For those of you who know me – you know that I love the ashiatsu portable bars. I was originally trained in ashiatsu on a very old style of the portables, (that were new at the time) and they feel like home to me. Although I honestly couldn’t afford them back then, I put my first set on a credit card and made sure I got my money’s worth out of them ASAP. Ever since, I’ve used them regularly at local Farmers’ Markets, sporting/yoga events and massage conventions. I’ve taught on portable bars across the country and in Germany. I used ashiatsu portable bars daily for 6 months at one point because I wasn’t sure I wanted to stay in that location long enough to justify building permanent bars.

I just spent 3 solid days working on a set of portable bars that I own. Now that *anyone* can go buy a set of portables, I wanted to fill you in on all the things I don’t think anyone will actually tell you about them. HERE WE GO!

Like the Farmers Insurance commercial says, “We know a thing or two because we’ve seen a thing or two.”

I’ve been doing portable bar gigs for 16 years, and I probably use them more efficiently than most. I still will only use them when I absolutely have to, and I avoid them if I can help it. They do a lot of good for gaining your business exposure outside of your location – but ashiatsu really, truly is best done in the office on your real bars. The bars you build and cater exactly to your body are the bars that your best massages will come from.

My sets of portable bars:

I currently have 4 totally different models of wooden ashiatsu portable bars: 2 different sets of those old style bars, as well as 2 different sets of a newer design. I’ve even used and abused the free-standing metal portable bars that Dawn Dotson designed!

I am very comfortable working on all of them, I trust their strength, balance and sway. I’ve tried to tip them over, and it doesn’t happen. I’ve hung upside-down on them and nothing breaks. I’ve modified them with soft spacers to dampen sound, upgraded to nicer knobs and screws for ease and durability.

I’ve strung them up with twinkle lights and draped them with fabric. I’ve cut down leg lengths, added wax between articulating surfaces, and I’ve sanded down slick-treated dowels for grip and safety. My dad helped design a jerry-rigged vice grip to better connect the table to the A-Frame of the wooden bars, and I’ve even replaced the typical chubby dowels on newer styles down to the 1.25″ diameter that my hands prefer. I love making them mine.

How I’ve helped ashiatsu therapists with the Portable Bars:

For those of you who’ve been following me for the last 8 years, you have probably seen my YouTube videos that show you in fast-speed how I put the old Golden Ratio style (the now deleted video where I have leg warmers and a scarf on), or the newer style (the version that required Earthlite Spirit tables) and Dawn’s new DIY free-standing style together – each in under 15 minutes.

I’ve heard that ashiatsu therapists have watched these videos over and over and over, just to learn how to put them together more efficiently. (Especially since often times they do not come with instructions on how to do so.)

I’ve shared videos on how to best store your portable ashiatsu bars in the SportTube hard cases, and how to get all the pieces to fit. I’ve loaned and rented out my bars over the years to my students who needed them.

I’ve shared information to help other ashi therapists have successful Farmers Market Booths. I’ve hosted classes where I taught groups of massage therapists how to set up, tear down and ultimately use the portable bars to their best advantages. I’ve done my fair share of promoting this piece of equipment.

My love/hate relationship with the ashiatsu portable bars…

I didn’t design the bars (although at one point my feedback did matter to the person who did) but I can safely say that I know every model made prior to 2017 pretty well. Like the Farmers insurance commercial says, “We know a thing or two because we’ve seen a thing or two.”

All that being said: I fully admit that the portable bars are a SERIOUS pain in the butt. I’m not joking. Other experienced, seasoned ashiatsu therapists who have stuck with their portable bars over the years may not admit it out loud, but they know what I’m talking about.

Many sets of ashiatsu portable bars end up being sold after only a few uses because most therapists find them too difficult to justify using them more often. At events, I would much rather do the Fijian Barefoot Massage, Rossiter Technique, Thai Bodywork or Barefoot Shiatsu work that I’m trained in if I can help it, because the equipment I’d need to massage in public for those styles can fit in a little red wagon!

(PS: you can learn Fijian Barefoot Massage from us now – read more here!)

Loading and unloading the car/truck, setting up the gear, doing a full days work massaging people, and then packing up, loading and unloading all over again? It really drains your body. The portable bars make DOING the massage easier, that is for sure. But the setup and tear down is a pain in the butt.

