Week 2 • The Building Blocks of Life & Touch
- Hands on Healing
- Sep 24
- 2 min read
Updated: Sep 24
My Dear Friend,
Week 2 of Massage School is complete! This week we went all the way back to BIO 101: The Cell. The building blocks of life! Or as our instructor said, "The smallest chonk you can call alive."
We looked at the human body as a living organism, with varying levels of complexity. The organism is made up of organ systems, which are made up of organs, which are made of specialized tissues, which are made from different kinds of cells.
At first it's like, "Wow, ok. Why does a massage therapist need to study this in depth? We're not working with microscopes." But then we learn about all the ways that bodywork affects our organ systems and tissues, and I realize these layers are so interconnected and indivisible from each other. Even the most general Swedish techniques improve circulation, which facilitates the delivery of nutrients and the removal of cellular waste, making it easier for each cell to do its job of living.
Physics & Force
So how do we do that? For this, we turn to physics and the study of force. By applying external force to the soft tissues of the body, we deform it, or change its shape. This will have different effects depending on the type of force used: Compression, Tension, Torsion, or Friction.
We study each of these forces in depth, further breaking them down into seven types of strokes: Static, Gliding, Torsion, Shearing, Oscillating, Percussive, and Joint Movement. I won't get into all of that now. Suffice to say, WOW the world of touch is massive and so full of nuance!
The Felt Sense
This was our first week with skin-to-skin contact. We partnered up with a classmate and practiced some of these techniques. We also learned about palpation: the process of gathering information with touch, aka listening with your hands. And I gotta say, my touch skills are rusty! There is so much skill involved in knowing how and where to apply pressure and why.
I dare say, I think computer culture has made us worse at touching and feeling. Touch is not a binary state. On/Off. Either/or. It's multidimensional, like literally happening on multiple planes. It's regional. Sharing space with a person. Local knowledge of the body in front of you. It's temporal. The body needs time to process the work. Optimally, it happens at the speed of breath. It's organic materials participating in time and space. Skin and muscle and bone. Neurons firing with the electricity of nervous systems encountering each other.
Whew. I dunno. Bodies are cool, you know?
Until next week,
