Stress-free challenge | Day 5 - ITM Thai Hand Amsterdam

Welcome to Day 5 of the Stress-Free Challenge!

Before you watch the video
read this important information of the lesson

Relieving stress by back massage, is what is the fifth lesson in the stress-free challenge all about. This lesson includes a very effective massage that you can easily give – even without any massage knowledge – to a friend, colleague, family member to relieve stress by giving a back massage. This part of the massage is most people’s favorite massage. Just try it out and feel for yourself!

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Here’s the breakdown of lesson 5

Before we massage the back, just a reminder: We don’t press on bones. So please be careful of the spine, we massage besides the spine, NOT on the vertebrae.

Relieve stress by massage on the back

Giving massage besides the spine helps to relax someone. To understand this, we like to mention the nervous system. Well, our brain is like a computer that controls the body’s functions. The nervous system is like a network that relays messages back and forth from the brain to different parts of the body.

The nervous system

Our nervous system is divided into 2 main parts:

The brain and the spinal cord that are the central nervous system
The nerves that go through the whole body are called the peripheral nervous system.

Let’s talk about the central nervous system, which consists of the brain and the spinal cord. The spinal cord is a long fragile tube-like structure that begins at the end of the brain stem and continues down almost to the bottom of the spine.

The central nervous system

The spinal cord consists of nerves that carry incoming and outgoing messages between the brain and the rest of the body. So when we massage on the back, we give acupressure massage near the vertebrae of the spine, and that is where the spinal cord is located, below our vertebrae. So when giving massage near the spine, we are impacting on the central nervous system. We call this reflexology.

The peripheral nervous system

Plus by giving acupressure near the vertebrae of the spine, we are also impacting on the peripheral nervous system, because the peripheral nervous system starts at the spinal cord, going through the rest of the body.

So massaging the back is very effective and efficient to change your body from sympathetic to parasympathetic mode. Meaning: changing from stressed to relaxed.

Improving fascia

Moreover, people with stress show problems on fascia. Stress is one of the factors that makes the fascia sticky, unhealthy. Most of these fascia adhesions occur on the back in the area of the muscles that are attached to the vertebrae in the spine. This part of the fascia – connective tissue is called aponeurosis.

Giving acupressure on the aponeurosis – the fascia that surrounds the muscles attached to the spine – relaxes the muscles of the back.

Trapezius muscle

Another important part to massage is the trapezius muscle. The trapezius muscle is also called ‘the house of psychosomatic problems’. When someone is stressed, they will have tensions in the trapezius, causing pain in the shoulder, the neck, the back or headaches.

During this 5^th lesson of the stress-free challenge, we massage the back, so the one who we massage turns from lying on the back to lying down on the stomach.

However, a full body massage of Nuad Thai massage on the back contains 4 positions: The one who we massage lies first on the back, then on the side, then the other side, then on the belly and we end in sitting position. During our full (online) program, called Nuad Thai Massage Program. We teach the full protocols of Nuad Thai Massage on the mat, all the positions. Moreover we teach the full spectrum of the whole Nuad Thai Massage: as performed on the chair, the mat (also called Thai Yoga Massage), on the table and foot reflexology, plus deep tissue (sports) massage.

But for now, we keep it simple: We teach you in lesson 5 an easy and effective Nuad Thai Massage on the back to relieve stress. If you have time, just start with the first four lessons and then add this lesson. And don’t forget to switch, so you both receive a full massage protocol.

Ready? Just find someone to massage, put on comfortable clothes, grab something to lie on, watch the video, follow our guidance and enjoy!

Note: If this is the first time you watch our massage videos, please scroll down to read the disclaimer prior to massage someone.

Nuad Thai Massage Stress-Free Challenge

Watch Lesson 5 Now!

Lesson 1

Day 1 – The feet

Lesson 2

Day 2 – Stretches of the legs

Lesson 3

Day 3 – Abdominal massage

Lesson 4

Day 4 – Arms & hands

Watch lesson 5 now!

Day 5 – The back

AND THERE’S EVEN MORE

Want to take your massage skills to the next level?

This stress-free challenge is adapted from the Nuad Thai Massage Program, our 6-module digital program that teaches the various massage disciplines of Nuad Thai Massage: on a mat, chair, table, as foot reflexology and deep tissue (sports) massage! You can learn these massages in a super easy way, guided by us the whole time. There’s also personal Q & A support and much more.

CHECK OUT THE NUAD THAI MASSAGE PROGRAM!

Disclaimer

Be mindful of the limitations of your partner, massage soft and slow. This class is for everyone who likes to become healthier, happier & stress-free by massage. However, this class is not for you if you are pregnant or if you have a medical condition. If you have an injury, if you are pregnant or if you have a medical condition we advise you to take a professional massage treatment first, because only then you will be treated by a certified massage therapist who can adjust the massage to your individual needs. And please note, we don’t massage when someone has a fever, infection / disease. Otherwise: Enjoy!