Here’s some of the things that you might not hear from someone trying to sell you a set of ashiatsu portable bars:

Heavy/Awkward:

• They weigh around 80 pounds – so you better get something with wheels to tote it around, and even then, that’s heavy and awkward to transport. They’re tricky to get in and out of your vehicle if you’re doing it by yourself (more on that below).
• They aren’t going to fit you perfectly – the width of where the dowels are set to is too wide for me on every set I own. 2 of the sets I have are too short for me, and the other 2 are doable, but not “just right” like the bars you built in your massage room.
• Our 4’9″ NC instructor Julie says that “Short people problems – the struggle is real!” She can’t naturally hold the handle on the bags/sport tubes and just walk with them. She feels that the leverage of a person her size compared to the weight and length of the bars in their carry cases makes it so that she can’t lift them high enough to tilt them on their wheels.
• I used to have to get a running start with my bars in their hard case to have the leverage to get them up into the bed of my Tacoma truck. I’d run dragging them behind me and then at the last minute fling them up onto the tailgate, let them slide a foot or two, then catch the back end and push them the rest of the way in. That’s ashiatsu Crossfit for you right there!
• You better be self-sufficient, resourceful and strong – because all this loading and setting up is awkward and hard. Don’t rely on other people to help you, because 7 times out of 10, no one is available to help you, or they are going to do it wrong!!! Plus, if you have to fold down your front seat to fit the bars and equipment in the car, you can’t bring anyone with you to help anyways!

After Market Pricey:

• You’ll have to pay about $150-200 for a carry case – whether its a double-wide wheeled ski bag (which are going extinct) or the SporTube Series 2. Make sure it is 83-85″ long and would fit 2 pairs of ski’s.
• The headers, or the “U-shaped” top parts of the bars, won’t fit in the hard cases, and unless you have the 3-part Golden Ratio style, AND a very specific K2 International Ski bag (that isn’t made anymore) you probably won’t fit those parts all in the same travel bag. SO, that means you’ll need an EXTRA carry case – and usually a massage table bag works just fine. (I’ve yet to find a hard case that fits the headers.) You can find used massage table bags cheap, or buy a new one for under $100.
• You need a car/truck that can haul an 83-85″ long, 6-12″ wide ski bag or hard case….. so when you go shopping for a car, you’ll want to make sure these babies fit! (I’ve fit mine in a Jetta, a 4Runner, a Tacoma, and a Rogue. For all those cars, I took my portable bars to the dealership to see if they’d fit before I bought the car! Only 2 of those cars had room left for someone else to ride with me!)
• If you take them with you by plane/train, you’ll have to pay extra for them to travel. For each part: the long hard case, the headers in a bag, and the massage table. When I taught ashiatsu in Germany and took 2 sets of portable bars with me – that cost at least $100 per flight (sometimes also extra for connecting flights) PER ITEM to get there. You do the math.

Difficult Assembly:

• Some models have to be put together in ~just the right order~ with the screws only tightened to 75% before you can get the dowels in. Some models can be built from the ground up like I love to do, and then other versions have to be built one A-Frame at a time, requiring someone to hold them for you while they get attached to a table. You’ll get to know your set and it’ll get easier over time.
• Your first couple tries, it’s going to take at least an hour to set up the bars. No worries, it’s part of the learning process. You’ll get quick with practice
• Don’t bother using these for out calls – it’s WAY too much work to load your car, unload, set up, do a massage, tear down, load your car again, and then unload everything back to where it lives. Definitely not worth the effort for just 1-3 sessions. For a full day or weekend event? Sure!
• You won’t want to use them on a daily basis, because no matter what style wooden set that you have, the legs are in the way for a lot of great moves – ESPECIALLY FasciAshi moves. The freestanding metal sets that our instructor Dawn Dotson sells designs for, however, are your answer for daily use!

High Maintenance:

• You are going to lose parts. Be sure to put screws, nuts, knobs and washers away as you are taking down your bars so they aren’t scattered everywhere and forgotten. (I buy a fanny pack for each set of bars, and I keep it attached to the travel case, and always keep the hardware counted and stored inside it.)
• They are beautiful real wood, and can scratch, dent, and splinter if you are rough on them. Love your portable bars – they are an investment to take good care of (even if they drive you crazy!)
• You’ve got to store them in a temperature/humidity controlled environment: the wood can warp, swell and contract over time.
• If any part of the wood breaks, besides the dowels, you have to jerry rig it back together – there are no replacement parts available to buy.
• You can’t use them with aluminum legged massage tables – the legs could bend like Coke cans due to the forces pulling in all directions. No bueno.
• You can’t use them with electric/hydrolic tables – they have to be wooden legged tables. (UNLESS you get Dawn’s design, which is a free standing portable bar system, and you can buy the designs for just $150!)

