Anyone else here doing the Art Riggs course in Filey?

Hi Kevin,
did you enjoy your course with Art ?

Hi Stephen, I'm glad i did it. It was a little disappointing in some ways.

But, I'm having great success with it I rarely use oil or any lube with it. It's a very intuitive way to work, ties in with anatomy trains largely. No bad thing!!

Hi Stephen, I'm glad i did it. It was a little disappointing in some ways.

But, I'm having great success with it I rarely use oil or any lube with it. It's a very intuitive way to work, ties in with anatomy trains largely. No bad thing!!

Hi Kevin

Could you elaborate about what was disappointing? I'm thinking about doing the course at some point in the future. I have the DVDs, but sometimes it's easier to learn when you are seeing and doing real-life demos. But I wouldn't want to waste the money if the course wasn't up to scratch.

It's interesting that you say you rarely use oil. That's the impression I get from watching the DVDs - it looks like he uses very very little oil (if any). In practice though, this only really works with non-hairy bodies! LOL! There's no way I could imagine doing deep tissue or myofascial work on a hairy man's leg. Do you have that problem? Or do you still find that it works ok? I'd be interested to hear.

Kitten
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Hi Kitten, you asked the question that i wanted to ask! Was also wondering what was slightly dissapointing.

I also have the dvds but had considered doing one of his courses too, just to get a greater idea and have it done on me, to know a bit more about how it feels.

I use a limited amount of oil, but also have the same problem as you kitten, in that if i use only a small amount of oil it can pull on the hairs and make this uncomfortable, so use more on the more hairy bit.

I have really enjoyed the Art Riggs dvds though.

Hi Kevin
if you don't want to elaborate then fair enough but am sure your fellow therapists would value your opinion.?

What I've only recently discovered is how difficult it can be to integrate new techniques.

EG I learnt MFR in feb = dry work, not what I was used too at all.:(

It took me 6 months to find a way to integrate MFR that I now do at the end of session having already used oils. By gripping through a very thin sheet of couch roll. Results are 😀

Hi Kevin
if you don't want to elaborate then fair enough but am sure your fellow therapists would value your opinion.?

What I've only recently discovered is how difficult it can be to integrate new techniques.

EG I learnt MFR in feb = dry work, not what I was used too at all.:(

It took me 6 months to find a way to integrate MFR that I now do at the end of session having already used oils. By gripping through a very thin sheet of couch roll. Results are 😀

Hi Stephen

I'm not sure whether we've just been taught different things, but I would ALWAYS do any myofascial release work PRIOR to applying oil and moving into either swedish or deep tissue moves.

Not only is it easier to perform (because there is no oil obviously), but MFR can be so effective in freeing up tight and/or painful areas that it can change the way the rest of the session progresses. To me, doing it at the end makes no sense.

But that's just my personal opinion - based on what I learned on my MFR course and also from what I've read on the subject.

Kitten
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Hi Stephen

I'm not sure whether we've just been taught different things, but I would ALWAYS do any myofascial release work PRIOR to applying oil and moving into either swedish or deep tissue moves.

Not only is it easier to perform (because there is no oil obviously), but MFR can be so effective in freeing up tight and/or painful areas that it can change the way the rest of the session progresses. To me, doing it at the end makes no sense.

But that's just my personal opinion - based on what I learned on my MFR course and also from what I've read on the subject.

Kitten
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Hi Kitten I trained with Ruth Duncan did you ?

She teaches MFR is to be used exactly the way you discibe, but it did not suite my style . I saw Ruth at CAMEXPO and said I had difficulty delivering MFR as a primary technique. She was completely ok with this "what ever works for you" .

Using it first or last, the main thing is to integrate it successfully into your work. There's nothing worse than spending lots of money on a good quality course only to find you dont connect with the techniques or results.

Sorry peeps, haven't been on for a while.

