If you work with athletes of any level and do Sports Massage with them, Ashiatsu is a great modality to add to your Sports Massage skills set that will provide many benefits to clients and yourself.
There’s no one way to perform Sports Massage. It’s usually used to enhance physical activity and sports performance. Categories of Sports Massage are pre & post event/competition, recovery, and injury prevention & treatment. Sports Massage is detailed, focused, anatomically specific massage that targets and works to correct unique physical issues for people and athletes who each have their own individual needs that are often related to their specific activity or sport. Sports Massage Therapist use a combination of various techniques such as Swedish massage, deep tissue massage, myofascial, trigger point, stretching, and other techniques to get clients the best results.
With Ashiatsu you can perform detailed therapeutic massage techniques that are beneficial to your Sports Massage clients. Ashiatsu replaces your hands, forearms, and elbows with your feet to perform therapeutic Sports Massage techniques. You stand tall in good posture while using your body weight and movement along with gravity to apply and adjust the pressure of a stroke. This saves your body and you don’t experience the physical wear & tear that doing massage can have on a massage therapist’s body.
Know that Ashiatsu doesn’t have to and isn’t meant to replace every technique you do with your upper limbs, unless you choose to. Ashiatsu can be performed in combination with techniques that use the upper limbs. I do Ashiatsu with every client I see but I still use my hands and elbows occasionally. I estimate that 95% of the time I do massage, I’m Ashiatsu. All Barefoot Trainer’s Ashiatsu courses will teach you why, when, and how I use upper limb massage techniques along with Ashiatsu to improve client results.