Be Kind to Your Hands and Wrists – Learn Creative Elbow Work

Come join us for Creative Elbow Work and give your overworked wrists, thumbs, and hands a rest.  Using your elbows and forearms, you’ll learn to apply deeper pressure and help facilitate tension release.  In this continuing education class you’ll learn these techniques:

• Effleurage
• Friction
• Static pressure

You’ll enjoy the relaxing strokes of Effleurage, a Swedish massage technique where light strokes are are lightly applied to the skin to warm up the muscles prior to deeper muscle work.  This technique, which is more of a gliding or sliding across the skin rather than a massage, encourages both blood circulation and lymph drainage.  Friction massage, while usually performed with the thumbs or the heel of the hand, lends itself well to elbow work and is quite effective on joints and other areas where tissues are thin.  It is quite useful for tendonitis and similar conditions.  And you’ll find that your elbows are perfect for static pressure, which is applying a deep continuous pressure to relieve muscle tension.  If you’ve heard of trigger points, elbow work is great for this type of bodywork. 

Participants in this class will be introduced to a variety of techniques with table-side instruction.   Come prepared to learn the “Do’s” and “Don’ts” to help steward the most important tools you have in your bodywork career – your own hands, wrists, and thumbs.  Just move on up your arm a bit and learn to put your elbows to work.  This advanced massage techinque is for those who have completed at least 500 hours of massage program, and qualifies for 4 CE credits.

Tags: continuing eduction massage, Minneapolis massage classes