Customer Reviews

Mosby's Fundamentals of Therapeutic Massage, Enhanced Reprint, 3e

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am owner/director of Silver Sword Massage Academy located in Durango CO. Mosby's Fundamentals of Therapeutic Massage is an excellent text for the beginner student & for the professional requiring a state of the art resource. The latest edition is especially enriched with fine color graphics for optimal visual learning. I refer to these visual aids in my private practice as well, to help educate my clients. The technical information is presented in plain speak and then, through skilled educational writing successfully bridges into the technical language of the health field of massage therapeutics. This book is the cornerstone of our programs. I highly recommend Mosby's Fundamentals of Therapeutic Massage as one of the best comprehensive massage books on the market.

Overlong chapters and a choppy writing style make this book difficult to use at times. There is a lot of good information but it is written in such a mannner that re-reading is necessary to clarify the topic of the paragraph. It is written with a tight economical use of words and becomes difficult for the reader to digest the information overload. Could use a little editing. Otherwise a good text. Addendum: After writing my orginal review and going through the book more, I have to state Appendix "A" of this book is a total nightmare. If you need to study pathology, get a different book. I am a licensed, practicing health care professional in the health field for over 8 years. I know pathology. This appendix even confused me, not to mention fellow LMT students who were pulling their hair out trying to sort out the mess of confusion. I finally gave up on it and went to different sources for information on tests we needed to take.

This book is full of requires stuff that every massage student should know. I liked the chapters on hygiene, body mechanics and business practices. The book reads in a pretty technical way. So, yes, it's quite wordy, but it is pretty complete. All in all, one of the needed books to study from for the National Certification Exam. Other required books for Massage National Certification Exam PREPARTION ARE:

Patrick Leonardi's "The Ulitimate Study Guide for the National Certicfication for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork,
volumes 1,2 & 3. This has wonderful questions that helped to keep me on track.

This was another required book for my education. My instructor is very happy with it. It is easy to read but the CD enclosed leaves much to be desired. The illustrations could be better, in my opinion, but I don't have anything to compare it to except my own expectations. All in all a good book but it could be improved.

Any place you go to study massage will probably get around to recommending Mosby. While the material seems dated, it is exhaustive and really detailed. Anatomical information can be difficult but it gets easier if you plug away. For the committed professional, not the layman.

I am owner/director of Silver Sword Massage Academy located in Durango CO. Mosby's Fundamentals of Therapeutic Massage is an excellent text for the beginner student & for the professional requiring a state of the art resource. The latest edition is especially enriched with fine color graphics for optimal visual learning. I refer to these visual aids in my private practice as well, to help educate my clients. The technical information is presented in plain speak and then, through skilled educational writing successfully bridges into the technical language of the health field of massage therapeutics. This book is the cornerstone of our programs. I highly recommend Mosby's Fundamentals of Therapeutic Massage as one of the best comprehensive massage books on the market.

This book is an excellent reference for massage students. It is well-organized and easy to comprehend. It is good as a knowledge source for information look up on pathology and clinical aspects of massage. However for the National certification test I used the following:
The Ultimate Study Guide for the National Certification Examination for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork: Key Review Questions and Answers Vol 1, Vol 2, and Vol 3
Vol 1: isbn: 0971999643
Vol 2: isbn: 0971999651
Vol 3: isbn: 097199966X
Believe me these four books are well worth it for the national certification exam. The last three books were so specific and thorough which prepared me highly for the national exam.

Why? Simple - it's what the board uses to test you with. It's a pretty good book and very comprehensive but admittedly it gets a bit wordy and overlong. Who really needs 4 million ways to drape a client?

It's an excellent sourcebook even if it does get too wordy at times.

This product really helps those inspiring to be massage therapists to know what body postures to use with what techniques. It's an awesome book

This is a huge book filled with a phenomenal amount of information. Not just a massage manual, it includes chapters on research, advice on setting up in business, dealing with transference issues, history, pathology, etc. Good photos explaining much of the technique are included as well as theory behind various techniques. It is also refreshingly gender-neutral and inclusive: no fashion-model models in this real-life textbook. It does not try to cover anatomy and physiology, so you still need those separately.

Though it is an impressive text, it cannot cover every technique and is weighted toward the author's preferences, so I would not rely on it alone. It is also quite wordy - covering every detail in triplicate which makes skimming or retrieving a particular piece of information difficult.

The DVD is useful and well-done, giving a visual of the written techniques.

This is not a "do your own family massage" handbook. It is a comprehensive text on therapeutic massage and well worth the textbook price.