Customer Reviews

The Balanced Body: A Guide to Deep Tissue and Neuromuscular Therapy

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As the author of The Balanced Body I welcome constructive criticism of my ideas and writing. However, I feel obligated to respond to the review of my book by John R. Frame because his comments grossly misrepresent the philosophy and application of techniques presented in the book. His descriptions of the results of his deep tissue sessions demonstrate a profound lack of understanding of the methodology of the integrated deep tissue therapy system as described in The Balanced Body.

Mr. Frame states that when he followed the routines in the book to the letter, his treatments were universally detested by every client. Perhaps this is because he chose to ignore the often repeated admonition in the book that the practice routines are not meant to be strictly adhered to but rather serve as training tools and to provide general guidelines in designing individualized, client-centered sessions. To quote page 13: "The routines given in the lessons do not represent exact reproductions of specific bodywork sessions that would actually be performed on a client. Rather, they outline a general sequence of possible moves for an area of the body. Each routine describes techniques for releasing most of the muscles associated with that particular part of the body. Although the therapist needs to know all of these techniques, he or she would not use every procedure described on any one client."

The reviewer also claims that he had to give a client an additional massage as compensation for the pain and discomfort he had inflicted during a deep tissue session. This unfortunate circumstance was most likely due to Mr. Frame's not being attentive to the response of his client to his touch and not making the necessary adjustments. Nowhere in The Balanced Body is uncomfortable, invasive pressure advocated. In fact it is actively discouraged. To quote page 36: "To be able to relax and willingly accept deeper gradations of pressure, the client must be assured that the therapist is mindful of the effects of his or her touch on the client's body. The therapist must be capable of making the necessary adjustments to prevent touch from becoming painful, harmful, or intrusive. The organic, ever-changing nature of the interaction between the therapist and client during a deep tissue session requires constant vigilance to ensure that the quality of therapy remains productive."

It is interesting that the reviewer refers to the book he is reviewing as the text he used as a student in school. As a matter of fact, the training manual that he worked from was the first edition of this work, which was a privately produced, much smaller text meant to accompany the curriculum he was being taught. The current edition, which is sold by Amazon, is the 2nd edition of this work. It has been greatly expanded and augmented to serve the massage community at large. It seems likely that Mr. Frame has never even seen the edition of the book he is supposedly reviewing. I suggest that he read the second edition carefully and follow the proper guidelines to prevent him from continually hurting his clients.

I have been a massage instructor for a number of years on the east coast, and I have been using Mr Scheumann's book the "Balanced Body" in the college that I teach for 3 years. In order for my review to seem pertinent, I feel as though I should give my background. I not only teach advanced tissue massage and A&P at a college, I am also a CEU provider for the NCBTMB in NMT and Myofascial Release continuing education courses.

I am going to get right into the meat of Mr Scheumann's book. I find his introduction and musculoskeletal anatomy of each of the hands-on chapters to be a good review for my students who have had some previous A&P. The introduction paints a concise and vivid picture of the muscular physiology and kinesiology of the body area, and the musculoskeletal section gives the students a quick and thorough review of the muscular and skeletal anatomy that is needed for the hands-on techniques. The postural analysis tables are a quick and easy reference for any student, and the exercise and self-treatment section are simple exercises for a student to apply.

Now to the hands-on treatment, the NMT techniques that Mr Scheumann describes in the book are standard NMT treatments. They are well written and easy to follow for any person who has a basic training and aptitude for massage. The NMT treatments not only treat the belly of the muscle, but the author guides the reader through treatments of the origin and insertion of many of the muscles throughout his book (a good thorough NMT treatment). As far as the myofascial release treatments that are laid out in the book, are also basic treatments that are easy to follow. In this readers opinion, myofascial release and NMT go hand in hand. A true thorough therapeutic treatment of the body can easily be achieved with these two alone.

In my humble opinion, the only reason that this book didn't get five stars from me is due to the polarity and shiatsu techniques that are given in the hands-on chapter. I understand what the author is trying to achieve by bringing the eastern and western energetics and therapeutics together, but I believe the book falls short in achieving this goal. As far as, the western techniques that are offered within the text, the book gets five stars.

