How to Give a Foot Massage
Friday, February 12th, 2010
One the most fabulous gifts you can give—or receive—is to touch or be touched. Hugs, handshakes, taking someone’s arm—simple touches like these have been proven to lower blood pressure and the stress hormone cortisol and even boost the immune system.
Massage is one way of systematically touching someone and, with practice, it can release muscle tension as well. APOGEE’s massage therapist Orlando Ocasio recommends sharing a foot massage. It’s nice to give your partner a foot rub; try it with your children as well. Here is Orlando’s recipe for a 20-minute foot massage that anyone can master.
1. Choose a place where your partner can sit or lie down and be warm, relaxed and comfortable. Warm some lotion or massage oil to skin temperature; test the temperature on the inside of your wrist. Put the lotion or oil on your hands so they will glide on your partner’s skin.
2. Begin by holding one of your partner’s feet in your hands; cover the other foot with a blanket or towel. Using long gliding strokes that barely touch the skin, stroke the top of the foot from the ankle toward the toes for about a minute. Then, with the same light touch, stroke the bottom of the foot, from the heel to the toe for another minute.
3. Repeat the same strokes, but apply 10 percent more pressure. After a minute, apply 10 percent more pressure, then increase the pressure a third time. Each time you begin to apply more pressure, ask permission. You can say something such as, “Is this OK? Does this feel good?” By the third round, you should be pressing beyond the skin layer.
4. Using this deepest pressure, put one thumb on top of the other and press into the ball of the foot, using short upward and downward movements. Move to the arch, using both thumbs to stroke toward the toes.
5. With the palm of your hand, cup your partner’s heel and wave your hand, pressing into the heel with a back and forth motion.
6. With the soft part of your thumb, press the bottom of each toe. Then, with your thumb and forefinger, gently grasp each toe.
7. End with the same long, light strokes that you began with, stroking from ankle to toes, on the top and bottom of the foot.
8. Cover or wrap this foot and then massage the other foot in the same way.
