Do not restrict yourself to a few recipients. You will learn much more from giving one massage each to 20 people than you will by giving 20 massages to one person. Even if there is a primary recipient you have in mind, the quality of that one person's experience will be severely limited if your experience is limited to that one person.
Receiving a massage can also be a learning experience. You may better understand variations of touch, pressure, etc. as well as learning new techniques and strokes from others. Caroline Knight adds: you can learn a lot by applying strokes to yourself.
As you massage another person, be aware of the effects that your touch is having both on the person you're touching and on yourself. Temporarily put aside anything else you might have going on, and focus your attention on the massage. What are your fingers conveying about the tension and texture of the recipients muscles? Be aware of how both of you are breathing. Use your body weight to gently and smoothly apply pressure, instead of muscling the pressure. Learning to give a good massage is only partly about learning technique.
Much of what you need to learn is about being present in your body and present in the current moment. You can learn a lot about superficial anatomy just paying attention to what your fingers are feeling.
Question 3.6 is about tired hands, a common affliction among newcomers to massage. You might also find the advice file in the archive helpful. The archive is the subject of question 5.1.2.
Question 4.3 is about how to distinguish between a proficient, professional MT and someone who just calls themselves a MT, before you pay for their services.
<lonnie@meaddata.com> recommended: The easiest solution is to have the person receiving the backrub place their hands on or near the hands of the person giving the backrub... After several times of using this technique the recipient will no longer need to touch the masseuse.
Mineral oil and some vegetable oils are thick. If liberally slopped on they will both tend to clog pores. Some people have skin especially prone to inflammation from this. On the other hand many massage lotions have a mineral oil base. When applied sparingly, as for deep tissue work, they don't usually cause problems. There are also a number of lighter weight vegetable oil blends available. They go on easily and produce a much thinner oil film. They also spill a lot faster if you get careless with the cap open. Vegetable oils can go rancid (in the bottle, on clothes, on sheets, etc.) which mineral oils don't. Some massage schools use mineral oil exclusively because of this -- rancid rugs and sheets are not appealing. Also, mineral oils are hypoallergenic.
A convenient squeeze dispenser bottle (i.e., one having a narrow spout with a small opening) can be found in many stores (you might try at a camp outfitting store, a pharmacy or even a cosmetics outlet).
Refrigerating oil when not in use and keeping bottles full also helps. If you refrigerate the oil then you might want to warm the bottle of oil in a hot water bath before using it. Some people have allergies to specific vegetable oils. Some people feel that vegetable oils are in some way more natural than mineral oils. Oils containing vitamin E may have a better shelf life, since it's an antioxidant.
The file oil.buy, in the archive (see question 5.1.2) contains lists of places you can order ready-made oils from. The file oil.make contains information about making your own oils.
If you are just starting out, John Cole recommends trying safflower oil. It is a light, odourless vegetable oil available from most grocery stores. Caroline Knight wrote: `I'm still using grape seed oil as my base as recommended by someone from alt.backrubs ages ago!'
Don't be afraid to use other parts of your body than just your hands for variety. I've had great success using my forearms and wrists. The palms and heel of the hand are commonly used for certain light and deep strokes respectively. Some people like to use their feet but must be very careful not to apply too much pressure. The variety of strokes and pressure that can be achieved by using other parts of the body can be a blessing to both the recipient and giver. The with.feet file in the archive contains some discussion of these points.
You can prevent your hands from getting tired by strengthening them through regular exercise (see the finger.excer file in the archive). The archive contains information about massages you, or others, can give to your aching hands too (see finger.excer, hand&neck, wrist.pain to start).
