In our relationship massage can have many different uses—it can be a great way to relax from a long day of work, a way to relieve tension and stress, a means of communicating affection, or it can be a prelude to an evening of great sex. No matter what it is used for massage done well blends sensuality and relaxation in a way that few other activities can—which is why my partner and I were eager to explore The Book of Massage.

Massage is in some ways pretty intuitive, but my partner and I were hoping that a book on massage would help us to improve our technique and create a more complete massage experience.

When I first opened up The Book of Massage I’ll admit I felt a little bit overwhelmed. While filled with plenty of pictures, the book is a little intimidating on first glance—so many different diagrams, motions, and positions—it felt like trying to get into the book might be difficult, however, with a little reading I found myself pretty readily understanding the instructions and setup of the book.

There are essentially three main techniques covered in the book: holistic massage, Shiatsu, and reflexology. Holistic massage is interchangeably called basic massage and concentrates on “the individual as a whole, rather than just concentrating on physical conditions.” On the other hand both Shiatsu and reflexology maintain more of a focus on body healing and relaxation through particular energy pathways. If this sounds a little like “new age” body thinking it is, and parts of the book do make some connection to these kind of philosophies, emphasizing concepts like natural elements, balance, and body energies. As someone who does not necessarily buy in to all of these concepts I skimmed over these parts—they are there, but not in a way that really turned me off to the book.

For all the different methods of massage each area of the body is covered (except for reflexology which focuses solely on the feet), usually with about a two page spread including a half-dozen or more drawings of each of these techniques and a paragraph describing each picture. The actual descriptions of the massage techniques are described in great detail, for example working around the shoulder blade: “with one hand under the shoulder use the fingers of the other hand to work around the shoulder blade. Starting at the top of the shoulder travel slowly down the inner edge of the blade, pushing in firmly as far under the rim as you can. Repeat several times.”

All of the paragraphs are similarly easy to follow and describe well how and where to apply pressure. I found myself quickly grasping the concepts presented on the pages, but still find the glut of information to be a little overwhelming. Luckily the book has a number of pages that review all the different techniques, which is a great reference when I am trying to practice on my partner—since flipping through to individual pages every couple of minutes would be extremely distracting.

While I have no other books to really compare it to, The Book of Massage, is as it claims, a very “complete guide” to massage techniques. I think it would take me a long time to truly master the material in the book but I’ve been doing my best to slowly pick it up piece by piece. The illustrations and descriptions make it easy to follow, but as intuitive as massage can be sometimes it just takes practice to make it right. For anyone looking to take massage to the next level, I would definitely recommend this book, there are a few new age bits that some may not like and the pictures are a little dated, but the techniques are well described and the illustrations make it easy to follow. This is a great book for couples and one that I’m sure we’ll get a lot of use out of in the future.

The first time my partner and I tried out the techniques in this book we set aside about an hour before we planned on going to bed. Setting the mood with some candles and calm music we setup a futon cushion in the middle of the room and she stripped and I covered her with a couple towels. I had read through the holistic massage chapter earlier that evening as a review, but kept the book by my knee (open to one of the overview pages) so I could use it as a reference. The general technique had go from the whole back, to the legs, and then the head/face, chest and finally front of the legs and then “connecting” motions between different body parts. I found myself occasionally referencing the book but mostly I just tried to get into the flow of things. When my hands would get tired I would lighten up my strokes, and occasionally I had some awkward position shifts, but for the most part it went smoothly. My partner nearly fell asleep she was so relaxed, and with the exception of some of the face massage pieces (which we found to be just a little odd at first) and the stomach pieces (which she found too ticklish) the whole experience proved very rewarding. I look forward to trying out some new techniques the next time we try this out, but in the meantime I’ll keep on reading and studying up!

This is one of those books that you can never really outgrow (assuming you are not a professional masseuse, that is!). Even months after receiving it I still find my partner and I referring back to the techniques outlined in the book to enhance our pleasure (both sexual and non-sexual). If anything the book gets better the more you explore it. The more you practice techniques the more you gain comfort and knowledge with how to move your hands to really make massage wonderful. I would highly recommend this to anyone with even a passing interest in broadening their massage horizons.