Years ago a friend mentioned to me that she had gone for a rather awkward massage. The therapist told my friend that she had tight hips and then proceeded to straddling her on the table, digging her knees into my friend’s glutes and hips to work out the kinks. My friend was understandably uncomfortable. This is not a normal occurrence in a massage. In fact, more often than not, massage therapists pass right over our glutes, bypassing a butt massage altogether.
Last year, Matt and I went away for my birthday. We signed up for massages. At one point the therapist said to me, “You have really tight hips.” Then she straddled me and dug her knees into my butt. All I could think of was my friend’s story. The massage felt great, but I would have been uncomfortable if I hadn’t heard about this happening. The second my massage was complete, I texted my friend: where did you get that massage? Sure enough we were at the same place, and I have no doubt we had the same massage therapist.
Believe it or not, this was not the most awkward massage I’ve had. In China a massage therapist once rubbed my tailbone. Think for a moment about where your tailbone is. You have descended into crack to rub a tailbone. Now, I have no doubt that the area around the tailbone could benefit from massage, but when it happened my entire body tensed, which wasn’t helping anything relax.
The moral of the story is that our butts (and probably our tailbones) do benefit from massage. But we live in a culture where that normally doesn’t happen for a whole series of reasons. And if you are comfortable with your massage therapist, it would be completely reasonable to get your glutes rubbed. But if that’s not an option you have, you can do it yourself (at least the butt part) and a foam roller can help.
Check out this video on how to foam roll your glutes.
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The foam roller isn’t just about massage. You can get a workout too. Click here.
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No if ands or buts -you are right !
I always look forward to your posts, though it took a while before I opened this one! Always great stuff Maggie!
Jim –Thanks for bravely opening this one. 🙂
I was a rockin’ and a rollin’ – rockin’ and a rollin’ all night. I’ll leave it there, Maggie, cuz it’s your birthday and I love you. Always something new to learn on your site.
Oh my God! I’m a licensed massage therapist and that definitely isn’t normal protocol! No massafe therapist should ever get in the table to straddle you! Nor should they be massaging your crack hole. A butt massage feels good and relaxes the biggest muscle, the gluteus maximus . Wow only in China… I have heard many weird stories when you get a massage in strange countries… DEFINITELY weird!