Thai Massage for the Table

One of the unique modalities we teach is Thai Massage, sometimes referred to as Thai Yoga Massage, Thai Sports Massage, Lazy Person’s Yoga, or Nuad Boran. Thai Massage includes Acupressure, Stretching, Reflexology, and Arterial Compressions.

Our founder, owner, and instructor, Hillary Hilliard, traveled to Thailand in 2004 to study Thai Massage in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It’s been her foundational massage style from which other styles have been added and integrated. For our curriculum, Thai Massage must be an integral part, given our founder’s roots. It’s taught in its traditional sense, given on a futon mat on the floor with all positions – supine, prone, side-lying, & seated, along with Thai element theory and Energy line (Sen Sib) theory and practice.

But it’s also important for us to teach Thai massage and adapt it to other situations. Not everyone wants to massage on the floor on a futon mat, nor does every client want to be on the futon floor mat to receive. Also, it’s not always practical or possible in every spa and wellness space to have a room dedicated to traditional floor Thai, mainly because they might have hydraulic or electric massage tables that can’t be easily moved, or it doesn’t work for their room schedule to change the space from a massage table to a futon mat in between clients.

Seeing the needs of our students, clients, and the massage community, in 2011, we created our own adaptation to Thai Massage so that it could be done on the massage table. That session can be called Thai Massage on the Table or simply, Table Thai. Almost all the techniques done on the floor for traditional Thai Massage can be adapted to the massage table.

We introduce our students to a Table Thai sequence in their 3rd class because we think it’s as important, if not more, to master the movements and positions of Thai Massage (whether on a table or floor mat) as it is to master other techniques like Swedish, Myofascial, and Trigger Point Therapy.

What should a student expect from giving and receiving our Table Thai sequence?

The receiver starts Supine, is clothed for the session, limited oils and lotions are used, and stretching, acupressure, and deep compressions are the main techniques used.

Traditional Thai Massage starts in a Supine position (on your back – or “Supine: Spine” we say to students to help them remember that you’re on your spine or back for Supine). Most styles of “Western” massage tend to start a client Prone (or face down) on the massage table. Thai Massage uniquely begins with supine, so the Table Thai sequence follows suit and begins with supine (face up) as well.

The receiver is fully clothed for the session, just like with traditional Thai Massage. It’s preferred to have looser-fitting pants like Thai Fisherman Pants that you’ll see at Thai markets. Sweatpants and yoga pants also work. You can wear a tank top or a light T-shirt for the upper body. Because there is so much stretching involved, it’s helpful for the receiver to wear clothes because draping throughout the session becomes cumbersome with that much of a focus on stretching.

The massage techniques primarily used in Table Thai are deep compressions, acupressure, and stretching. Massage lotions and oils are not used to administer those types of pressure. In fact, lotions and oils facilitate gliding and friction techniques but don’t allow for deeper, sinking pressure that is a key part of Thai Massage. The deep compressions involve leaning your body weight into the tissue in a broad, slow, and rhythmic way, and acupressure is deep pressure into more focused points along the energy lines.

You also don’t want to use lotion or oil because the receiver’s skin and the therapist’s hands could be too oily or slippery to allow for proper and safe stretching. Essential oils can certainly be integrated throughout a Table Thai session because they are used in such small quantities and don’t typically leave an oily residue.

There are some creative variations for the Thai Massage stretches on the Table. You will stand up on the table now and then to give a hamstring stretch or a piriformis stretch. You’ll be fully on the table to use your knees on the receiver’s glutes, hip, and low back when in Prone position. You’ll be across the table to facilitate a shoulder stretch. You’ll often put one of your knees or one of your feet on the table when doing pressure and various stretches. You’ll certainly have fun while doing Table Thai!

Table Thai is an interactive, dance-like experience where the therapist is moving the receiver in and out of yoga-like, assisted stretches, and you’ll be opening the energetic body as you do acupressure along the Energy lines.

 Along with teaching a sequence for Table Thai, we’ve created sequences that integrate Table Thai with Swedish on the table and with Swedish and Deep Tissue techniques on the table, like Myofascial Release and Trigger Point Therapy.

Our favorite sequence with students tends to be the Integrated Sequence of Thai Massage, Swedish, Myofascial, and Trigger Points on the Table, which we love to see because students truly learn to customize sessions for each client and to create their own, unique style and combinations of sequences.