Massage therapists may think they are immune to injury, even though many of us came to do massage after recovering from injury. We’re helping people, after all, so that should be a win-win. We win, the clients win, all is right.
Oh, and then that little thumb screams tingle-tingle in the middle of the night.
The problem with bad thumbing is that it doesn’t tell you that it is hurting while you are doing the hurting thing. It tells you much later in the day, usually just before your deepest sleep cycle, by waking you up to a tingle party.
Oh, and it can take months of babying to get better. I know. I did it recently, as in earlier this year. Many soaks, rubs, deep cross-friction and MSM lotions later, I can say my thumb has returned as fit as ever. Of course, I know how not to hurt my thumb, I just suffered some sort of temporary delusional amnesia associated with getting that last knot out from under the cranial vault.
For the record, let’s go over thumb health. The thumb is a wimp, unable to go outside without his brothers and sisters. Thus the thumb is always stuck to its neighboring fingers when applying any pressure or other massage stroke.
Do not drag the thumb behind its family, keep it close – as in stuck – to its protectors.
Do not lead with the thumb unless it is stuck completely to the other thumb – that is both hands together at the thumb creating one seamless stroke.
If your thumb is able to bend backwards at the first joint, you will get away with disobeying all these thumb rules, but then the day will come when the thumb quits altogether. This is the curse of the hyper-mobile thumb.
As someone who occasionally forgets to practice safe thumb, I admit to being less than perfect while on trigger point hunts. But I know my thumb will remind me later of what I forgot earlier in the day. Zap!
