Massage is a physically demanding, hand-intensive activity. As massage practitioners, it’s important that we look after our hands (and bodies) in order to maintain our careers. Some ways of working (if done regularly) cause cumulative strains and this could limit or stop your massage work.
Your working wrists
Every time you apply pressure with your hands, it has to be transmitted through your wrists. We’ve highlighted below some aspects of massage work that puts pressure on your wrists, the second-most vulnerable parts of the massage practitioner’s hands (after the thumbs). So let’s look at four ways of reducing strain on them. And a reminder, it’s particularly important to pay attention to your wrists if they’re not strong or they are small or hypermobile.
So how can we protect our wrists to help us sustain our careers?
It’s important to monitor what you’re doing with your wrists in order to protect them. By far the commonest cause of wrist fatigue and strain is regularly applying pressure with the wrist bent back (hyperextended - figure 1).
Note: Don’t let your wrist bend in other directions when applying pressure
It’s also important to monitor that you’re not letting it bend forward (figure 2) or to the side(figure 3) too often - especially when you’re applying pressure.
So, it’s crucial to spread the pressure that you’re delivering as widely as possible through the width of your wrist (rather than having it all go through a small part).
But it’s not easy to keep your wrists straighter if this is unfamiliar. It can be useful to support your wrist with your other hand or forearm (and this will also reduce the pressure on your wrist). There’s two easy ways of doing this.
Holding around your wrist
You can hold around the wrist of your working hand (figures 4 & 5).
Supporting your wrist from underneath
Or, try resting your supporting hand/forearm on the client’s body (figures 6 & 7). This will provide more stability for your working hand, whilst reducing the workload on your wrist.
Supporting your working wrist in these ways will help you get clear about what it feels like to have pressure go centrally through your wrist with it relatively straight. This will help you to identify what this feels like even when you can’t support your working hand (e.g. because you’re using both hands at the same time).
While massaging with your hands, the muscles of your forearm that cross the wrist work hard. Those at the front of your forearm flex your wrist and fingers, and those at the back bend back (hyperextend) your wrist and fingers.
Of course, as Hands Free Massage Trainers we encourage massage practitioners to work with their hands as little as possible, but if you’re not trained in this, please do these strengthening exercises.
Strengthening the forearm muscles
Doing exercises to strengthen your forearm muscles will help them to support your wrist. This is particularly important if you have small or soft muscles or a hypermobile wrist. It can be helpful to have a personal trainer work out a personalised programme for you.
Massaging the forearm muscles
Of course it’s important to receive massages to keep yourself in trim. And, if you’re starting to experience strain in your wrists, find a physiotherapist, sports injuries therapist or personal trainer to give you specific treatments and remedial exercises.
Regular self-massage will also help you to maintain your wrist muscles (figure 8).
Save your wrists by learning ‘Hands Free Massage’ - learning to use your forearms and elbows skilfully and with sensitively (figures 9 & 10). This makes it easier to apply firm pressure, when appropriate, with less effort. It can save your hands (and therefore your wrists) for at least two thirds of most massage sessions.
Note: It’s all too easy to use your forearm in a clumsy, awkward or insensitive way, which may strain your own shoulders and back, and can also pain the client. And this is even more common when people use the elbow. So, if this is new territory for you, it’s important to find a good Hands Free Massage Training, by experienced trainers, to avoid this.
Looking after your wrist
We hope that we’ve highlighted the importance of paying attention to how you use your wrists and given you useful suggestions on looking after them. Please don’t strain them and undermine your career. There are lots of people out there who need massage from you, so remember to work wisely to extend your career.
About the Authors
Darien Pritchard from Dynamic Massage and Hands Free Massage Training, has been a massage trainer since 1982, and has served on the General Council for Massage Therapy (UK). He wrote the career-maintenance book Dynamic Bodyuse for Effective Strain-Free Massage (2008), and the student text Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology for Massage (2nd ed, 2023). For three decades, Darien has pioneered a focus on how massage practitioners can protect their hands and body whilst using them most effectively, including developing Hands Free Massage - the skilful, sensitive use of the forearm and elbow to save the hands.
Leora Sharp from Hands Free Massage Training, has been a massage practitioner since 2008 and very early on in her career, realised the importance of needing to work as Hands Free as possible. To that end, in 2009 she trained with Darien and was so blown away with Hands Free Massage, that she offered to assist him on his 8 Day Advanced training. Her role slowly transformed into co-teacher and she then started teaching solo in 2016. She is continually bold over how amazing HFM is and the benefits it brings to practitioners to sustain their careers. Alongside teaching HFM, Leora has a private practice at Neal’s Yard in Bath and designs websites for complementary health professionals.
