Ok, first: I've never had any kind of professional massage done on me, so I'm a bit of a newbie in this area.

I decided to try something to help with my back problems (I'm quite positive that my problems have to do with lower back muscles and not with spine, so that's why I think a massage might help) and instead of getting a traditional western-style massaged or sports massage, I decided to try shiatsu massage. It's supposed to take 2 hours and I'm having it on next weeks thursday.

By googling, I got some idea about it, but I didn't find any first hand experiences so far.

So, anybody here have any (hopefully positive) experiences of shiatsu? Anything I should know in relation to weight training about it?

Shiatsu is awesome. I used to get one once a month.

Don't expect your traditional heavy-duty deep-tissue massage throughout your therapy time. It varies. It starts out soft as the therapist guages problem areas, then builds into a relatively vigorous massage, then softens back up (I always fell asleep in the last 15~20 minutes). The Shiatsu touch is more gentle than a conventional massage. Depending on your problem areas, they'll adjust their touch accordingly (obviously).

Be prepared to be touched in ways you're not quite used to. If you get a same-sex therapist and you're homophobic at all, you better put that away (I don't have a problem myself, but I've heard other guys complain... kinda silly, but they did). The therapist will use hands and feet to perform the massage. They will gently stretch you in some really strange (but wonderful-feeling) ways. You'll probably get your back walked on (it's exquisite, believe it or not)... and the pressure points they'll work on on your skull are just this side of sexual in the pleasureable feeling you'll get. They'll tell you how to breath at times when performing certain massage techniques. As the massage begins to wind down, the touch becomes lighter but just as effective as they seem to seek out pressure points that feel great when massaged but won't startle or upset you at all.

I give it two big thumbs up. You'll enjoy it, if not get addicted to it.

-R

If you get a same-sex therapist and you're homophobic at all, you better put that away (I don't have a problem myself, but I've heard other guys complain... kinda silly, but they did). Ok, everything sounds pretty good. But one question in relation to the above. The therapist is a woman (I talked with her personally today when I booked it); so, what sort of clothes does/should one wear during the massage? Do you strip up to boxers or what? If so, then to avoid too much embarrasment, perhaps I should wear pretty tight boxers on the massage, just to avoid things popping into plain view too much, if you know what I mean... :D

I suppose I couldn't wear my normal working clothes anyway, with the leather belt and stuff... But what then...

- Pete

Normal clothes are fine. I usually went in pants or shorts and a tee or polo shirt.

Normal clothes are fine. I usually went in pants or shorts and a tee or polo shirt.Ok, sounds good, perhaps I'll grap some softer clothes in a backbag on that day.

But, listen up, I might just have mixed up shiatsu with something else... :confused:

The massage might not actually be actual shiatsu but little bit something else. I don't know what is the official English title of the thing, but a literal translation from Finnish would be something like "nerve track massage" and on one web-page it was called "Shiatsu Jitsu". Also, several Finnish web-pages list shiatsu separately from "nerve track massage" so that makes me think that they are two different things...?!?

On one web page it explains nerve track massage to be close to normal massage, but special concentration is put on massaging the nerve tracks close to muscles. They explain that it's especially good in helping with problems where nerves are pinched by muscles and I think that that's exactly what the problem in my back is.

It sounds ball-park to shiatsu. "Nerve track" sounds like Shiatsu. Shiatsu can actually focus on a totally different (but nerve-related) part of your body to make another area feel better.

My therapist, I swear, I thought he was clairvoyant or something. Through his massage technique, he deciphered two ailments I had at the time, and I'd never told him a thing about them.

My first visit to him, as he was feeling things out, he stopped at a certain point on my left leg near the top my shin, just to the left of my shinbone near where the meat of your calf muscle has meets the insertion point below the left of your knee. He gently pressed on it (it was very tender) and he asked me... "What did you do to your foot?"

I hadn't told him - he deciphered on his own that at some point recently, I'd done damage to my foot. In fact, I'd broken it in the spring of 2001 (about a year prior at the time). I damaged just about every fiber of soft-tissue in my left foot (a doctor of 37 years experience told me it was the worst soft tissue injury he'd ever seen)... from my toes to just above my ankle was destroyed. I spent six months in therapy and still couldn't bend my foot more than 90 degrees upward. I had also lost most of the feeling in my toes and could no longer bend them. Well, as he was massaging, he came across a nerve bundle in your upper-front calf muscle that has something to do with your foot. He explained to me that it was tender because my calf muscle was assisting in compensating for my damaged foot. That point is a nerve center which received signals from my foot, but since the signal was no longer clear and I could no longer use all of my foot as nature intended, the calf muscle compensated for the lack of mobility. He later explained how massage could "reconnect" my foot to my body.

Sure enough, after three sessions with him, I had most of the feeling back in my foot, and I could wiggle and curl my toes again - something I hadn't been able to do even after physical therapy. He taught my wife how to apply pressure to the critical points in my foot and shin so that she could help me daily. Six months after my first visit, I had 100% use of my foot back - something the doctors told me might never happen again.

That first visit, he also was massaging my back and asked me if I had any respiratory ailments. Again, he was right on the money. At the time, I was still overweight and had moderate to severe asthma and allergies.

I was surprised at his knowledge. I later learned that he studied and practiced shiatsu in China for 10 years.