Random Minor Annoyances:

• The placement of where the dowels hang are not customizable – typically with our FasciAshi body mechanics, you’ll want the dowels set to your own shoulder width for neutral flexion of the joints – but on portable bars, depending on the model you use, they hang at around 14″ or 18.5″ apart.
• Some models of the bars have lacquered dowels – this is done so that the wood is less likely to warp, swell or break in shipping. This protective layer, however, makes for a slippery grip when you use them. It feels as if the dowels are laminated! Be sure to either sand down the dowels, wear gloves (no, don’t wear gloves!) or exchange the dowels for fresh, untreated raw wood ones.
• The legs of the bars can often be in your way. You can use these to your advantage and lean into them for a bit more leverage and pressure, but when you really need to FasciAshi-fy your work and lean out with the strap, I find them to be in my way. The older model bars that have diagonal legs are further away and less invasive the new vertical-legged design.
• Older versions can only be used on specific tables that are a specific width. My favorite style of wooden ashiatsu portable bars are the old Golden Ratio versions – but that means I have to use the old, heavy Golden Ratio table…. and I hate that face cradle. Sure, I ~could~ (and have) jerry rigged it for use with another make of table, but that lessens the stability of the whole structure
• Wear real shoes while lugging the bars around – trying to transport and assemble them in flip flops is a broken toe or sprained ankle waiting to happen. I’ve scratched my foot and broken sandals just trying to get the bars up! Dress accordingly.
• PARKING: Often times I don’t get the best parking spot, (unless you get to the event SUPER early, or are able to unload nearby before parking) so be prepared to possibly lug all this gear a block to your spot.
• You will need to be the 1st person to arrive at any event – because it’s going to take you a bunch of trips back and forth to the car to unload all this gear….. and you can bet your pinky toes that you’ll be the last one to leave the event, because everyone will want a massage up until the last available minute you can massage, then it’ll take a while to take apart and reload back into your car.
• When massaging in public (and especially at massage events!) be prepared to have people ask you if they can buy the bars. Other LMT’s, bodyworkers and yoga instructors are going to see you standing on someones back and want to do that awesome work, too. I used to be able to say something like “well, you have to be trained in the technique, first…” and that could slide the conversation back to the technique and my training credentials. I can’t necessarily say that anymore, considering they are now for sale for anyone who can afford them. It ~used to be~ that you could not buy a set of portable ashiatsu bars unless you’ve trained in ashiatsu….. that standard has since dropped out of sight.
• Until recently, I’ve never really been happy with the way the FasciAshi strap works with the portables….. scroll to the end of this post to catch a video on how I fixed that problem!

If you invest in a set of portable bars, I highly recommend that you tone down your movements and do not fall into a “show-offy” style of massage as if you are performing.

I don’t recommend doing the seated work in public – stay standing. Learn a style of ashiatsu, like our ROM passive/active/resisted stretching class, and use that on the bars (because it’s not like your clients can get naked in public for you to do your typical gliding strokes!) I don’t recommend any kind of underhand bar support – like parallel gymnastic or floor bars – because that’s just going to compress your wrists and shoulders while you brace yourself up. I do suggest that you jerry rig the bars as needed so that they fit you and your style best.

Slap your bumper stickers on them! Use them as the great tool that they are – a means to get your feet on muscles and work effectively on clients. Don’t use them as a circus apparatus to show off on.

The portable bars are what kick-started my inside joke catch phrase: “Ashiatsu has a lot of baggage.”

No matter where I set up the portable bars, they always help my business, Heeling Sole, get seen and recognized. I always gain great clients from each event. So they are good for that.

People need to see the work to believe it, and they need to feel it to understand it.

The portable ashiatsu bars, no matter what style you get, are amazing for that purpose, and I do love them. Everyone always gets caught up on how pretty they are…. but those of us who’ve used them as well as our permanent bars, we all know what a pain in the @$$ the portables really are – and we’re opting more and more to use other styles of barefoot massage techniques that don’t require overhead bars in public.

ANYWAYS…. Now you know my two cents on what most people won’t tell you about the portable ashiatsu bars.

Here’s my #2sdayTOESday tip on how to attach the adjustable FasciAshi strap to the headers – a hack that I’ve been needing for 16 years – it finally came to me this past weekend at the Texas AMTA Convention!

Jeni Spring is the President, co-owner and a co-creative force behind the Center for Barefoot Massage. She has been teaching ashiatsu since 2008, and practicing it since 2003.

You can read more about Jeni and see her teaching schedule here.

As of 2022, the Center for Barefoot Massage has chosen to no longer serve as a direct vendor with Earthlite, and we will not be taking orders moving forward. You can order directly through Earthlite, Massage Warehouse, and even Amazon. Check with your massage association(s) to see if you qualify for a discount through them, and follow their process for ordering at their reduced rate.