scapula as well as the antagonistic muscle to your pecs and scalenes. So to get in to release that scapula, we're going to just do some rotations here. My fingers are in a hook position. I am digging underneath and around her shoulder blade to really get that to loosen up. And a lot of people will have a little popping or clicking just to release their, these muscles because yeah, they're not used to being stretched. And from here, we're just going to give it a nice release through all of it down to the hand, all the way up to the neck. So we're just going to strip out the flexors and extensors, get everything nice and warmed up. And so a lot of people get tight right through this area here. To help get rid of that, I'm going to have her do an active release with me. So go ahead and twist your arm in Savannah. There we go. And she can start to feel all those tendons releasing. They kind of get all bundled up together. And to release the ulnar nerve, I'm going to have her do little scoops with her pinky here. Yep. That's a good job. And we're going to snap each finger at the bottom just to have her energy stay with her. And this little spot is actually a trigger point that releases the entire body. So if you're ever stressed, you can always just squeeze on here unless you're pregnant. And a little trick to do to prevent carpal tunnel, I'm going to pull back one finger at a time and she's going to open and shut. Go ahead and open and shut three times. And we're really going to free up the joint, just doing this little range of motion move here. You can also work the shoulder. And that is what we have for the chest, arm and hand today. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to Psyche Truth. My name is Abby and I'm going to be working on Lauren today. We're going to address the feet and the front of the shins all the way up to about mid femur. OK, so we're going to start by simply palpating, squeezing and gently waking up the area and pull and create some traction in the hips and the knees and the ankles. But really, I like to start out the massage with gentler strokes as we wake up this area and get it ready for any work we're going to do, especially if you know you're going to get some dense, deeper work. And it helps the pain threshold to warm up the neurotransmitters, the nerve endings and get the brain prepared. I'm going to start on the left leg for purposes of viewing, and I'm just going to feel into these calf muscles. Everyone's calves form a little different, but most of them are tight. You can definitely feel the tension. It can be sensitive. Calves can be very sensitive for people. So make sure you're checking in with your client or whoever you're working on. But there is a muscular or a muscle right here, lining the bone. It goes right down into that ankle bone. It can be dense. It definitely is nice to trace that with a little pressure. I'm going to get into the front of her shin. These muscles can be really overdeveloped and tight. With the shoes that we wear, we don't get a lot of spring back up into the foot. So we tend to use this muscle to lift the toes when we walk, which causes it to hypertonify and create adhesions to all those little muscles in there. I actually find for most of my clients that working from about here to here can shift the hip pretty much more than anywhere else. So right now I'm feeling a lot of tension in the bones in her feet. There's not a lot of movement from here to here. So as I apply a good amount of pressure to her arch, I'm also looking for a corresponding tight muscle in the foot. I'm kind of like pinching them together. Not too much, not too little. It can create a lot of relief, but it can also be a very intense, potent feeling. Try to ride the line, but like the muscle in the front of the shin, the top of the foot can also be overused, tense, and because of that, tighten up and take away a lot of mobility in the tarsals of the foot. These little bones are meant to move in order to absorb shock and compression and walking. So if they do not move, every time you step, it will collapse into that pressure. It will tighten further. So it's nice to get a ball into the arch of the foot, to practice flexing and curling your toes regularly. Even ankle circles can be really helpful in creating more mobility in your feet. When your feet are more mobile, you're supported. It's like having a trampoline underneath you. I also find that once you work on the feet, sometimes the calves will start to relax or the tension in the calf will become much more prominent. You'll notice where the scar tissue is or where the pattern really is working the hardest. So right now I'm using just a little compression into the hip joint as I try to bring these tarsals back into a place, back into the right place. And this is going to translate all the way up the line because every time I twist her foot, her whole leg shifts by a nice bit of pressure here, trying to get to that soleus without overwhelming her. At this time, I'd love to shout out to our Patreons, David K., David J., and Paul Schockner. Thanks for being so loyal, you guys. I'm going to get a little bit farther up and work on the hind hip. So there's a nice placement right underneath the back of the knee where your fingertips can kind of gently come in and support. It's an extremely supportive feeling to have hands behind the backs of your knees. So this on its own can help calm the nervous system. If you have a client who is having, you know, a really tense response or they're fighting you when you're trying to get deep, it might be that their nervous system is in the wrong space. So providing comforting, supportive holds for them can open their brain up, allow them to relax. I mean, you can get deeper without them fighting you or becoming really rigid. But I am feeling a lot of tension right here on the