We hope this blog will arm you with valuable hand-care techniques to improve your massage therapy practice and protect your most vital tools—your hands.
Hand-Care Tip #1: Master Ambidextrous Techniques to Prevent Hand Strain
Massage school was fun and exciting while learning new strokes and how to apply them at the massage table. Until you stepped around to the other side of the table and tried to duplicate a stroke with your non-dominant hand! This can be awkward, to say the least. It’s not as easy as some experienced therapists make it look.
- Challenges of Using Non-Dominant Hands in Massage
That hand scooping under the front of the shoulder to lift while the working hand glides under the scapula comes a lot more naturally with the dominant hand. You may have many massage strokes that come to mind that are easier to accomplish with one hand than the other. For further guidance on hand care, check out Protect Your Money Makers: 5 Hand-Care Tips. - Identifying and Correcting Awkward Techniques
Getting good at working with both hands takes practice and is important in saving your hands throughout your massage career. - Become aware of the awkward parts of your massage as you move through a session.
Notice if your back twists a little to get the stroke correct or if your shoulders and neck tighten while performing a stroke with your non-dominant hand.
Improving Body Mechanics for Better Performance
Good body mechanics are essential for any massage therapist seeking longevity in their career. As you work in your massage room, notice the times when your body mechanics might need improvement. Perhaps you’ve noticed times during your sessions when your body mechanics could be improved. Maybe you can pinpoint a bad habit that’s compensated for the lack of coordination on the side of the table that feels awkward.
For instance, consider if your back twists a little to get the stroke correct or if your shoulders and neck tighten while performing a stroke with your non-dominant hand. Recognizing these “weaknesses” in your proper body mechanics will prevent injury down the road and make sure you can continue providing care without harming yourself. For further reading on this topic, explore The Fit MT: Body Mechanics for a Pain-Free Massage Career.
Enhancing Technique: Mastering Body Mechanics for Balanced Massage
First, notice the areas that don’t feel as strong or coordinated during your massage sessions. Next, bring awareness towards, “Have your body mechanics been compromised?” Finally, practice the weak spots with the correct use of your hands and body to make your massage stronger and avoid injury.
- Seamless Strokes: Ensuring Client Comfort
The client shouldn’t feel a difference between your strokes with the left or right hand. - Revisiting Massage School Techniques
Massage school was fun and exciting while learning new strokes and how to apply them at the massage table. Until you stepped around to the other side of the table and tried to duplicate a stroke with your non-dominant hand! This can be awkward, to say the least. It’s not as easy as some experienced therapists make it look. - The Dominant Hand Advantage
That hand scooping under the front of the shoulder to lift while the working hand glides under the scapula comes a lot more naturally with the dominant hand. You may have many massage strokes that come to mind that are easier to accomplish with one hand than the other. - Tips to Improve Ambidexterity in Massage Sessions
Getting good at working with both hands takes practice and is important in saving your hands throughout your massage career. - Identifying Inefficiencies in Technique
Become aware of the awkward parts of your massage as you move through a session. Notice if your back twists a little to get the stroke correct or if your shoulders and neck tighten while performing a stroke with your non-dominant hand. - Correcting Body Mechanics
Maybe you can pinpoint a bad habit that’s compensated for the lack of coordination on the side of the table that feels awkward. Finding these “weaknesses” in your body mechanics will prevent injury down the road. - Practice Makes Perfect
First, notice the areas that don’t feel as strong or coordinated during your massage sessions. Next, bring awareness towards, “Have your body mechanics been compromised?” Finally, practice the weak spots with the correct use of your hands and body to make your massage stronger and avoid injury.
The client shouldn’t feel a difference between your strokes with the left or right hand.
[Watch a free webinar featuring Angela Lehman speaking on “Best Body Mechanics” for massage therapists.]
Hand-Care Tip #2: Using Hands Sparingly and Exploring Alternatives
As massage therapists, we often assume we need to use our hands most of the time. However, there are effective alternatives that can reduce the strain on our hands and help prevent injuries. For example, massage balls can be a great tool in your arsenal. These can be used to apply deep, localized pressure without the same level of strain on your hands as traditional techniques. Gear Lab recommends The 5 Best Massage Balls.
As massage therapists, we assume we need to use our hands most of the time. Do we really need to use our hands as much as we do? If the same result could come from stretching and using forearms, let’s say, would you try it?
Identifying Techniques that Overuse Hands
Let’s look at what we absolutely need our hands for:
- We need our hands (fingertips) to assess tissue. There isn’t a better tool than fingers for assessment.
- We need our hands for petrissage. The scooping motion works best with the hypothenar eminence and part of the palm.
- Friction, when needing to be specific, is really only performed with fingers or thumbs. A broad tool like a knuckle or elbow isn’t specific enough for some tendons or adhesions.
For many other massage outcomes, tools like forearms, fists, elbows, and knuckles can effectively replace hand use. These tools are particularly useful for deep tissue massage, where significant pressure is required but may be strenuous on your hands.
For more tips on alleviating hand pain as a massage therapist, see 4 Rules for Alleviating Hand Pain as a Massage Therapist.
Alternatives to Hands for Effective Massage Strokes
Many massage therapists are in the habit of using effleurage with open hands to warm muscles for deeper work and transition strokes. This can also be accomplished with forearms.
What about compression or deep tissue strokes? While using pressure on the heel of the hand may be your first choice, an elbow (with practice) could be a close second and do the job just as nicely.
This doesn’t mean you can’t use your hands at all but begin to vary your tools and challenge yourself to use your hands less.
