This Is Why Your Beginning Should Be At The Back

Allison Denney

There are a couple of reasons why working on the back is commonly the first thing we learn in massage school. I mean, it would be weird if the first contact was to the adductors. But also, the back has so many good things going for it that make it the perfect landing spot for learning bodywork: The number of muscles, the common dysfunctions, its connection to the limbs, not to mention that positioning your client prone helps mitigate insecurities. But mostly, the back is a beautiful beginning for massage because it is REALLY hard to massage our own backs.

I don’t know about you guys but I love a good back scratch. BECAUSE I can’t reach those itches myself. It’s the same for all that muscle tension that lives back there. Whether or not our clients are self-aware, back muscles get tense and the simple act of a few Swedish strokes can do wonders. So when we are in massage school and we are practicing those first swipes down the erector spinae group, because no-one is capable of self-myofascial release down the paraspinals, even if we are not well practiced yet, it’s gonna feel good to whoever is on the table.

Nevertheless, a solid back routine is an excellent idea. After the intake forms and the initial conversations, there is still a heap of unknown information. Very often we find guarding patterns or adhesions that were not verbalized before the session started. Exploring the tissue relationships and somatic responses with a detailed approach offers up an incredible amount of information.

Try this: With your client prone, start at the upper back and shoulders. This is a very acclimated-to-somone-else’s-touch area and safely introduces tactile communication. Using a broad, relaxed hand, slide down either side of the spine toward the hips. With this, you are keeping the introductory work central, along the axial skeleton, and focused on the strong, protective tissues of the back.

These initial strokes reveal a lot: how your client reacts to pressure, how well (or not so well) they are able to let go, and how much of what they are telling you about what they feel correlates to what you are palpating. This is also your chance to assess your own body mechanics. Take a deep breath, drop your weight down into your core and your legs, keep your shoulders out of your ears, stack your joints, lean into your palms, and relax your fingers. It can be a bit of a “tap your head and rub your belly” challenge. And you are up for it.

As you curate your work to your client’s needs, keep in mind that no matter who your client is - young, old, fit, couch potato, triple type A, or slacker - we all have two things in common: 1. as noted earlier - we can’t massage our own backs. And 2. we live on a planet that has gravity. Gravity is the ultimate factor when it comes to back muscle health.

Allow me to offer up a quick nod to physics. Muscle loading is a huge factor in the work that we do. This means, in its most simple translation, that when you add a load to work, the effort increases. Everything we do hinges on this notion. Tired muscles are overloaded. Weak muscles are underloaded. And everything in between.

The variable is the load. It can mean anything from a barbell, to a bag of groceries, to a backpack, to a baby. And if we are really analyzing the definition of a load, it could be a heightened anxiety or even a heavy heart. All of these factors present in different ways for our clients. But the one common thread, the one load that remains a fluctuating constant that none of us can avoid, is gravity.

There are, of course, other factors at play. As we age, our intervertebral discs lose hydration, our muscle mass gets, well, less mass-y, and our postural distortions settle in for the long haul. But if you keep the compressive load of gravity in the forefront of your mind as you explore the muscles of the spine and the ribs, you will inevitably discover the relationships those muscles have with the shoulders and the hips.

Walk around to the side of the table, bring your client’s arm away from their side, and follow the lats and the traps as they transition from being back muscles to shoulder muscles. Extend the arm all the way up to the top of the table, let it fall to the floor, then slide down into the lower erectors and the QL as they grab onto the hip. Have your client lift their respective limbs and then let them relax as you do the work, gathering information as you go like a squirrel collecting acorns for the winter. Congratulations. You now have a pile of points you can use to map out your session.

The unreachable back is truly the best beginning. As much as we try and help clients understand how to take care of their own backs, no one is capable petrissaging their own paraspinals. And no one is immune to gravity. The complex human back is truly gravity’s favorite target. Thanks to your skilled work, every back gets a fresh start.