As a child I always loved asking my Grandmother and other people about things that were not around when they were little. Some of the things my Grandmother would say were they didn’t have a colored television and how in a box of cereal they would have metal saucers as a toy prize. This question again sparked my interest in the massage industry.
My name is Ann Riesberg, and I am an expert massage therapist here at Active Edge Massage & Wellness. I started my career in 2011 and have noticed a significant change in the industry since the beginning of my career.
When I went to school only 500 hours of education were needed to attain a license to practice with the passing of boards. We split our time between hands on work, working on clients and class time studying. For continuing education we needed 24 hours every 2 years with 12 of those hours being hands-on.
This is all just the state of Iowa. Each state is regulated by each state board. Some states are more lenient and others with more regulation.
Currently, in Iowa they have upped the hours of education to 600 but continuing education is now down to 12 hours every 2 years and most of these don’t have to be in person they can be online live classes. The problem with this is that in online classes the teacher cannot see everything if you are applying the correct technique or how your body is standing correctly or not.
This degrades therapists ability to learn properly and help their clients receive the best quality of care.
At Active Edge the therapists do value our clients and their care.
Some of the newer things in massage therapy are electric massage devices such as massage guns,
infrared technology, chairs and foot massagers. We are also seeing new tools brought into the industry to aid therapists to prolong their massage careers such as Fasciablasters, heating and cooling tools.
There also have been advancements in the study of massage to improve the way massage is given. Some of these studies are in kinesiology, the impact of the brain and much more.