Hand-Care Tip #3: Prioritize Rest Days for Optimal Hand Recovery
As a massage therapist, engaging in repetitive movements can often lead to repetitive stress injuries. These injuries can occur from the consistent strain on your hands and upper extremities—common in our profession. Have you ever tackled a weekend project that left your hands tired, such as gardening or using power tools? This can exacerbate the fatigue, making you prone to injuries when you return to a full week of massage work.
What about hobbies and activities? Some massage therapists have hand-intensive hobbies like playing an instrument or knitting/sewing. Working a full massage schedule and then using your arms and hands repetitively on days off doesn’t provide any downtime for your money-makers to rejuvenate.
How Rest Benefits Long-Term Hand Health in Massage Therapy
This may seem like common sense, but you would be surprised to learn that many massage therapists don’t use days off as time to rest their hands. This is part of good self-care. Get two days, back-to-back, of rest, when possible, for the best chance your hands and joints will be revived and ready to tackle another week of clients.
Massage therapists are unique in the repetitive use of the upper extremities. This being the nature of the job means that the utmost care must be taken to mitigate the risk of injury and strain to the hands. The job is repetitive, but by working smarter, massage therapists can sustain a long and profitable career.
Hand-Care Tip #4: Essential Stretches for Massage Therapists
With all massage work in front of the body and below, massage therapists tend to become rounded forward at the shoulder with their body weight and a forward head posture becoming present. This posture, along with repetitive grasping motions by the hands, leaves the body screaming for opening stretches.
Any stretch that counteracts these forward/grasping movements and stress is golden for massage therapists’ self-care. Lots of opening the chest, extension of the wrists, and back are helpful, as well as opening the palms and individual fingers.
Simple Hand and Wrist Stretches to Try:
- Palms together, fingers flat, and wrists at 90 degrees to stretch is helpful for many muscle groups.
- Backbends or supported backbends, cat-cow in yoga, and cobra pose are all good examples of stretches to open the body at the end of a workday.
- Open the palm by hyperextending the wrist, one at a time, and then each finger. Taking time to stretch each digit back into hyperextension of the metacarpal phalangeal joint allows the hands a reprieve from the grasping movements massage requires.
Handshake: Shaking the hands back and forth quickly is a highly effective way to rejuvenate tired hands during the workday. Shaking invigorates the hands and brings blood flow to the area, giving new life and a tingling feeling to overworked hands and wrists.
[Download a free hand-pain report to see if you’re making common hand-use mistakes.]
Hand-Care Tip #5: Acute Pain Management for Massage Therapists
There comes a time in every massage therapist’s career when acute pain management becomes essential, especially for conditions like carpal tunnel syndrome, which are prevalent due to the nature of our work. Those days when hands are actively hurting require immediate action to prevent worsening symptoms.
Quick Relief Tips for Immediate Hand Pain:
- Ice massage is one easy-to-administer self-care option for hands. Ice massage is quick and easy if you aren’t a fan of the ice bath. Either is helpful when inflammation is present from overusing the hands.
- Ice bath – soak for 5-7 minutes to start.
- Paraffin soak/dip – hot wax will help increase the blood flow to the hands and relax the tissues. When acute pain is present, follow with ice massage to address the inflammation. Many therapists find that a warm-cold combo works best for pain reduction.
- Self-massage treats the tendons along the metacarpal bones, stopping to hold any tender spots. Some spots may be exquisitely tender, so take the time needed to release those and revisit for more self-massage the next day.
- Rest, some spots may be exquisitely tender, so take the time needed to release those and revisit them for more self-massage the next day.
Rest. You know you should. Massage therapists are dedicated go-getters who want to help as many people as possible. We can and do change people’s quality of life with our skills.
Prioritizing Self-Care: Your Hands Deserve It
We also tend to put ourselves under too much pressure to put ourselves last on the “care” list. Resting a body that’s asking for it should never be ignored. From experience, that “ask” will turn into a “scream” if ignored, and that’s no way to treat our most important business asset.
Take care of your hands. Those money makers are valuable and irreplaceable in what you do.
Devote the time to practicing all massage techniques and strokes with both hands, making sure good body mechanics are set from the floor to your hands. Then, challenge yourself to use your hands sparingly. It’s fun to try, and new ways to do things arise!
Rest those hands, and give them just the strength and self-care they need so they can serve you and your clients for years to come.
Conclusion: Maintaining Hand Health in Massage Therapy
We hope this blog has armed you with valuable hand-care techniques to improve your massage therapy practice and protect your most vital tools—your hands. Angela Lehman’s extensive experience and innovative approaches remind us that effective self-care is not only about technique but also about understanding and responding to our body’s needs.
As you integrate these hand-care tips, remember that maintaining your health is important for a long and rewarding career in massage therapy. For more insights and expert advice, be sure to check back on the last Thursday of every month to read new articles by Angela Lehman at The Fit MT. Her columns, enriched with her background in kinesiology and nutrition, provide a wealth of information on fitness and nutrition tailored specifically for massage therapists.
Don’t hesitate to reach out for more resources and support for your practice.
Visit our website at Massage Liability Insurance Group to learn more about our services, or contact us directly through our contact page. Whether you’re looking for insurance solutions for injuries or tips on hand care, we’re here to help you succeed and thrive in your massage therapy career.
About the Author
Angela Lehman is a massage therapist of 25 years turned online educator, promoting fitness and nutrition for massage therapists. She runs The Fit MT. With her kinesiology degree specialized in nutrition, she trains therapists in healthy eating, exercise and body mechanics to prolong their careers. Search massagemag.com to read her The Fit MT column on topics including body mechanics, gut health and more.