Efficient body mechanics are crucial both to the quality of the therapeutic care and the longevity of our massage therapy careers. Unfortunately, some therapists work hard rather than smart, sometimes resulting in career-ending injuries.
This course offers 10 guidelines designed to create healthy body mechanics when giving massage. These guidelines show how to maximize the efficiency by showing how to harness the laws of physics, rather than working against them.
Note: Massage therapists are advised to practice these techniques prior to utilizing them in a clinical setting. While efficient body mechanics should be the goal of all massage therapists, this course stresses deep tissue work because efficient body mechanics are so critical to it. While not the only appropriate technique for massage therapy, injuries and stress are more obvious when poor body mechanics are used with deep tissue work.
This course offers 10 guidelines on how to use equipment and supplies, positioning your body and how to perform massage therapy in a manner that maximizes efficient delivery and minimizes stress on your body. While useful for all massage therapists, these techniques are essential when performing deep tissue work. When you finish this course you will be able to:
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Define the roles of body mechanics in massage therapy.
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Describe how the delivery of force in massage therapy is affected by gravity, table height and lubricant.
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Compare the advantages and disadvantages of the stoop bend and the squat bend in massage therapy.
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Describe how foot positions and trunk orientation of the massage therapist affect the strength of delivery in massage therapy.
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Describe how delivery in massage therapy is affected by upper extremity joint alignment.
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Describe how stress in the therapist’s body is affected by head and neck postures.
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Describe how the therapist’s use of larger muscles and a larger contact area improves the delivery of massage therapy.
Dr. Joe Muscolino is a licensed chiropractic physician and has been an instructor of musculoskeletal and visceral anatomy, physiology, kinesiology and pathology courses for more than 20 years. Dr. Muscolino runs numerous advanced study workshops, including deep tissue workshops, kinesiology seminars, cadaver labs and in-services for instructors of massage therapy. He is an NCBTMB approved provider.
All photographs in this course: Yanik Chauvin
Course Expiration
Please note that you must complete each AMTA online learning course and pass the exam one year from the date of purchase. If you do not complete the course and pass the exam within one year, you will be required to re-purchase the course.
Online courses expire one year from the date of purchase. When a course expires, you will no longer have access to the course materials and will be required to re-purchase the course.
Course Approval Code(s)
MSP #179; LCEU0001652
Copyright
This course contains information that is proprietary. None of the material contained within this course may be used without the express written permission
of AMTA unless otherwise indicated in the course. As a reminder, before practicing any new modalities or techniques, check with your state’s massage therapy
regulatory authority to ensure they are within the state’s defined scope of practice for massage therapy.
Refunds
Online courses are non-refundable. AMTA will not cover fees incurred from duplicate payments, insufficient funds, stopped payments or credit/debit cards over
credit limits.