The Balanced Body started out as just a text book for me when I started Massage Therapy School. Over time it has become my Deep Tissue companion. The mind/body connection explorations, together with the easy to follow lessons have made learning and practicing effective Deep Tissue Bodywork a reality. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn Deep Tissue, or take their bodywork to another level.

This book teaches you how to do it properly.
Buy this one if you feel unsure about how to do the therapy.
You will be relieved that you did.
Only problem with this book is that it does come to an end.
Like lays potatoe chips, you can't read just once.
I loved it. It gave me more confidence in my hands on therapy sessions.

I give this book two stars at most. I am an instructor and this book is part of our curriculum, and I feel that the book tries to incorporate way too many modalities into deep tissue work. The book is poorly organized for using it as a learning tool, and students have often complained that they "get lost" in reading the book, lecture and practice of the strokes. I also believe that the strokes are insufficient strokes for deep tissue therapy. There are also errors in names of anatomical structures, and the test bank online has incorrect answers listed as correct as well as questions that don't make sense in relating to the book material. As an instructor, I will not use this book again.

In addition, with the mind body connections made in the book, claims are made regarding the beliefs and attitudes of people in relation to their posture. It is absolutely absurd to judge someone's beliefs based on their posture. Such claims should not be made.

The book did not meet the description of being new. It has ratty corners and a worn cover. I suspect the CD has been used and resealed.

This is a good general massage overview for the beginning massage student.

Yet some important suggestions are made below if this text should cater as well to more advanced students of deep tissue as I know it.

#1 Origins and insertions of all of the muscles should be listed in the pictures for reference: it would help even the beginner massage student to add this in earlier than later; to each and every diagram, as this is "good form". You may find it handy to keep Trail Guide To The Body and and a more detailed anatomy book by Mcminn's by your side otherwise and in any case.

#2 My aesthetic sense liked the cover, but I think the sentences should be spaced out a little further apart with a larger font, more colorful pictures, and removing some of the seemingly overabundance of the red and grey color bolded in to many of the the letters, and diagrams... all that crimsoness is a little too "visceral" for me, and I've been to the Body World exibit and liked it. If data was spread out onto more pages, I know the trees won't like it per say, but they have no retinas.

Here's the crux of the matter I think when considering this book- "Energy/polarity" and "Swedish massage" was not what I expected to find in a book where such was not included in the title (which as you know is called Deep Tissue); it would be fine if these topics were touched on briefly, but these topics are definitely a large part of the entire book and if anything, I would have prefered if these extra modalites of massage, apart from "deep tissue" had their own chapters; rather than having it all mixed together as they are in this present edition. In addition, Art Rigg's book on Deep Tissue, cleary and or thoroughly covers the field of "myofascial sculpting" if one should like to have a comparative standpoint.

I understand that "deep tissue" is by it's very nature just too broad of a term. Thus to be specific and clear, a Certifed Rolfer or someone with a commitment to the art and science of deep tissue bodywork, is the high standard definition of Deep Tissue that I am speaking of, and I am putting all the books online which I buy on Amazon on this subject up against this gold standard.

In conclusion, my opinion is that the text is a banquet of information great for massage 101 students, interested as well in getting to know something about shiatsu and "energy work", if they so desire, not catered however to he or she who already knows principals of deep tissue massage and has more than a few solid, tried, and true deep tissue moves for each body part in their repetoire.

By Ari Arom L.M.T.

I like the book, it's a great resource for beginners or people they just want to know a little bit more about the subject.

I am a trained bodyworker with 3 massage therapy courses to my credit and cadaver lab plus an associate degree in physical therapy. This book when followed to the letter was universally detested by every client while I was required to use it as a student at massage school. The massage course portion in which the book was used was taught by the books author. After using the Balanced Body as a manual, I had to give another massage to the client as compensation for the pain and discomfort resultant in the use of this pretentious "text". That is my experience and opinion of this putative "text'.