Hi, I’m Jeni Spring feeling the need to chime in here about the Ashi-Strap! Have you seen something dangling from Ashiatsu Bars in pictures across the internet? Is someone you follow online leaning or sitting in a strap of some kind while massaging with their feet?

I started that trend. You’re welcome! Now the strap is integral to the Myofascial Ashiatsu technique taught at the Center for Barefoot Massage.

The idea:

It all began in my original Barefoot Massage training back in 2003. I was so fresh out of massage school that I took E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G literally. I was told, as I’m sure a lot of other student massage therapists were, that basically, our new career was going to die soon! Our (not even paid off yet) career was likely to be cut short due to a wide range of inevitable upper body repetitive strain injuries. Or the dreaded burnout will get us. I went to a great school, but man, I somehow really remember that specific message from them as a warning to take care of myself and always be looking for ways to beat the odds. At only 22 years old, I was determined to make sure that this wasn’t a flash-in-the-pan, “done by 30” type of job. I wanted to be a Massage Therapist for life!

So after a few weeks of practicing the new ashiatsu techniques, I started noticing the grip that I was applying on my bars. My forearms were tight, my hands were getting calloused. Now, to be fair, ALL newbie ashiatsu therapists before me, and many more that came after me have experienced this. It’s part of the process, and some of us shed that death grip eventually. BUT, in taking my massage school instructor’s warnings (or were they threats?!) to heart, I really wanted to find a way to more consistently relax my grip to save my hands.

The beginning:

That’s when I slung a yoga strap from bar to bar across the length of my table. I was able to use it to help hoist myself up onto the barstool or massage table. I started leaning back into it to maintain the angle of the stroke, taking the strain out of my hand grip.

The Ashi-strap was used as back support when I did outdoor events and couldn’t have a wall behind me. I used it as a tool for clients to hold onto as I stretched and moved their bodies. It was suspended and secured in all different manner of ways as I was learning its strengths and weaknesses.

The rest is history. The basic idea all started within a few months of my graduation from massage school in Seattle, after my first ashiatsu class on Whidbey Island, when I first “strapped in” at my office in Mountlake Terrace, Washington. The function and use of it beyond that really evolved once I moved to Texas. That was 2003. What were you up to that year? I was obsessing over making barefoot massage more effective and awesome, even back then!

Sneak peek appearances in classes

When I was invited to start teaching barefoot massage in Texas, the strap was frowned upon by the founder of westernized ashiatsu. I was constantly reminded to shape up and teach her style of ashiatsu without variants (like the strap) to help keep her brand consistent. I respected and understood that. It was always very hard not to spill all the beans and teach everything I knew. If you trained with me back then, all those “Jeni-isms” were extra credit. The way I taught ashiatsu and the way I actually used it in practice were two VERY different animals because of my incorporation of the strap and my own evolving portfolio of training. Although I did sneak the strap into some of my classes when I used to teach for that company, and although I did help reshape her brand over the years anyways – the strap was never a part of that technique and it never belonged there. It’s mine, and it deserved to be taught with the work it was really intended for.

That style of ashiatsu was way too vertical for my real use of the strap to really shine and make sense. If I incorporated straps in classes prior to 2017, my reasoning was to help LMT’s who already struggled with RSI’s in their upper quadrant. The support of the strap as they were learning to massage with their feet alleviated pain. It was presented carefully as a crutch more than a tool back then.

Where it evolved:

My local business in San Antonio is Heeling Sole was the nations first Barefoot Massage specialty clinic where the entire staff was using a variety of barefoot techniques all day, all the days, all the time on all the peoples, every month, over and over. Here, I noticed a lot of ways that the strap could be used for different body types above and below the foot. The employees grew into this new tool, and things that never happened with me were happening with them. The daily use from rougher approaches than how I used it was wearing the fabric thin. The uneven distribution of how it was anchored was actually BENDING the hardware from the constant pull.

I rethought its installation design to better support the demands we were putting on it. That’s when strap installation and placement switched. Increased safety features were added to the hardware itself. We began to “Trust Fall” and lay on your straps for fun because NOW WE COULD DO IT FEARLESSLY! The collective growth in confidence helped to evolve this tool immeasurably.

Adjustable straps came into play to account for arm length, but also to support a variety of vectors, distances, and heights. Now we were able to use it during our matwork massages, like Fijian! The strap needed to become weight-bearing: something that could be just as strong as our bars were brought in to evolve the idea further.

The strap nowadays

The more I stepped away from the original westernized swedish-style Ashiatsu Barefoot Massage technique and put my trust into the strap, the more my entire approach to ashi noticeably changed. Evolutions of the work really started with the support of this suspended strap back in 2003. When the Center for Barefoot Massage was launched in 2017, the “FasciAshi” technique was finally revealed and had become so dependant on that strap that you can’t make it through one of our classes without it. Now with each level of training, the use of the strap is taught with a variety of modifications to help every LMT work effortlessly.

Here’s the biggest thing I grew to understand about the strap: your foot’s sensitivity to the changes occurring in your client’s tissue can be hindered by any unnecessary exertion in your body.

Westernized Ashiatsu Barefoot Massage body mechanics start from the bars and work down. This is opposed to when you are standing on the floor, where body mechanics usually begin at your feet. The tension in your muscle spindle fibers affect your client’s responsiveness to their own tension. The softer your point of contact at its origin of support (in our case, the bars) the more receptive your soles will be. The need to “death grip” your bars decreases with the straps’ support, and that translates into your feet.

Since 2017, the Center for Barefoot Massage’s instructor team continued to play with the possibilities that this support offered – we had so much fun. We changed westernized ashiatsu. We dodged the RSI’s. We danced around burnout. We massaged for hours without getting pooped. Our students are thriving. NThe strap is a game-changer and made all the difference in our careers.

How to strap in:

Am I going to share this info as freely as I used to? Nope – I really messed up there, and I also didn’t put my foot down loud enough to let it be better known that the “strap thing” started with me. A LOT of people are using and teaching with the strap without my permission, and without a full understanding of its use. It can be awkward and even dangerous if used awkwardly and dangerously, lol. I can tell in pictures and videos if it’s being used correctly.

Respect your elders, y’all. Ruthie gave us westernized Ashi with overhead bars on a table, and I gave you the strap.

The strap and how we use it are proprietary to the Center for Barefoot Massage, so if you want to buy one, buy it from one of our instructors in your next FasciAshi class.

If you want to learn the best practices for use and safe installation that won’t damage your room or existing bar set up: get into a Center for Barefoot Massage class.

It’s not as easy as just putting up a strap and figuring it out. Avoid the pitfalls of getting tangled, held back or annoyed by this thing dangling in your way. Let a Center for Barefoot Massage instructor teach you how to strap in! I’ve got years of tips, tricks, hacks and heads-ups to share with you as you wave goodbye to upper body strain while lounging back in your strap.