(Part 2) Best massage books according to redditors

My uncle had this book on sensual massage for partners, when everyone was out of the house I would sneak it out of his room and look at the pictures because all the girls were nude and it was about the closest thing to porn I could get at that age.

The side effect was after I was done looking at the pictures I actually read the damn thing and every girlfriend I've had from around 16 to present day (29) has enjoyed some amazing massages. Thanks Uncle D!

Pseudoscience fascinates me, not least because of the ASMR, but also the idea that someone could believe this claptrap. I mean, EFT...holy god what boldfaced abominable bullshit that is! But it has still managed to develop a decent following. There are people out there who swear it's helped change their lives. That is amazing to me.

Reading was my first experience of ASMR. Not until youtube did I realize that I could get it by visual stimuli. There's a scene in the Star Trek novel Unification in which Picard gets a haircut. I would read and reread that scene over and over. It got to the point that I knew the scene too well and would anticipate the next sentence, and in my experience, this kills the ASMR. I had to ration my reading.

I also get significant ASMR triggers from reading about massage therapy, which has lead to me building a small library of massage books. This has the added benefit of making me rather knowledgeable in the ways of bodywork. I give pretty awesome massage if I do say so myself. This was the first book that brought the correlation to my attention, and it's a great trigger even today, because it's a first-person description of what it's like to receive certain kinds of massages. I highly recommend it to anyone who triggers from reading.

For anatomy/physiology just choose something cheap. And then get one of the workbooks that makes you label everything a hundred times.

If you want to start learning some patho: this is probably my favorite low level anatomy/patho book.

If you get it used, it's cheap. Information is straight forward, well organized, and simply explained. Some stuff is somewhat over simplified, and I wouldn't really call it paramedic level for patho, but as an overview of anatomy and beginner pathophysiology it's great. Also has a companion workbook you can get which isn't too expensive and is fairly decent.

You can learn Reiki, and I believe craniosacral therapy, without a massage license. Check with your local regulations to be sure, but there should be some things you can try out to see if you'd like to make a career out of it for a while.
This book has different massage techniques from different countries that you can use at home, it's pretty neat.

I’m not sure it helps to say no one’s judging. They actually probably are. The work lies in learning not to care and THAT’S REALLY HARD.

If you want to know how to use free weights, Cory Everson was a Ms. Olympia seven times.

https://www.amazon.com/Superflex-Olympias-Guide-Building-Strong/dp/0809248654/ref=mp_s_a_1_11?keywords=cory+everson&qid=1574977221&sr=8-11#immersive-view_1574977247283

The other thing that can help is learning how to induce a form of tunnel vision. Don’t look at anybody, don’t expect encouragement from anybody, write out your workout in a form that won’t make you feel self conscious when you refer to it, and do nothing but focus on your form and your breathing and then get outta there and feel proud of what you did. Of course, extroverts won’t like doing it that way but it can be a good approach for introverts.

If that really doesn’t work you’re pretty much left with doing body weight exercises at home until you feel pro enough to withstand the scrutiny you’re currently fearing.

These helped me as well. He has a way of breaking it down so that I could grasp the basic concept then go into more detail. I highly recommend them. And flash cards. I picked up a a set from a company called Mosby’s. Got them off Amazon. They had all the systems. I highlighted parts I needed to review as per my study guide (and notes) and took them with me everywhere.

Edit: These are the ones I got There’s also some fun coloring books that help with the physiology side you can get, if you’re into that.

I picked up Massage for Dummies. If you want to get more involved, study the musculo-skeletal and nervous systems so you can get specific with where and how to work out different issues.

Yes! These are the absolute Bible of trigger point therapy. They're pretty expensive, but they go muscle by muscle and show you the trigger point locations, where they refer, the effects of the trigger point, exactly how to deactivate them, and ways to prevent them from flaring up again. If you can afford them (Vol 1 is upper body, Vol 2 is lower), they are wonderful.

If the cost is prohibitive, an Amazon search will give you a lot of options. There are everything from wall charts, small booklets, pamphlets, notebooks, to giant tomes.

I don't always know the precise referrals (it's a lot of material) but if I'm finding an area where I feel like I'm spending too much time and not making much progress, that's usually a sign I'm not working efficiently and should look for the real source elsewhere. Good ones to memorize are one in the triceps that affects the front of the shoulder, there's a big trigger point in the quads that tends to release a lot of nearby ones, and there are a couple of major ones in the pecs and biceps that are like off-switches for muscle tension.

How about "Science of Flexibility" by Michael Altar:

https://www.amazon.ca/Science-Flexibility-3rd-Michael-Alter/dp/0736048987/

I found this book to be a fantastic resource while learning how to stretch properly:

http://www.amazon.com/Stretching-Anatomy-Arnold-G-Nelson/dp/0736059725

I haven't picked it up yet, personally, but I've heard great things about Trail Guide to the Body. There is also Trail Guide to Movement by the same author, and it looks pretty interesting as well. Here is a podcast interview of the author, which is pretty interesting and should give you an idea of what to expect.

I do not have anything from Kit Laughlin, but I love his material.

What are your goals with buying these things? Do you want more knowledge? Do you want a list of things to do? Do you want a strict program?

Here's my picks based on what I have read:

• More knowledge: Stretching Scientifically - one of the best summaries of the science of stretching, along with the hows and whys.
  
• A basic list of things: Sport Stretch - the best "dictionary of stretches". The initial chapters are largely in line with Kurz's recommendations for stretching and flexibility, too
  
• A strict program: Focused Flexibility or Body Mechanic - both are very good programs (the first is more general/overall than the second) that tell you precisely what to do, how to do it, and how to measure progress (something a lot of flexibility training ignores).

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I borrowed this book from a classmate and it really helped.

Haha, nice... yeah, I've been (very) slowly making my way through this book, usually studying a bit as I injure myself, or run into flexibility issues or whatever else. And yeah, glad this was helpful to you... I'm not any kind of an expert on it, but glad I could at least relay a bit from my partner.

As far as self reliance goes... I suppose I should start using my sessions as a time to train my own sense of proprioception. (oh, there's an adhesion there? Is this the right amount of pressure to feel it? Let's see...) play around with feeling it before work and afterwards. I haven't even started on that journey yet, but you might be able to use professional sessions as a chance to at least learn the basics of how to navigate around on your own. My partner says I'm particularly prone to adhesions in my forearms (not so much everywhere else for some reason) so your mileage with this may vary. We should touch base in a few months, I'm paying a lot of attention to wrist stuff, so it'll be interesting to see where we both are a little ways down the line.

Some people just don't put on mass like others. It's not a bad thing (I'm one of them) it kind of depends on the majority of the type of muscles you were born with; slow/fast twitch If you want to see gains you can listen to RadOwl (ignore the Men's Health crap), but I think he left out something very important; Negative reps, just not at first unless you're not a pussy, it affects the muscle and makes you sore like you've never experienced but they are very effective. I suggest this book, The Gold's Gym Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding, it's old but I still reference it, really simple and informative.

theres a book facilitated stretching that's pretty cheap and lays it all out.

I really liked the Gray's Anatomy flash cards. They aren't all that expensive, and they were REALLY helpful to me. The set has all the different systems and good illustrations.

I read it almost a decade ago and did not find it particularly useful. Joe Weider's Ultimate Bodybuilding ( https://www.amazon.ca/Joe-Weiders-Ultimate-Bodybuilding-Weider/dp/0809247151/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1497456947&sr=8-5&keywords=weider+bodybuilding ) is a considerably better book. There are two others he did and they are not nearly as good.

Source: I have all three books.