Walking the Fingers - Hand Reflexology Technique

everyone this is Sam over at the foot Whisperer reflexology Institute here today with another hand reflexology techniques video and today we're going to be walking the fingers and the fingers are a wonderful place to work it's definitely when people come in for hand reflexology one of the things that keeps them coming back because we address the fingers very differently than your typical massage session we use a very specific alternating pressure very unique hand grip and all of that we'll be talking about in this video but first and foremost let's go over what this grip entails and where we're actually going to be walking in terms of the fingers which contain all of our head and neck reflexes alrighty everybody so let's take a look at the hand one more time so that we can get an idea of where the fingers not only are but where we're going to walk specifically on the fingers okay so the fingers we have our shoulder line guideline which rule goes like this you'll see that on our hand map our hand reflexology chart and we are just going to be walking the fingers now the thing with the fingers is that a lot of people try to pull in snap them and there will be none of that in this video instead we are going to be using a static pressure but that static pressure is compressive in nature and what that means is it's going to squeeze a lot of very helpful blood into the fingers while decompressing the joints themselves so the way that we do this is with a finger trigger grip so as if you're holding a pistol we are going to use our thumb and index finger to create this compression on both the dorsal aspect in the palm or aspect and then the medial and lateral sides and here's how it's going to look on the video so first we're going to do the palm or dorsal aspect and what we're going to do is we're going to divide each finger into five different sections we have the proximal phalanx we have the interphalangeal joint we have the middle phalanx we have the interphalangeal joints and then we have the actual nail or pad of each finger and those five areas are where we're going to be pressing so we're going to press once twice three times four times five times and we're going to do that a total of three times for a total of 15 passes three times five and then we're actually going to switch our grip from Palmer and dorsal to lateral and medial and what we're going to do is we're going to do the same thing except we're going to be targeting the medial and lateral sides but same thing we're going to do it three times so 30 passes per finger so if we're doing palm or dorsal one two three four five one two three four five one two three four five switch orientation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 and we will be doing the exact same thing on each of the fingers including the thumb so we divide each finger just like we just did 1 2 3 4 5 ok same thing for each finger look there are only three there there we go thumb is a little bit of an exception and we really need to zoom in here not actually with the camera but we really need to focus on the thumb because the thumb is extremely delicate a lot of people don't understand that the meat of the thenar is where all of your musculature is for the hand but the thumb joint itself is just leverage it's very very weak as a joint which is why it blows out so often and has so much pain throughout this joint we really need to treat it very very carefully so there are only two phalanges in the thumb so we're going to imaginarily divide them one two three four five there we go into five different sections but the same technique applies we're going to be hitting the Palmer and dorsal aspect three times and then we are going to be hitting the medial lateral aspect three times just be careful with the thumb joint absolutely no pulling whatsoever on this joint please I don't care what you were talking about our school my clients specifically come to me and they tell me Sam I've had this done other places I hate it don't do it especially if you're dealing with a lot of hand reflexology clientele they're there for a reason normally an arthritis a carpal tunnel there's a level of sensitivity that is present when somebody comes in to get their hands worked on so I encourage you to really take it easy with the fingers but enjoy the technique because it is very powerful it's often very subtle but I have seen massively gnarled hands totally unwind in a single session so really treat the fingers with as much respect as you do any other part of the body and make sure to walk them thoroughly so let's go to the video and show you how it's done starting with the fifth digit squeezing in five separate sections three times each along the digit for 15 total presses shifting to a medial lateral orientation same thing five squeezes three times each that brings us to a total of 30 applications of pressure along the digits moving to each digit consecutively including the thumb you you wrapping up with the thumbless again just making sure to be a little bit more delicate than even you think because it really is a more sensitive joint than you believe it is so really taking you slow taking it easy and applying appropriate pressure then let's check it out on the other side as well starting with the fifth digit again applying our squeezes on the dorsal one former surface and switching to the medial lateral surface repeating the entire technique on this hand you and wrapping up with the thumb on this side again take it easy on the joint itself and this is how you walk the fingers of the hands on both sides I really hope that you've enjoyed this video and I hope that is accentuates your practice practice is the key word you definitely implemented ASAP and enjoy the techniques thanks everybody you