James Boelter
02-13-2004, 03:45 PM
I really don't mean that. The client in question was followed by a cool, casual fellow who was very laid back and pleasant, and only needed to lose about 10 lbs to win a 'Body For Life' contest, and he was a pleasure to work on and with...so I guess I really mean 'bad bodybuilders'.
We get a fair number of weight lifters, body builders and PL types at our school, as there is a Gold's Gym only 8 blocks away. I've been working with an obsessive/compulsive type who obviously hits the iron in a big way (no one ever looked like this unless they spent a lot of time on the Iron Pile). He comes once a week, sore and aching, and looking for a student intern to relieve some of the soreness. I always get the call, since I am the biggest and heaviest student in the school at this time and am infamous for the amount of penetration and pressure I can generate using my bodyweight, breathing, and bony fingertips (I have virtually no fleshy 'pads' where most people have them).
So this guy comes in, lies down, and the table creaks and sags as he settles on it; since he hurts all over and everywhere, the question is always priorities, and we usually spend most of the time on his legs and glutes. I enjoy a good challenge, and an excuse to deviate from the typical 'by the numbers' cookie cutter massages we normally perform (it's a good, well-conceived and well-structured routine, but after 6 months, well, change is good) so I can practice deep tissue and sports massage techniques I've seen in Art Higgs' and Benny Vaughn's videos. So everything is cool. Elbows and forearms and knuckles and cross-friction and snow-plowing the tissues...it's actually somewhat easier than performing a typical Swedish massage routine (I still suck at petrissage on the back, for instance).
So here's the kicker - a while back, the client started complaining of pain and ache in and around his inguinal crease (what the Chinese would call the 'kwa'), and starts pestering me to spend all my time on that area. I do work on the area some, of course, but I can't work too hard or too deeply due to all the ligaments, lymph nodes, nerve plexis and blood vessels down there; I try to explain to him that a) too much of a good thing is not necessarily a good thing and b) I need to loosen up the all of his lower body or else he will go right back to hurting as soon as he starts walking again and c) his real problem is that he is stiffer than a plank and hard as a brick - I can't get his heel within 3 feet of his butt during a passive quad stretch, and his psoas are probably in spasm.
It's like talking to a wall.
And this time he told me
"I know my body and I know what I need. Please do as I request and really dig into that area HARD, as hard as you can, and I will be fine!"
Dude, if you knew your body, you'd know that the problem is rarely where the pain is...bodywork is not a band-aid! If you knew your body, you'd at least perform relaxation and stretching drills to loosen the area up a bit and let the trigger areas get some fresh blood in there. If you knew your body, and what you need, you'd know that the muscles around there need to balance out and have some 'give' to them. I can't 'fix' you if you just go right back to what you were doing wrong and do it some more.
This is the third 1 hour session where we've gone around and around about this. I've about had it. Am I justified in asking for someone else to waste their time on him??
We get a fair number of weight lifters, body builders and PL types at our school, as there is a Gold's Gym only 8 blocks away. I've been working with an obsessive/compulsive type who obviously hits the iron in a big way (no one ever looked like this unless they spent a lot of time on the Iron Pile). He comes once a week, sore and aching, and looking for a student intern to relieve some of the soreness. I always get the call, since I am the biggest and heaviest student in the school at this time and am infamous for the amount of penetration and pressure I can generate using my bodyweight, breathing, and bony fingertips (I have virtually no fleshy 'pads' where most people have them).
So this guy comes in, lies down, and the table creaks and sags as he settles on it; since he hurts all over and everywhere, the question is always priorities, and we usually spend most of the time on his legs and glutes. I enjoy a good challenge, and an excuse to deviate from the typical 'by the numbers' cookie cutter massages we normally perform (it's a good, well-conceived and well-structured routine, but after 6 months, well, change is good) so I can practice deep tissue and sports massage techniques I've seen in Art Higgs' and Benny Vaughn's videos. So everything is cool. Elbows and forearms and knuckles and cross-friction and snow-plowing the tissues...it's actually somewhat easier than performing a typical Swedish massage routine (I still suck at petrissage on the back, for instance).
So here's the kicker - a while back, the client started complaining of pain and ache in and around his inguinal crease (what the Chinese would call the 'kwa'), and starts pestering me to spend all my time on that area. I do work on the area some, of course, but I can't work too hard or too deeply due to all the ligaments, lymph nodes, nerve plexis and blood vessels down there; I try to explain to him that a) too much of a good thing is not necessarily a good thing and b) I need to loosen up the all of his lower body or else he will go right back to hurting as soon as he starts walking again and c) his real problem is that he is stiffer than a plank and hard as a brick - I can't get his heel within 3 feet of his butt during a passive quad stretch, and his psoas are probably in spasm.
It's like talking to a wall.
And this time he told me
"I know my body and I know what I need. Please do as I request and really dig into that area HARD, as hard as you can, and I will be fine!"
Dude, if you knew your body, you'd know that the problem is rarely where the pain is...bodywork is not a band-aid! If you knew your body, you'd at least perform relaxation and stretching drills to loosen the area up a bit and let the trigger areas get some fresh blood in there. If you knew your body, and what you need, you'd know that the muscles around there need to balance out and have some 'give' to them. I can't 'fix' you if you just go right back to what you were doing wrong and do it some more.
This is the third 1 hour session where we've gone around and around about this. I've about had it. Am I justified in asking for someone else to waste their time on him??