hello miss entrepreneurs today i'm going to be bringing you abdominal massage i did a survey
on instagram and i was really surprised at the response i asked about how many people include
abdominal massage in the routine and how many don't and the responses were great i thank you
guys for that however i did learn a lot i learned that the majority don't they ask the client
so today i really want to talk about some of the best benefits of abdominal massage i'm going to
uh talk to you about how to approach clients how it affects the nervous system the lymphatic system
the muscular system and the digestive system so i want you to keep in mind that we're not one-sided
you know somebody mentioned that the front is you know connected to the back which it is we all know
that weak abdominal sometimes causes you low back pain so if your abdominals are weak
it can also refer into the back another thing that we must you know understand that's very important
is that the lymphatic system we have a lot of lymph nodes in our abdominal area so it absorbs
it helps to push the lymph back into our diet into our cardiovascular system and don't forget
the pairs patches are in the small intestine so you have an effect on that with breathing too you
know the diaphragm is you know a muscle right here along the uh costals right underneath the ribcage
so we also can affect that that's very important because we affect the nervous system
breathing is so important for relaxation cranial nerve number 10
the vagus nerve comes out from in front of your ears and it wraps around your heart
your lungs and your stomach that is a parasympathetic nerve which means rest
and digest so we affect that too we can stimulate the vagus nerve then you get your client to relax
we also um work on so many muscles the rectus abdominus the internal obliques
the we kind of you know work on the diaphragm we can work on the intercostals people that have been
coughing especially nowadays you know with uh with the winter season with a cold and the flu
it uh they cough in it their intercostals hurt so it's very important for you to work these muscles
out we can affect the ql you know i'm going to show you some techniques on how to work
you know all the way from the ql back the psoas the lats the serratus anterior my favorite muscle
so we do affect the muscular system those are just the benefits right there that i'm giving you not
even counting the digestive system so now let's talk about the digestive system let's talk about
how it helps with bloating with digestion with people that are constipated i'm going
to show you a couple of techniques to help people that are constipated and also you know
just to show you why it's so important for you to incorporate it into your massage
i know that you know for all the years that i've been teaching i teach it as part of the routine
a lot of the comments that were left in the instagram said well i asked my client
if they want me to do abdominal massage and this is how i would like to introduce to you
you know maybe this is how you can approach it because this is how i've taught it you make it
part of your routine from the first day that your client comes in when your client comes in you've
done the medical history you've talked to them and you give them a rundown use takes you one minute
to say i'm going to be working your head your neck your shoulders your arms your legs your back and
your abdomen it's part of the routine if you ask them like would you like for me to give you an
abdominal massage then they're going to say well why are they asking me for that they didn't ask me
for my to they didn't need my permission to massage the legs they didn't need my permission
you know so it you make it kind of weird it gets kind of weird when you ask the client permission
to work the abdominals if you just incorporate it it'll be part of it from day one because it
is just a body part it's an important body part especially if you explain to them and teach them
why it's important now if they tell you you know what i don't want you to work my abdomen today
that's a different story they might even tell you uh you know what my low back i've got some issues
i really don't think that you know you should work on it give the client the option to tell you
no after you've given them the whole body run down on day one
it's so important like i said you address so many so many issues with it so
i'm going to show you another thing that i want to talk about is the draping you know the female
you automatically drape them and males don't ask them would you like to be for me to drape you
because that that's that again that's kind of strange males do not usually like to be draped
they're you know they're going to be exposed down to their waist and that's okay and also you must
have the legs relaxed so it's best if they put their feet flat on the table or with a big enough
pillow where the abdominals are relaxed i've seen massages abdominal massage where the legs are flat
you do not want to do that because you want to make sure and relax the abdominals so you can get
to the large intestine so let's get to it i'll show you some techniques right now okay so now
i'm going to show you some of the first techniques as you can see we drew miriam did an amazing job
as usual we've got the liver right here on the right upper quadrant the stomach and these are
some of the obliques and we've got the ascending transverse and descending colon and then the
small intestine is in the middle of that so i'm going to show you the first thing you want to do
is introduce your hands gently you don't want to start working right away so you might want to just
warm up your hands a little bit and put it at the at the level of their navel and just hold it there
and maybe do just a little bit of like waves right there just gently start getting stuff moving there
i'm going to show you the very basic technique that's called the sun and the moon i'm sure all
of you learned that in school and that is where you just go around in a circle
and you're standing on the you know right at the table in a horse stance facing
opposite so this is the sun moon technique all you're doing is in a gentle introducing touch to
your clients especially if they're in pain they've had pain so you want to just do the sun and moon
circular clockwise motion and let me explain to you why because you've got your ascending colon
your transverse colon and your descending colon people that are constipated you usually feel it
on their left side which is the descending colon you might be able to feel little tightness or
bumps along the way so be careful so far we're just doing the sun and moon circular motion
and if somebody is you know they tell you they have been constipated then you might want to
just do this technique where you take two fingers and you may hold right underneath the rib cage
and with two fingers just kind of drag two inch at a time an inch or two inches at a time
down and this will really get the large intestine the descending colon like i said
when people are constipated they usually feel it on the left side and you can
feel it too so just very gently all the way down an inch or two inches at a time just gliding down
and on this side you would go up two inches or one inch at a time just
and then transverse
and you you still take the two fingers and you might only do circles little circles
all the way around and remember it's always in a clockwork clockwise motion
you've got the gallbladder right here this green one right here this is your gallbladder so be