outside of the ankle. So I'm going to do this again. I'm actually finding the tension in her arch right at the top and pressing down as I'm trying to get this plate on the bottom of her foot to slide back more underneath. At the same time, I'm going to squeeze this tissue and this muscle attachment. Right behind the ankle bone, not too much because it can be uncomfortable. The arch. A little bit of palpation of the back so that her brain can take in all the information and start to find more. All right, so now we're back to behind the knee. So I'm going to look at how the tension behind her calf affects the angle of the patella and how the femur is laying. Usually these bones, right, they're circles and there's one of them. So they twist and they turn and they angle just ever so much, but it usually requires a spiral. So she's got a lot of tension right here on this external part of her gastrocnemius. So I'm going to go in there with some pressure and try and follow that tension. You can kind of see how the tension back here could be pulling this knee and angling it the way it is, right? So I'm going to meet the angle and I'm going to come right up into these adductors, medial hamstrings, super tight. So this is tight, which is causing this to rotate in, but this is tight, so it's causing the bottom to rotate out. And that is exactly the kind of contradiction that creates lower back pain, that creates hip pain. So we have to address two of these issues here. We've got tension, one fight around the inner thigh, and one fight around the outer calf. So I'm applying pressure to both, not a lot because I know that that inner thigh, we haven't done a lot of work there. So it's really just like a nice supportive hold. And I'm going to go in deeper with my other hand, trying to find a culprit in the calf because I can see that these two areas are connected and they are affecting how she connects and activates this movement path of muscular connection. So I'm really coming in right at the bottom of the soleus, just above the Achilles. There's a lot of tension in there. And some of these medial muscles of the calf have somewhat glued together. So we need to create pressure and try and get that tissue to settle. Going to curl her toes around my thumb, curl, curl. And again, curl your toes. So now we're back at the ankle. I still feel tension here, but it's a different part of the calf that's revealed itself. And it really, I'm going to show you on this foot, it comes from the heel and it tightens all the way up to that tight spot right on the medial side of the knee, just on the left leg. So what's happening is we're kind of releasing the contradiction over here, but we're getting to a big part of the culprit. And the culprit is a tight line from the arch, from the calf, up and into the adductor. And because of that, we know that there might need to be some more strength on the medial connection, the medial line of the body, more adductor work, and definitely some arch articulation. Tarsals into a place where they're more aligned and then give her a little movement so that her brain realizes where we're trying to head. Is it too tough? But it will show you where she has problems connecting, and that'll tell you about the muscles. Because of the way feet articulate and move and the way they're connected to the rest of your body, I can begin to open up and prepare her hip for my work through her foot without even touching it. Because every time I twist, the knee goes and the hip goes with me. So feet are extremely powerful. Hands are extremely powerful. They allow you to find angles that can make way for a more creative solution. It might be out of your box, but it's from a bigger perspective. All right. So now we can see the knee has lined up and we've got some work to do, but ultimately we've gotten more alignment in the solar leg. And that concludes our massage for this video. So anytime that I'm doing a face and scalp massage, I like to do something as gentle as possible. And something that can be really great for the nervous system is just cupping the ears to start. Really encouraging your client to focus their attention or energy on themself and just focus inward a little bit. And you don't need to linger super long. So without losing contact, I'm going to cut my hand even more, making sure that I'm giving Ashley's eyes plenty of space. And I'm just going to cup her eye. It doesn't have to be completely dark. Just really helping these senses to calm down and be sure that you're not blocking the nostrils as well. Anytime that I make a movement at the beginning, just try to do it slowly. And sometimes it can feel really good to just do a few passes. No hurries here. Making sure that my hands are not touching Ashley's eyelashes. Enjoy. And just these still little holds can help anchor Ashley into the present moment and really start to just enjoy being able to relax on the table. Starting in with the scalp and I'm just making sure that I'm not pulling on Ashley's hair. I'm actually just scrunching her hair up a little bit. I'm going to do little circles. I'm anchoring each of my hands with my thumbs. It's just a soft pressing against the scalp. So then offer a nice firm touch. This is really great. You're helping the nervous system to calm down. More focused on the nerves on the scalp than the soft tissue right now. I like to just really take my time with each portion of the massage. If you feel your fingers start to snag on some hair, you can always just take a minute and I like to spend a good bit of time on these temples, focusing on the soft tissue and encouraging my client to just relax their tongue and let their jaw be really soft. I like to wrap my two fingers around each ear and you can just throw in a few little pauses here and there, just anchoring your client. This is an extra nurturing move if you