Authorized Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy Education in Memphis, Tennessee!

A higher than average fitness level will diminish any challenges you may experience during the workshop. You’ll need a strong core, strong arms, adductors and abductors in your legs that can control precise movements, as well as fluid and mobile hips for this work. The motion of your feet starts with your hips, the control of pressure comes from your arms, legs and torso. Working slowly and gracefully is very important when leveraging your weight to do this deep tissue massage.

We ask that you are flexible enough to stand up & down from a 24 inch stool quickly and easily from the floor in one smooth movement. Another tricky move that is required: Sitting up onto a 29 inch stool and swinging your leg over the clients head smoothly and silently. You should also be able to sit on a stool with your knees close together in a cannon ball position. We make Ashiatsu look easy, but once you are standing on the table, it's much harder than it looks! We ask that you are confident that your upper arm strength can pull your body weight off the client at any moment if needed - in case you lose your balance, or in case your client needs an immediate removal of pressure.

Is there a weight limit? That's actually a common misunderstanding - there is technically no weight limit in our Beginner/Intermediate level classes (Barefoot Basics, Anterior/Sidelying, Ashi-Thai) - but for safety reasons for your fellow students, your future clients, and our equipment in the classroom, we are cautious and try to bring an awareness of the physicality involved with this work.  We will need to know your height and weight once you register, so that we can coordinate the set up of the equipment and clients that you'll be working with. Also for safety reasons, if you weigh over 200 pounds, you are required to bring your own portable massage table - preferably a 32-35" wide table. Must have a working weight capacity of at least 800 pounds - no metal/aluminum legs. We recommend the Earthlite Spirit, and can get you a discount on these tables if you need to purchase a new one. Please talk to Charlene prior to class for the details.

Heavier students can easily be as fluid and graceful as those who are slim, but all must be flexible, mobile and strong. It is not our intention to discourage or discriminate anyone from taking this class, we must focus on a quality workshop experienced by all and maintain the safety standards of the modality.  However, we do try to portray the amount of fitness that will eliminate some obstacles and make class more enjoyable for all therapists. If you have any reservations, please contact me to discuss your fitness level,  you may be surprised that it's not as restrictive as you thought.

One thing that needs to weigh heavily on your mind: do you have the client base that even needs Ashiatsu? This deeper than deep tissue massage technique is meant to be performed on clients who are 50-100 pounds heavier than you. If you are massaging people who weigh less than you, then you'll be working too hard against gravity - sometimes even working on someone who is comparable in size/weight to you can be more difficult to massage with your feet. I highly recommend that you save your Ashiatsu massages for the larger framed, dense tissued clients who are difficult to work on with your hands. If you don't have the right client base for this technique, you may want to re-evaluate why you want to learn Ashiatsu, as it's not meant for every client, it's not meant for every massage therapist, and if this work is utilized incorrectly, or for evil not for good so to speak, then you can cause repetitive strain issues within yourself, and easily injury your client.

Do you have the equipment that will support this work? You need to have a massage table that will hold your body weight, plus your heaviest client, plus a few hundred extra pounds breathing room within the working weight capacity of that table. We recommend the Earthlite Ellora or the Earthlite Spirit - or something comparable. No aluminum legged portable massage tables.

For safety reasons, additional physical strength requirements, weight limits and practical experience prerequisites are needed for the Advanced Ashiatsu class. Being able to hold your entire body weight up in a pull up position for 20-30 seconds, with your legs out at a 90 degree angle (an "L" sit) will show us that you have the upperbody and core strength, plus the endurance to maintain this strength long enough to complete the full expression of some of the challenging moves in the Advanced Ashiatsu class. Please read that page for more information.

Contraindications for therapists: If you are currently pregnant, trying to get pregnant, have recently had breast/gluteal/calf implants and/or some select surgeries within the last 9 months, we regret that you cannot attend the seminar.
 
Speak with me to clarify your specific situation and see why Ashiatsu training is or isn't appropriate for you at this time. The deep compression provided by this modality could be dangerous for those still recovering from invasive procedures or ailments, and is not safe for prenatal therapists or their growing babies to receive this style of work.