Congrats Tour de Pink!

Yesterday I joined the American Massage Therapy Association who massaged the participants of Hershey's Tour de Pink! These riders conquered  220 Miles in the name of Breast Cancer Awareness for the  Young Survival Coalition in less than 3 days!  After they arrived to NYC all the way from Hershey, PA - the generous Massage Therapists had tables up and ready to make sure these charitable athletes got the body work they very much deserved.This was the first post sports event massage session I have ever been a part of and I left the hotel where the bikers had lined up to receive their massage exhausted from even watching all of the techniques used on these grateful bodies!

This term I will be learning Sports Massage, and in my following terms I will be given a chance to participate as a body worker for one of the many New York sporting events. So yesterday, it was all about learning, fetching water, learning, cleaning tables, learning - and sometimes having an on the spot Anatomy Pop Quiz from the LMT's I was observing!

The biggest lesson I learned about a Spots Massage last night -was how integrated and involved the Massage Therapist truly is. One LMT in particular had a No Fear attitude (based on 20 years of massage knowledge!) about making sure that these tense cyclist got the stretch of their lives! He was on the table with them, kneeling low to reach them, used tense and release exercises, myofascial work, pin pointed Shiatsu points - all with a vigor that these tired Tour de Pink participants couldn't help by be relaxed and pumped up at the same time!

As a student - I loved watching how important, interesting and effective Range of Motion techniques can be. How geting a hip joint to open up and release all the muscle attachments there can be a huge physical event. Or how getting a hold of the whole shoulder girdle and moving it at the right angle can invite true healing to the person being worked on. Yesterday proved that ROM is a great way for the practitioner to be in gentle control of the movement, but the individuals body is in charge of allowing the relaxation into the joint. It was wonderful to see that kind of teamwork - all in the name of helping the body right itself!