This DVD set is designed for:

* Massage students wishing to make a transition from relaxation based to structural work.

* Massage therapists wishing to expand and take their skills to a higher level.

Many massage training videos just show "strokes" without delving into the complex issues of soft tissue restrictions, osseous articulations and strategies for working with the multitude of different issues we face as therapists. This extensive series is designed to stimulate creativity and problem solving skills. This  valuable resource not only shows countless strokes and strategies, but will, more importantly, demonstrate the qualitative art of working with deep tissues to affect profound change.

Note: ATMS member can earn 35 CPE points with this DVD

SECTION I: THE FUNDAMENTALS (Discs 1 & 2)

View Video Clip Working on the back

Massage strokes can be empty gestures if not performed with specific intention and nurturing touch. This 3 hour section lays the groundwork of deep tissue work. You will learn:

- Refining Your Touch and Working Through Superficial Muscles to Contact Deep Layers of the Body.
- Biomechanics of Working Tissue Deeply with Minimal Effort and Safety.
- How to Properly Use Fingers, Knuckles, the Fist, Forearm, and Elbow and Save Your Thumbs.
- Different Types of Massage Strokes and Strategies to Lengthen Tissue, Free Adhesions, and Release Holding Patterns.
- Positioning of Your Client to Increase Effectiveness of Your Work.
- The Side-Lying Position to Dramatically Improve Your Effectiveness.

Disc 1 - Cultivating your touch, Caveats, Tools (1 hr, 28 mins)

Disc 2 - Tools (Forearm), Types of Strokes & Strategies, Body positioning, Side lying position (1 hr 19 mins)

View Video Clip; Working with rotation of spine

Over 5 hours of goal-oriented strategies for working with every part of the body. Hundreds of techniques enabling you to express your creativity by choosing what works best for you and for your clients. Art Riggs demonstrates how to grab and stretch the tissue, rather than simply gliding over it.

In addition you will learn valuable skills of joint mobilization, spinal mechanics, working with breath, rib mobilization, and extensive innovative side-lying techniques. Each technique is accompanied by muscle anatomy description.

Disc 3 - Legs & Feet: Ankle retinaculum, Tibialis anterior, Gastrocnemius, Quadriceps, 

           Tensor Fascial Lata & Iliotibial band, Hamstring, Joint mobilization.

           Pelvic Stabilization: Sacrum, Gluteals, External rotators, Piriformis.

           (1 hr 43 mins)

Disc 4 - Pelvic: Quadratus Lumborum.

           Anterior Pelvis & Abdomen: Breathing pattern, Psoas, Iliacus

           The Back: Vertebral movement & mobilization, Paraspinal muscles, Ribs.

           (1 hrs 53 mins)

Disc 5 -  Shoulder Girdle: Scapula & Rotator cuff.

            Chest: Pectoralis major & Minor, Ribs

            Arms: Upper arm, elbow, wrist & hand

            Neck: Deep thoracics & cervical, Scalenes, Sternocleidomastoid, Digastric Muscles,

            the Skull, Sub Occipital.

            (1 hr 17 mins)

View Video Clip Standing work on calf & ankles, Sitting Work on the Thoracic

Learning to work with common injuries and complaints from clients, not simply routines, but rather treatment options drawn from precise anatomical knowledge, applying specific intentional strokes with intuition on the side.

In addition you will learn PNF stretches, basic rehabilitation suggestions, and novel methods to work with clients in gravity "off the table" in standing and seated position.

Disc 6 - Injuries to Feet and Ankles, including Sprains, Plantar Fasciitis, Achilles Tendonitis. Injuries to the Legs: Shin Splints, Knee Pain and Dysfunction. Piriformis syndrome & Sciatica, Minor Back Pain.

(1 h 39 mins)

Disc 7 - Back Pain, Neck Pain & Whiplash, Shoulder & Rotator Cuff injuries, Tennis Elbow, Golfer's elbow, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Wrist Complaints, Thoracic Outlet Problems.

(1h 25 mins)

Review by Lisa Mertz, Massage Therapy Journal

Art Riggs is one of the most awesome bodywork teachers in our profession. He advocates a holistic approach, recommending that we don’t just treat the site of an injury in a perfunctory way, but instead learn to express compassion for the psychological aspects of pain. A client in chronic pain might have lost confidence in the ability of the body to heal itself. Whether in a wellness massage or a clinical treatment, a nurturing touch, coupled with strategies for self-care, can reinvigorate an injured client’s healing process. Riggs says it it’s the compassionate touch that separates us from the massage machines that are on the market, adding that you can tell if a massage is going to be good with the first two minutes just by the quality of the therapist’s touch.

