Massage Tutorial: Draping techniques (even glutes and abs!)

Hi, everyone. I'm Ian Harvey. This is my friend, Summer. Hi. Today, we're

going to just do a quick draping demo. Some people have asked for some pointers

on draping, so here you go. When you're undraping, always control

the blanket first. Get it nice and out of your way so that it's not creating a thick,

roll of fabric that can allow a draft to get in.

Next, we're going to undrape down to about L4 L5 and create a crisp line

across the low back. Now, if you wanted to expose the upper

glute, you could do that by restraining the drape at L5 and then folding down.

This gives you a decent amount of

hip to work with, while not creating any sort of

draft, and this is a comforting presence right here.

Even while you're doing moves, you can keep one hand right here on this upper bit of the drape

to allow them to know that it's secure. To undrape the leg while the client is prone, again, get the

blanket nicely out of the way, giving yourself plenty of clearance

just in case you want to work up into the hip.

Then, we're going to undrape just the low leg.

At this point, you can bring the leg out or in if you need to, just in case their legs are too

close together, and then we're going to tuck as we undrape

this upper leg. This gives there no chance for there to be any sort of draft.

The trick is to keep this drape low. We're going to keep this low to the client's body.

You can, once again, tuck up near the hip, if you'd like this to feel more secure,

and if you'd like to expose this hip, you can secure this draping at the inner

thigh, and then draw this drape just a little bit more medially to re drape.

We're going to reverse the direction.

Again, we're going to keep the cloth low, down by the leg, so that they

don't get that kind of elementary school parachute effect. Do you guys ever play that? Anyway,

you don't want that parachute effect to happen.

To flip your client, first you're going to

keep the drape in place using your knees. Boop.

So, now that if she flips away from me, this can't get away.

And, we're going to make a tint of the drape on the opposite

side, and some are going to flip over onto your back.

And control the drape as they do this and scoot down toward your feet.

So, when we're undraping the leg while the client is supine, first get that blanket out of the way,

and again, we're going to expose this lower leg

and now you can manipulate the entire leg without any chance of a draft.

Then, we'll continue on. Again, this inner hand is going to be tucking,

while the outer hand exposes the upper leg.

At no point is the cloth more than a centimeter away from the skin, in

fact, it should be touching the skin for most of this, to redrape.

Go the opposite direction, again dragging that cloth along the skin.

When I undrip the arm, this is the only case where I don't actually move the blanket first.

What I do is I'll roll it away from their wrist

and then I'll drag the cloth over their arm so that it tucks into the armpit.

One more look at that.

I'm going to find the edge of the drape, find the wrist,

grab the top of the drape, tuck it under the arm,

tada. Then to redrape,

simply reverse that. Reach under with this inside hand,

keep the cloth close to the skin. If the client can feel the

cloth on their skin, they know they are not exposed.

Finally, let's do a breast draping. First, you'll

need a pillowcase or a towel for this. Set the case aside,

and we're going to need to do some prep work. So, bring the

sheet up toward the neck, and while this is securely up there, we're going to bring

the blanket down first. This is important.

Second, we're going to free up this

neckcollarbone region, and then we're going to place the pillow above that.

The pillow is going to be across the collarbones

and the top drape is going to be below them. So, now, I can place my forearm,

my ulna here, across her collar bones, any higher than that and it will feel like choking,

don't do that. So, we're going to just use this ulna, deal for

those collar bones, and now you can scoot the drape down

[p]

and this way we can expose the abdomen.

So, from here you can make some adjustments by folding. Now, we've got plenty of good

real estate as far as the abdomen and the upper chest goes. To re drape, I

just bring the drape back up and I leave the pillowcase there because who cares? Alright.

Let me know how this goes. Leave me some comments, consider subscribing, and I'll see you next time.