The concierge of a famous Bondi hotel called me. They had a guest who needed a massage: my next patient.
I had just finished an all day task when I got the call and I had one hour to head across Sydney before the appointment. Fortunately the hotel is a short walk from the clinic in Bondi Beach, so I booked the patient in there and had everything ready.
I met the patient. A tall, athletic African American. We chatted and he was a sports coach for a family that live in America that had flown him over to Sydney while on their holidays!
This was probably the toughest patient I had met. He had muscle on his back that was like rope either sides of his spine. Thick upper body trapezius muscles. Toughest of all he had the most amazingly defined latissimus dorsi muscles from his particular expert field of tennis. They where like girders sticking out on the Empire States building!
He had muscle aches and pains and also wanted a very strong massage and his calf muscles squeezed out.
Calf muscles are usually sensitive. I used elbow, all my body weight and my muscle pressure which only seemed to mildly effect him here!
I decided to introduce him to glass cupping technique. I love this simple and powerful technique. Using fire to create a vacuum in a glass cup that sucks the flesh up and squeezes out all the muscles! Even at uni clinic I had a preference for this technique and today I discovered something I loved in Chinese medicine. His desire for a strong massage and the power of this technique were perfect. I did many different variations of this technique on his back which totally satisfied his muscle issue.
It was a real buzz to meet a talented person, from the other side of the world and make a difference. I’m going to try cupping technique on his calf muscles, something I would rarely do on any other patient, on his next booking.
