I felt the joys of winning and I felt loss, so why go back. And you can just be there and be a sponge. You are gathered around like-minded therapists from around the world who believe they are the best at what they do. MM: Tell us what this experience was like.ĬA: It is one of the best massage conferences I have been to. I was one person away from gold in my very first competition. I raised some money and got a flight to Copenhagen.ĬA: In 2018 my very first competition, I got a silver in chair massage. I was looking for a competition and I found it. I went on YouTube and just saw basic 1, 2, 3 strokes. I wondered if anyone else was doing this type of style. I would have a drought for over an hour then I get my first client and then the line starts. Once they saw me working on someone, a line would start. MM: How did you get involved in the World Championship in Massage competition?ĬA: I did some chair massages at some events and people would not come to me until they saw me work. I just sit there and pay attention to it when they breathe. Over time I can feel so much more than what the body is telling me. And over 20 years massaging six days a week, my hands have become very sensitive. I am trying to feel their breath, I’m trying to feel their muscles when they breathe. I’m trying to feel their muscles, their myofascial, the blood flow. MM: Do you feel that you are being guided in a massage?ĬA: I do feel it. I allow my body to do stuff and I ask why later. Then I recorded myself and when I watched it I could see why. I started doing this technique and didn’t know why but it seemed to work. When I send vibrations out into their body, I can sense where it is tense according to how much bounce back it gives me. So, I allow no tension in my body and I use vibration. If I am not centered, I cannot feel what is out of place in the client’s body. What happens to you when you enter that space?ĬA: The space I am in is centered, or grounded. MM: I noticed in your videos that you have a rhythm to your body when you are massaging. If you have ever seen my YouTube videos, you can see I massage to a different beat. I use a big gumbo of different techniques. I also do myofascial unravelling and joint mobility work. MM: What kind of massage do you specialize in?ĬA: When I’m working, in the back of my mind I hear Ida Rolf, “Put it in place and make it move.” So, I adapted that to my work and have added breathing. Every year following that I have taken my birthday off. I remember the date because it was my birthday, and it was the last time I worked on my birthday. I caught on very quickly.ĬA: I have been in the field a little over 20 years professionally. As a hands-on learner, this was right up my alley. I am more of a physical learner, and I realized this was the kind of degree where my hands would do the learning, not my mind per se. I would go to school and most of the time I would get a massage, so that made school a lot easier. MM: What did you like most about massage school?ĬA: More than half the time it was hands on. I was the only male in the class, but they welcomed me. I learned very quickly to adapt to what my future clientele would be.
I somehow had to make them very comfortable around me.
MM: What was your massage school experience like being so young?ĬA: I was a 17-year-old kid in a room full of grown women learning how to massage. I had to move out of my house in Omaha to start massage school in Kansas, closer to where my friends were. Massage school started two days after I graduated high school. I thought massage therapy would be more consistent, so I decided to go to massage school. We narrowed it down to being a meteorologist or a massage therapist. She said, “You’re not going outside until we figure out what you want to do with the rest of your life.” I spent hours on the internet and right then and there I had to pick my career. Chaz Armstrong : I came home one day from high school and my mom was working on the internet.