Deep Tissue Massage & Myofascial Release: A Video Guide to Techniques

This seven volume (over 11 hours) encyclopedia of bodywork gives clear demonstrations of virtually every tissue technique any therapist will need. Seeing them performed live, in real time, offers an educational experience that is impossible to achieve in books alone.

This DVD set is designed for:
* Massage students wishing to make a transition from relaxation based to structural work.
* Massage therapists wishing to expand and take their skills to a higher level.

Many massage training videos just show “strokes” without delving into the complex issues of soft tissue restrictions, osseous articulations and strategies for working with the multitude of different issues we face as therapists. This extensive series is designed to stimulate creativity and problem solving skills. This valuable resource not only shows countless strokes and strategies, but will, more importantly, demonstrate the qualitative art of working with deep tissues to affect profound change.

DVD Contents
SECTION I: THE FUNDAMENTALS (Discs 1 & 2)
Massage strokes can be empty gestures if not performed with specific intention and nurturing touch. This 3 hour section lays the groundwork of deep tissue work. You will learn:
– Refining Your Touch and Working Through Superficial Muscles to Contact Deep Layers of the Body.
– Biomechanics of Working Tissue Deeply with Minimal Effort and Safety.
– How to Properly Use Fingers, Knuckles, the Fist, Forearm, and Elbow and Save Your Thumbs.
– Different Types of Massage Strokes and Strategies to Lengthen Tissue, Free Adhesions, and Release Holding Patterns.
– Positioning of Your Client to Increase Effectiveness of Your Work.
– The Side-Lying Position to Dramatically Improve Your Effectiveness.

Disc 1 – Cultivating your touch, Caveats, Tools (1 hr, 28 mins)
Disc 2 – Tools (Forearm), Types of Strokes & Strategies, Body positioning, Side lying position (1 hr 19 mins)

SECTION II: STRATEGIES (Discs 3, 4 & 5)
Over 5 hours of goal-oriented strategies for working with every part of the body. Hundreds of techniques enabling you to express your creativity by choosing what works best for you and for your clients. Art Riggs demonstrates how to grab and stretch the tissue, rather than simply gliding over it.

In addition you will learn valuable skills of joint mobilization, spinal mechanics, working with breath, rib mobilization, and extensive innovative side-lying techniques. Each technique is accompanied by muscle anatomy description.

Disc 3 – Legs & Feet: Ankle retinaculum, Tibialis anterior, Gastrocnemius, Quadriceps, Tensor Fascial Lata & Iliotibial band, Hamstring, Joint mobilization. Pelvic Stabilization: Sacrum, Gluteals, External rotators, Piriformis. (1 hr 43 mins)

Disc 4 – Pelvic: Quadratus Lumborum. Anterior Pelvis & Abdomen: Breathing pattern, Psoas, Iliacus. The Back: Vertebral movement & mobilization, Paraspinal muscles, Ribs. (1 hrs 53 mins)

Disc 5 – Shoulder Girdle: Scapula & Rotator cuff. Chest: Pectoralis major & Minor, Ribs. Arms: Upper arm, elbow, wrist & hand. Neck: Deep thoracics & cervical, Scalenes, Sternocleidomastoid, Digastric Muscles, the Skull, Sub Occipital. (1 hr 17 mins)

SECTION III: ADVANCED STRATEGIES FOR COMMON COMPLAINTS AND INJURIES (Discs 6 & 7)
Learning to work with common injuries and complaints from clients, not simply routines, but rather treatment options drawn from precise anatomical knowledge, applying specific intentional strokes with intuition on the side.
In addition you will learn PNF stretches, basic rehabilitation suggestions, and novel methods to work with clients in gravity “off the table” in standing and seated position.

Disc 6 – Injuries to Feet and Ankles, including Sprains, Plantar Fasciitis, Achilles Tendonitis. Injuries to the Legs: Shin Splints, Knee Pain and Dysfunction. Piriformis syndrome & Sciatica, Minor Back Pain. (1 h 39 mins)
Disc 7 – Back Pain, Neck Pain & Whiplash, Shoulder & Rotator Cuff injuries, Tennis Elbow, Golfer’s elbow, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Wrist Complaints, Thoracic Outlet Problems. (1h 25 mins)

Review

Art Riggs is one of the most awesome bodywork teachers in our profession.
Deep Tissue Massage is a beautifully produced video set, and the demonstrations are presented without obstruction. Riggs’ passion for the profession really shines through his on-camera presence. He is a great teacher and he shares an enormous amount of knowledge and wisdom on these videos. – isa Mertz, Massage Therapy Journal

The techniques and principles of Ida Rolf ’s structural integration Rolfing® have been increasingly available to the advanced massage therapist via both workshop and published media, but never in so complete a form. Although the tapes do not purport to teach structural integration, Riggs has done an enviable job at exposing and explaining many of the techniques.
Riggs is to be congratulated for putting together a pleasing and professional set of programs, which I predict will be strewn on the desk of many a therapist —being used, rather than up on a shelf gathering dust. – Thomas Myers (author of Anatomy Trains)

About the Instructor:

Art Riggs is a Certified Advanced Rolfer® and massage therapist who has been teaching bodywork since 1988 and now sells Myofascial release videos and manuals worldwide. A lifetime of hard physical activity and high level athletic pursuits including ultra-marathons led him to bodywork, first as a grateful recipient, and later as a student. The fulfillment he experienced in both receiving and performing bodywork led him away from his graduate studies in Exercise Physiology at the University of California, Berkeley to a full time career as a Rolfer® and teacher of Deep Tissue Massage. He has conducted numerous workshops for health spas and for medical professionals, including physical therapists, and has assisted in Rolf Institute training.