I have heard so many massage therapists telling me that they don’t have quite enough strength in their hands to work on certain individuals. I have found improving grip or hand strength allows you to work harder and deeper with less effort.
Of course, when doing deep tissue work, you do need to put your whole body into it, especially when working on the back and legs. But having stronger hands will enable the therapist to work out trigger points and locked up areas far more effectively.
Its usually female therapist who say “they don’t have the strength in their hands” when doing deep tissue work on very muscular, tight individuals. Female or not, having more strength in your hands will make things easier and more effective.
There are only a few muscles in the hand. Hand movement mainly comes from the muscles in the forearms. Therefore, to improve your grip strength you need to work on strengthening the muscles in your forearms.
Below is an anatomy picture of the forearm (right arm) and all the muscles that control the hand and fingers.
Right side palm up Right palm down
Strengthening these muscles with a few basic grip exercises will make a big difference in your therapy. If you have and neck, back and wrist problems please think twice about using these exercises. I do them my-self and found them highly effective.
Just think by doing these types of exercises think how much easier it will be when doing deep, compression type techniques on clients and / or friends.
Once your forearms begin to get stronger you should see a big difference in your ability, as professional therapist or even someone who does it as a hobby for friends.
Here are a few videos of me working on client. It does help having strong hands!
Hope this helps and best of luck!
Joe
Get more clients in your massage business and keep them coming back
I am impressed. This is a fantastic article. You obviously know what your subject matter! I studied it with great interest and look forward to the next updates. I have grabbed the rss feed to stay up to date of any further updates.
Neck Pain Jacksonville
[Reply]