careful not to use too much pressure there and go the transverse colon all i'm doing is
i'm lifting the hand and then putting the two fingers and then going in a circular motion
so lifting
and doing small little circles all the way down i actually feel something right there
so this is more specific where you can actually feel underneath your finger
the pads don't use your fingernails use the pads of your fingers all the
way down little circles all the way around in a circular motion in a clockwise motion
this might be a very sensitive area for people that are constipated so go easy go light remember
on the right side you have your vermiform appendix and you don't want to put too much pressure here
if they're constipated or anything like that there's no need for you to put pressure here
right you know on the on the right side where the appendix is at so again we're
going to use the sun moon technique just to kind of continue transitioning
this is just real gentle real soft and now i'm going to do the ocean waves which is some ringing
i'm going all the way across the abdomen again i'm in a horse stance just going all the way across
continue circle you know the circulation here or i can do it right here also just contralateral
on her left side just doing some ringing
some ocean waves well i'm here now i'm going to do some petrissage
yeah that feels good she likes that yeah you know i really when you get this done
you just feel so good after you feel like clean almost usually people pass gas don't
don't be afraid if they pass gas it's good or they might get up and have you
to use the bathroom so all of that is good so you're doing here some just some kneading
you know or some siboing and if you can see i'm even getting the obliques from here
now i'm not just affecting the digestive system but also the obliques you know so let's talk
about even the uh the raking i'm going to go here and rake in between the intercostals here
and you always want to make sure and have it tucked in here by the armpits right around here
you want to tuck it in and also right here at the asis you want to tuck it in especially if they're
you know they're wearing uh under clothes and you just tuck it in right there but the raking
you just make a rake with your fingers and go in between the intercostals you're getting
the serratus anterior you're getting the lat if you go all the way back you're getting the lat
the quadratus lumborum and coming down here to the external obliques all around the
iliac crest right here so this is a great one to just really get things moving here
you're working on the muscles
and of course you're going to do both sides you know you're going to switch to the other side
and do both sides another one that you can do if your table's slow enough and you're tall enough
i'm going to put my hands right in the middle of her back and just lift up
go to the middle and lift up
and then the muscles start relaxing and they start you know moving around
this can also create some movement for the abdominals
don't forget that if you have weak abdominals it will give you some pain in the back another
oh let's talk about the lymphatic system we have a lot of lymph nodes in our abdominal cavity and
the pairs patches are right here in the middle so every time that we're even even a gentle sun and
move technique will get the lymphatic system going which will move the lymph back up to the draining
up here under the subclavian you know under the clavicle to the subclavian veins to drain it back
into our cardiovascular system so it affects the lymphatic system and let's talk now about the um
the nervous system the vagus nerve the vagus nerve as i told you in the introduction it comes down
and it wraps around our heart our lungs and our digestive system so
any time that you can affect the vagus nerve which is for rest and digest it's a parasympathetic
nerve this is fantastic so one of the things that you can do is go right along
the ribcage right here i didn't want to put too much oil because i didn't want to mess up
the paint so now i'm going to talk about the diaphragm the diaphragm goes across right here
all the way across this is for breathing breathing deep breathing and and don't offend your clients
don't make them feel bad if they don't know how to breathe with their belly most of us really breathe
up here you know we don't engage our belly and it's really best if you do if you watch a baby
breathing they engage their belly they haven't learned bad ways of breathing so you want to
make sure and ask your client to breathe she's breathing with her belly now and ask him to take a
deep breath and on the exhale you're going to work the diaphragm so take a deep breath and you're
going to get your fingers right here right under the rib cage and then on the exhale you go out
okay again take a deep breath and on the exhale perfect you want to
come down the diaphragm right here all around the ribcage if people have asthma or they've
been coughing you've got to work the intercostal muscles really very specifically here where you
just take your finger pads and work each of the intercostals another one for the diaphragm is when
you're going to go right below the rib cage watch out for the xiphoid process the sci-fi
process is the pointy part of your sternum so that's a landmark you're going to make a triangle
from the cypher process to the asis across to the other asis and then back up here so make sure that
that you're not putting too much pressure on the cypher process but one of the things that you can
do is ask your client to take a deep breath and on the exhale you're gonna pull down right here along
the the rib cage right here that feels good and this is for the diaphragm you're
kind of releasing the diaphragm okay take a deep breath again and exhale
and just pull down right here along
the ribcage and of course on this side take a deep breath and exhale
and be careful the liver is right here you're also stimulating
not just the diaphragm which goes across here the diaphragm is a dome-shaped muscle which is
right here like a dome so you want to make sure and pull it down but also be careful
with the liver don't don't go too deep or on this side is the gallbladder too so you can do
coming down from the sci-fi process coming down the ribcage
you can do the intercostals you can do the raking down with a you know
with the two fingers or this way the sun and moon technique
and also you want to start right here and then go up and out
you can also do it with your thumbs up and out up to the cyphoid process right below it and out
up and out
and then the kneading and then the kneading from the side and if you want to go to the
opposite side you know you don't want to lose contact with your client so you can go from here
to the shoulder to the other shoulder and then go to all the way around to the other side so
you want to end with giving them a little bit of energy and just a little bit of rocking again
and if they if they have problems with digestion then you might want to spend a little bit more
time doing more of the sun and moon and then more of the two finger you know one inch two
inch stripping down so i hope that helps you that you learned that it affects the nervous system the
lymphatic system the digestive system and the muscular system so i hope that this gives you
enough information that you can help your clients feel better and that you incorporate it from the
very beginning that you incorporate it into your massage so until the next time create a great day
you