Massage Yourself Massage Yourself is a book that is concerned with self-treatment, self-help and personal empowerment. It describes a remedial massage system where you massage yourself. The techniques can be used proactively to build better structural integrity in the body and help prevent musculoskeletal problems or they can be used in response to illness and dysfunction to treat musculoskeletal problems. Massage Yourself

Kneading or transverse friction of the upper trapezius and posterior cervical muscles using the tips of your hooked fingers

• Stand, sit on a chair or kneel on the floor.
• Reach behind your head with your left hand and grasp the back and top of your head.
• Reach behind your head with your right hand and place your fingertips against the middle of your occiput at the back of your head.
• Keep your fingers in a hooked finger position throughout the technique.

• Flex and sidebend your head to the left while simultaneously sliding your fingertips across the upper trapezius at the back and right of your occiput.
• Reposition your fingertips so they are just under the occipital bone and in the furrow running down the middle of the back of your cervical spine.
• Flex and sidebend your head to the left while simultaneously sliding your fingertips across the upper trapezius in line with the first cervical vertebra.
• Move your fingertips from the middle to the right of your cervical spine.

• Reposition your fingertips again just under the occipital bone.
• Tilt your head backwards to relax the upper trapezius muscle and get better access to the deeper posterior cervical muscles.
• Sidebend your head to the left and rotate your head to the right while simultaneously pushing the tips of your middle and index fingers through trapezius and into and across the deeper cervical muscles.
• Reposition your fingertips about one vertebra level further down the back of your cervical spine and repeat the action of moving your fingertips from the midline towards the right along short parallel strips.

• Move your fingertips in an outwards direction but do not press on the sensitive nerves and blood vessels at the side of your neck.
• Work down the whole of the back and right side of your cervical spine and then swap hands and repeat the technique on the left side.

• Remember to tilt your head forwards to treat the upper trapezius and backwards to treat the posterior cervical muscles.
• Do not pull or push your head with your left hand and strain ligaments.
• Treat short tight muscles with cross fibre kneading and fibrous changes in muscles with transverse friction.

Tags: Joint mobility Joint stability Ligament sprains Muscle fatigue Muscle flexibility Muscle strains Pain Physical fitness Posture Range of movement Stress Stretch Stretching Stretching benefits