For me it is
-bad breath and breathing it down on me when I'm supine
-when i am seated on the edge of the table and the therapist is behind working my head/shoulders and they catch the top/front of your head with their oily hands meaning my hair is now all greasy!!
-on cold days not warming up the muscles enough before doing deep work

the hand on head thing is so basic, it is really easy to do it effectively with just you thumb and index finger.

Just spotted this...am guilty of holding my breath although I sometimes don't notice I am doing it - just as I don't want to breathe on clients as I am quite short so can be quite close at times (sorry!)
For me the worst things are hands that smell...,bad breath(last nights wine/cheese and onion crisps-have experienced both...:(), leaving the room to answer the phone-just as bad as having a mobile going in the room, not even doing any sort of consultation(?!?!) and last but not least....therapists who SIGH LOUDLY....I love massage, don't find it boring in the slightest but apparantly some do! SS

I sometimes find I'm taking a big breath, which I hope doesn't sound like a sigh! It's not boredom, it's because I sometimes concentrate hard on a repetitive movement and don't breathe properly.

Well, for what it's worth. You don't get a good massage if your covered with anything at all. Or if you've got undies on. Fact. Any sort of towel re-arranging screws up the flow of the massage, and I don't like being massaged in installments or area by area, rather like massaging by numbers. I like a full body massage from top to bottom with long flowing efflurage strokes, randomly is preferable, and it's impossible to do this with any covering or undies on. And I don't like bits of my body being 'missed' because it might be considered to intimate. I can always tell when a massage is how I like it, I fall to sleep.

good massage

Good massage in london

Sorry Alan D, but why is working the gluts though the towel bad training? There is more to massage than Swedish/Classical! Are you suggesting that Shiatsu, Thai, and Tui-Na practitioners are less sensitive because they work though clothing? In many respects a covered body can tell you as much or even more where the underlying tension is! How is this possible? By the adaption of technique.

As therapists we need to be a bit more open minded when it comes to technique, not just following one type of massage. Massage training in the UK should include clothed techniques as well as oily ones. We are so backward compared to USA & Asia.

Back to the topic, pulling clients underwear down without permission is bad practice. But as been said, working the gluts is an important in many musculo-sketetal (sp) disorders.

One thing I don't like from a therapist is wrapping their fingers around my throat when working the trapezium, yuk!

RP

I think that he is referring to the fact that when doing massage on any muscle, glutes included, it is best to work on the skin as it allows the therapist to assess many things that a through the towel massage won't. For example, I had a client come in complaining of lower back pain and I noticed he had trouble walking straight as he was slightly hunched over at the waist. After hearing his pains from his point of view and doing a postural examination, I felt it would be in his best interest to have several areas worked on, the latissimus dorsi muscle, the glutes and hamstrings. After explaining to him what the nature of his injuries would require in treatment, I gave him the option of selecting how glute work would be done as other muscles, I will simply uncover one by one, but the glutes, it gets a lot more complicated. It's best to have the client totally unclothed and draped properly and work on one glute at a time, although this client preferred to wear his basketball shorts during the massage, even though he was okay with me lowering his shorts just enough to work on the glute muscles. By doing that, I was able to ascertain exactly which parts of the latissimus dorsi (lower back) were injured, where the buttock muscles were injured and/or tight, as well as understand whether to use the cooling cream or heating cream. Being that the muscles didn't feel inflamed, but the muscles were injured, I knew exactly where to work, how much pressure to apply, and to use the warming versus cooling cream. He said when he left that I seemed to intuitively know where he was injured and how much pressure to apply.

Therefore, I tend to concur that it is best to massage all muscles on the skin (even the buttocks muscles). I know it's not my favorite part of the job, but it is intended for pain relief. Also, massaging through the covers or towel is a viable option, if and only if the client is uncomfortable with having the bare glutes massaged as we want to be respectful of the client's modesty. I'm not saying it's the only way to do it, but based on my training, I feel like it is the best way. However, I recognize and respect other schools of thought on the matter.