Mashing gives athletes a leg up
Whether you are a professional athlete or a weekend warrior, constricted muscles need to be loosened up in order for them to perform at their best. So we stretch them, we massage them, and work to lengthen them. But even though human hands can be amazingly powerful, they can only penetrate dense muscle so far.
In a way, you can think of muscle as firmly packed soil. When trying to dig into solid ground, you wouldn’t use a hand tools alone. You would put your leg muscles to work with a shovel. So when trying to loosen the deep tissue of very solid muscle, you might need to be put some leg into it. And this is where “mashing” comes into play.
Meridian Mashing, sometimes called “smashing,” stems from an age-old Thai massage technique, Mashiastu, where a trainer uses their legs and feet to exert strong pressure into muscles along specific energy paths along the body. The result is enhanced recovery, increased range of movement and an overall feeling that is incredible.
In recent years, mashing has come into the spotlight with the many Olympic athletes who use it as another tool to improve performance. Swimmer Dara Torres calls mashing the secret weapon that helped her win three silver medals in Beijing. And our own hometown hero, Team USA Gold medalist, Garret Weber-Gale uses it as part of his own training for the London Olympics.
Here at The Lift, our own Patty McNichols is an enthusiastic advocate and practitioner of mashing and Resistance Flexibility Training. She has studied Meridian Mashing with the likes of Bob Cooley (The Genius of Flexibility Center), Dara Torres’ trainers Anne Tierney and Steve Sierra (Ki Hara Body Solutions), and with Carrie Collins (Stretch Chi in Chicago).
“Mashing is a system of therapy that can achieve deep and dramatic changes to the body,” says Patty. “By using their feet on almost every part of the body, trainers can create relaxation along meridians to free up energy flow, assist removing waste products from muscles, loosen tight muscles, and help remove scar tissue. It can improve movement in general and decrease stress.”
Looking for a therapy that goes deeper? Maybe mashing is for you.
Located at Audubon Court | 383 West Brown Deer Road, Fox Point, WI 53217 | Phone: (414) 751-8200Copyright © 2012 The Lift Pilates Studio. All Rights Reserved.
