The Next Deep Thing

For those true massage junkies among us looking for their next fix, we recommend Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy™. This ancient bodywork originated with Buddhist monks, and is now recognized by the American Medical Association. Essentially, Ashiatsu is a foot massage...but not in the way that you're thinking.

An Ashiatsu practitioner uses their feet to massage the back of your body while supporting their weight using two bars suspended from the ceiling. This idea may be intimidating to some - it was to us - but Ashiatsu therapist Laurie Reese put us at ease with a thorough explanation of the technique, and her assurance that she would never apply more of her body weight than we desired and could handle.

Laurie began our treatment by using her hands to warm up the body before grabbing hold of the bars above the massage table and going to work with her tootsies. We found the experience to be more fluid and luxurious than a typical massage treatment - using the broader surface area of the soles of her feet allows Laurie to work deeply in the muscles without the sometimes uncomfortable digging sensation we've experienced with other deep tissue treatments.

After thoroughly working over the back of the body with her feet, Laurie had us turn over and finished up with a traditional massage (she doesn't use her feet on the front of the body). When she was done, we felt extraordinarily relaxed, and were even standing up straighter than usual - almost as if we'd received a chiropractic adjustment.

Review originally published 3/24/2005.