Well, here we go. The course notes weren't up to much, not the end of the world, but, I have enough pics of anatomy, the rest of the notes really consisted of just lists of things covered. It became pointless asking questions as the answers just veered off into digression mode. There were too many anecdotes that went on for too long for my liking. I don't think it's appropriate for a tutor to eat and check emails in class instead of helping the students with their new skills. There were people working on me that just had didn't get the techniques and weren't given the help they needed. There were a few of us felt quite dispondant with it. I believe a course should have a set structure to it instaed of taking detours. Art is a great bloke, very talented has a fantastic touch, but I just felt there was not enough structure.

However, I have been able to just switch to myofacial release and do it predominently with private clients. I only really do standard massage at the football club. The results are amazing, very quick usually and much easier on the body. MFR is very slow by nature and really does enable you to connect with the client. I almost go into a semi hypnotic state when using it, each treatment becomes a journey. It's a very intuitive way of working, you can be lead quite easily by the clients tissue, amazing how far away you can end up working from the site of the problem.

There were some real pearls of knowledge that I have been able to take away from the classes, but more through chance and luck and my stubboness when it comes to getting things right.

Thing is, it gives you the all important piece of paper to practice the techniques legally.

Hairy people. For MFR I find it makes very little difference, hairy or not. I find I only really use oil on people with dry skin and funnily enough, the oil enables me to grip the tissue of these people. I do tend to get just a tiny amount of grape seed oil on my hands and more or less just rub it in to my own hands completely, then transfer it to my forearms etc. The trick, I find is sinking to the correct level. If you don't sink past the level of the skin, hair pulling usually is the result. The angle of attack is important also. I use quite a shallow angle with MFR, obviously, the object is to work obliquely to drag tissue along rather than crushing it against bone.

In Art's dvd's he recommends standard massage strokes to warm the area up. The opposite was the case on the course. He stated he never really bothers with it. So, neither do I ;o) Be aware that there were quite a few differences between the dvds and the course. It seems the dvds are sort of outdated now. But with this type of work, there is plenty of scope to be creative and develop your own way of working.

Hope that helps.

Kevin

Hi Kevin

Thanks for the detailed feedback: I’m sorry to hear that you were disappointed by Art Riggs’ course. I have also been very impressed by his DVDs and refer to them regularly.
I agree with Kitten re MFR and was trained in the same way: ie do MFR first before oil work. My tutors were Anne Cruickshank and Rachel Fairweather. I think that they are both quite well-known as MFR tutors. But the last time I mentioned / recommended one of their CPD courses, my post disappeared from HP very quickly. I assume that one of the moderators thought that I was advertising, which wasn’t the intention: I was simply trying to be helpful !

Alan

Hi all,

Am interested in these DVD's you are talking about.. Has anyone got a link to where I can get them. And what the names of the DVD's are??

Thanks,

Danny

Hi all,

Am interested in these DVD's you are talking about.. Has anyone got a link to where I can get them. And what the names of the DVD's are??

Thanks,

Danny

Hi Danny

I got mine here.

They are currently on sale until 7 Jan. Just to warn you though - they are expensive. But I view it as an investment. They are an excellent set of DVDs.

Kitten
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I purchased my DVDs from a UK supplier: http://www.ultimatemassagesolutions.com/shop.aspx?CatID=2&SubCatID=24

I'm not sure of the current exchange rate, so I'm not sure how this compares with the US supplier Kitten has referred to.

Alan

Dropping the warm up techniques

In Art's dvd's he recommends standard massage strokes to warm the area up. The opposite was the case on the course. He stated he never really bothers with it. So, neither do I ;o) Be aware that there were quite a few differences between the dvds and the course. It seems the dvds are sort of outdated now. But with this type of work, there is plenty of scope to be creative and develop your own way of working.

Hope that helps.

Kevin

I can see there are cases when some therapists may want to drop warm up techniques, but as part of the massage they can be vitally important in preparing the tissue, part of assesment, reducing potential for a reaction (flare up), stimulation of "feel good" chemicals.............this is what most osteo's chiro's physio's can't be bothered with or don't have time for, this can make the difference between just alieviating symptoms and having the client return for regular treatment in prevention mode........too important to leave out!