want to include it. Some people love having their ears worked on, other people not much. You can do just little circles and just a little more scalp for both sides before I turn the head, trying to reach a little bit more of the scalp. Before you do a lot of scalp on someone, especially if it's in the middle of the day and they're coming from work, you want to make sure that they're okay with messy hair and also their makeup being moved around a lot. Just doing little circles, trying to reach the entirety of the scalp. And if you are someone that is really curious about just doing scalp massage for fun or no idea what you're doing, don't worry, it's all going to feel amazing. It's a pretty fail-proof area to work, just so long as you're not pulling the hair. I can't help but be a little bit technically minded even when I'm giving a relaxed scalp massage. I like to do a little bit for the suboccipitals in a very gentle way. So I'm just going to follow that hairline and walk along the occipital ridge, just offering a little bit of pressure, enough to relieve some tension on the head, making sure that the head is supported as I work. And I'm going to do some really relaxed strokes across the occipitalis. Any work that you do combining the occipitalis and the frontalis of the head is going to be incredibly good for the nervous system, just helping someone to feel less stressed. Working the soft tissue on the head, and the whole time just making sure that Ashley's head is supported, making any adjustments I need to as I move around. I'm moving my chair position as I need to so that I can stay comfortable. I'm just gently turning the head and we're going to do the left side. And don't worry if you, you know, had kind of a methodical approach to what you did on one side and you can't remember exactly what you did, don't worry. I'd say just work organically and pay attention to how things feel more than getting in your head about it. And this is a lot easier if you allow your wrists, your forearms to rest on the table. Trying to do all this with floating hands would be really difficult. You don't really have to offer a lot of pressure with your opposite hand, just enough support so that your client can really relax, have to hold their head in place. You can do more back and forth motions if you want to kind of do a broader stroke as well. I tend to default to little circles but this can feel really great as well. And don't be afraid to turn the head a little more if you want to, but if you notice that your client's growing their brow or lifting their shoulder a little, their neck might be a little snaggy, just be careful. And with these compressive circles along the occipital ridge, I'm being a little firm but pretty gentle. And also, you know, don't be hesitant if you forget a step on the side, like I did the occipitalis. If you kind of find yourself up here, don't be afraid to just, you know, go back and complete that step or you can skip it, up to you. And before moving on to the face, I'm going to just do some scalp for both sides of the head. I'm going to start crossing over this hairline, working my way just slowly onto the forehead. And when in doubt, just go to the temples and very subtle compressive circles here can feel amazing. This is kind of a fun place to get a combining different techniques. You'll notice that anytime that I kind of transition to a different part of the scalper face, I walk my hands usually so that I'm not losing contact. And I'm just going to trace these eyebrows and finishing with a luxurious stroke across the temples. This area of the face is extremely sensitive, so it's going to really impact the sinuses. So you can press, but not too hard right underneath those eyebrows. I'm going to trace the eyebrows underneath, finishing across the temples. And again, just make sure that you're not upsetting someone that has eyebrow makeup on, like communicating beforehand. Facial massage is okay. One more time underneath, just holding. And I'm going to just make sure that I'm following the lines of the face. So don't, you know, it's important to curb your fingers as you need to. And I want to stay away from Ashley's eyes. I don't want her to feel uncomfortable as I work. The temples are a great reference point whenever you're finishing these kinds of strokes, working the soft tissue on the face. This is actually really great work for people that struggle with allergies. And then just wrap around these lips and underneath the cheekbones. And this is also great for anti-aging, natural collagen production of the skin. And before I finish with the face, I do like to include some work for the masseter muscles, the chewing muscles of the jaw. And it's been a really relaxed massage. I don't want to go in with anything too uncomfortable, keeping it pretty gentle here. Nice to go underneath the shin, the chin. This is really great for the thyroid as well. And just be fairly gentle. And you can just find however way you'd like to finish. I like to just backtrack my way up the face. And I'd like to say before we finish this massage, if you have any special requests, please let me know down below, and I would love to make a video for you. And just as gracefully as possible, kind of working my way back up towards the scalp and finishing how we started, some nice relaxed strokes. And that is all for today. Welcome to Yoga Plus. Courses available from pupil to yogi. Sort by yoga, fitness, and instructors. Create your own routines. Access the Pose Library. Yoga Plus by Psyche Truth. Available on Google Play and the App Store. Join us for 14 and 30 day programs, hour long classes, and much more on our yoga app, Yoga Plus by Psyche Truth. It's free to download and features a variety of wellness content, including yoga, fitness, Pilates, guided meditations, and interviews with dozens of wellness experts.