The material is advanced, so it’s recommended for practicing therapists who already have a firm knowledge of anatomy. The set is sequential, and the information presented builds with increasing complexity, making it easier to learn.

The demonstrations of strokes using proper biomechanics are truly brilliant. Riggs discusses which “tools” to use, “moving upstream” from the fingers to the knuckles, to the forearm and finally to the elbow. He shows how to do deep work on specific muscles without compromising your wrists or using your thumbs.

Rather than taking the cookbook approach—offering recipes for various conditions—Riggs teaches how to focus on what you want to accomplish with an individual client’s body. He shows how to use precise, intentional strokes for specific purposes. Applying an Esalen-style gliding stroke along the direction of the muscle fiber lengthens tissue. Riggs demonstrates how to grab and stretch the tissue, rather than simply gliding over it. He also shows joint decompression and facilitating shortening, as well as a way of applying facilitated lengthening he calls “anchor and stretch.”

The teachings culminate in strategies for troubleshooting specific conditions, like hip replacement, tennis elbow and whiplash. Again, Riggs does not simply present routines or protocols, but rather treatment options drawn from precise anatomical knowledge, applying specific intentional strokes with some intuition on the side.

Deep Tissue Massage is a beautifully produced video set, and the demonstrations are presented without obstruction. Riggs’ passion for the profession really shines through his on-camera presence. He is a great teacher and he shares an enormous amount of knowledge and wisdom on these videos.

Review by Thomas Myers (author of Anatomy Trains) in Massage Magazine

The techniques and principles of Ida Rolf ’s structural integration Rolfing® have been increasingly available to the advanced massage therapist via both workshop and published media, but never in so complete a form. Although the tapes do not purport to teach structural integration, Riggs has done an enviable job at exposing and explaining many of the techniques.

The first two programs are given over to them entirely, and form the foundation for the subsequent techniques. This includes the fundamentals of cultivating your touch. Riggs begins with the observation that you can tell within the first two minutes whether you are going to get a good massage. Therefore, cultivating your touch is without doubt the fundamental task of anyone who wants to pay his or her bills by touching people. This section includes notes unique to structural fascial work: on lubrication (less, and water based); how to palpate different levels of tension or restrictions; and practitioner biomechanics as applied to deeper techniques. Another section reviews endangerment sites and areas of caution, in order to allow practitioners to reduce their trepidation around areas of physiological vulnerability.

The largest part of these initial two tapes devotes itself to the use of tools—the fingertips, the knuckles, the loose fist and the elbow. This includes several examples of the proper use of each tool and, very usefully, the improper use, as well. This section is followed by an extensive introduction to the different kinds of strokes and client positions used in the rest of the programs.

Having served us well with a thorough introduction, Riggs leads us through a series of techniques and strategies that wind their way up through the body from foot to skull, with many helpful explanations and variations, which ensure that the intent, rather than just the techniques, is conveyed to the viewer.

The final two programs offer help in troubleshooting injuries and include good assessment and treatment options for common problems such as back pain, core stability, rotator-cuff injuries, and ankle-and knee-injury leftovers. Each section is accompanied by anatomy slides and helpful discussion, which makes this a multi-dimensional approach, rather than a linear procession of techniques.

Riggs is to be congratulated for putting together a pleasing and professional set of programs, which I predict will be strewn on the desk of many a therapist —being used, rather than up on a shelf gathering dust.

Keith Grant, PhD, NCTMB Research Physicist and Director of the McKinnon Institute Sports & Deep Tissue Program

Paulette and Richard Bergess, Directors, The San Francisco School of Massage

Laura G. (Canada)

“Deep Tissue Myofascial Release Massage’ has enabled our school to plan a 100 hour curriculum around its clear progression from the basic skills to clearly defined strategies.”

Julie Morrison

Director of Massage Western Career College Pleasant Hill, CA

“The thorough demonstrations — not only of specific massage techniques, but the subtleties of working with tissue —show how to work with virtually all soft tissue situations encountered in a bodywork practice. Art Riggs has made this valuable information accessible for both the relatively new massage therapist and experienced professionals performing sophisticated clinical therapy.”

Helen James

Masters in Physical Therapy Stanford University & Professor Emeritus California State University Fresno, CA

“…so much more than just showing strokes. This series has transformed the way that I work. At a fraction of the price I’d pay at a school, this is an entire bodywork course that I can study at home. It will be a reference for years to come”

Justine Jacobs

Massage Therapist

“I wish I had had this resource 12 years ago when I was in physical therapy school. These products have dramatically improved the quality of my work and saved my body from injury.”

Patrick Hannum

Physical therapist and Rolfer

Peter G., Osteopath, (London)

See Also

The Book | About Art Riggs | Articles by Art Riggs