Massaging Techniques: Lower Back

Video Transcript

"Have you ever had a sore lower back? Well, I can show you how to help massage it away and ease the pain. I'm Sundae with Natural Sundae. Now, if you have a sore back, what you want to do; if your client has a sore back actually, what you want to have them do is lie on the table, and you definitely want your bolster underneath her legs cause' it's really going to provide support for that sore lower back. Then, a nice way to start the massage is just gently rocking. It really, it reduces any stress, or if someone is holding, a lot of people have trouble relaxing. This can help them relax all their tissues. So, just relax. Put their hand, put your hand on their sacrum; it'll help warm up the area, and just gently rock them. Now, what you want to do is a apply a little bit of oil, or cream, or lotion; whichever kind you prefer, and just start with your basic effleurage, which is French for gliding. It's just a nice gliding stroke, and it's a great way to get your clients to relax. Use your thumbs. You can go from the top of the neck, top of the spine on each side of the spine; all the way down the back. One more pass. You can do down the shoulders, down the back with your thumbs on each side of the spine. Now, a great technique for re relaxing the lower back and easing away the stress is to use your... From your palm; transfer the movement to your forearm and go all the way down by the glutes and the sacrum, and the sacrum is located right there. It's at the bottom of the back, and it's a triangle right here. So, use your palm, transfer the movement to your forearm, and go all the way down. You can even use your elbow a little bit. And then, you want to come up to the top of the back, and you want to repeat this one more time. You can actually do some raking with alternate hands. This is a really nice way to relax that muscle. Then, what you can do is you can use alternate circular motions. Dig under that waistline just a little bit with circular motions, just like that. You're really digging in; lifting at that tissue, digging in and lifting at that tissue, and that is a great way to relax a sore back. And of course, you want to repeat it on the other side just like that. And then, you want to make sure you tell your client to be very careful after a massage. They need to get up; taking proper care that they don't hurt their back. Since they're going to be really relaxed it's very important that they get up off the table properly, which would be getting up on their side first, and then sitting up. I'm Sundae with Natural Sundae."