This is a frequently asked question – especially if you have low ceilings that may be difficult to build bars in, if you are very tall with low ceilings and are considering dropping your table to the floor, and/or if you are already offering Thai/Shiatsu/Breema/Rossiter Matwork on the ground and want more footwork.
The style of Myofascial Ashiatsu Barefoot Massage that we teach does actually require the massage table to be elevated up off the floor – as techniques learned in our Fundamentals, Intermediate, Range of Motion and Advanced courses all “dangle” the clients limbs off the edge of the table and need that gravitational drop and hang in the joint. Westernized Ashiatsu in itself needs the trifecta of the overhead bars, on an elevated table and needs to be using some kind of lubricant to glide on the skin. So putting Ashiatsu Barefoot Massage down on the floor would take away from this potential and would not be true to the name or lineage.
…HOWEVER:
Our Fijian/Matwork Barefoot Massage class is meant to be on the floor! Ok, not literally on the floor: we teach on skinny mats, not even as wide as a typical massage table, but Fijian can also be done on your yoga mat with a BodyCushion system on top, on a massage table flattened to the floor, and/or on Thai and Shiatsu mats! No bars are needed to be installed for the Fijian/Matwork techniques, either!
You can install the strap to make your life easier and to assure that you aren’t pushing through your wrists/hands on a support crutch – like the back of a chair, a cane/walker, or ballet bars (none of which are things we would ever recommend: underhand support is not your friend if you are trying to save your hands for a longer massage career.) In a Fijian Barefoot Massage, you can use the strap to lean into, or sit in a chair, or sit in a floor chair lie a Back-Jack, while using your feet to do the work. Read the many blog posts below that are related to Fijian Barefoot Matwork to better understand it’s rad potential – and read the Fijian/Matwork 1 class page to read the course description!
Read more about how Fijian Barefoot Matwork is different than our table-top Myofascial Ashiatsu Barefoot Massage
