Total Proactive Integration – The Soft Tissue Specialist’s Perspective – Part 1


OK, so I promised a post around Total Proactive Integration from the perspective of the massage therapist or soft tissue specialist.

This is my own domain and is where I started, hence I still keep a very keen interest, and why I now coach & mentor so many exceptional soft tissue specialists.

But today I want to re-frame some perspectives and give the amazing massage therapist and soft tissue specialists in here something new to consider.

All of us have been trained and taught to follow a typical pattern:

  • Promote our massage or soft tissue services
  • Sell treatment sessions, almost always paid for on a PAYG per session basis or maybe “blocks” of sessions – other than those professionals I have coached that is 😀
  • Work in a treatment room with a couch
  • Conduct a SOAP protocol
  • Do some tests and assessments
  • Treat what we see and what we feel
  • Maybe give some exercises to take home
  • See them again for another session a week or so later

Sound familiar?

Yup, been there, done all that and got the t-shirt.

Well, let me paint another picture for you that can work very easily alongside the above traditional model, expanding your reach and exposure as well as changing some all too common “ingrained” perceptions.

Yes, this probably will require some specialist up-skilling, which we can do for you, but it’s the mindset shift I am focusing on here rather than the technical skills required.

By breaking your amazing skill set down into its constituent elements, you can build truly joined-up solutions that enable you to work alongside other Professionals.

In *** Total Proactive Integration – 2 *** (go and have a quick read) I listed about 20 very common exercises and movements and asserted that determining which exercises are right (and not right) and/or most effective for a client, by helping to establish how a particular client is stacked-up inside, is a HUGE opportunity for you.

This can be done in any gym or exercise studio, working alongside a PT or Pilates specialist.

It doesn’t need a treatment room and doesn’t need a separate treatment session to be booked by the client.

It’s not referral, it’s Total Proactive Integration.

And all the tests, checks and assessments I am referring to here can be performed without clients removing any clothes.

The opportunity, therefore, exists for you to establish a really great working relationship with a fitness, exercise or movement specialist and offer a service whereby you help the professional and their clients understand what exercise & movements are right for them and which are not.

As a result, clients will be far less likely to struggle with common exercises, far less likely to incur an injury and far MORE likely to succeed.

No new marketing activity, no new costs for you, just leveraging the skills that you have in a totally new and exciting way – a way that nobody was taught about.

It also places you right at the front of the queue for any other soft tissue services the client (or their friends or family) might require.

How you charge for this joined-up service is entirely up to you. There are so many options here.

– The fitness or exercise professional can pay you a rate to cover your time in their studio, which they include in their programme charges back to the client

– The fitness or exercise professional could include a full, detailed assessment from you at the beginning of a programme,

– Any other combination or option that you can think of.

The same model can be adopted where an existing client IS struggling with common exercises and your skills allied with those of the PT or Pilates specialist can help to determine why this is happening and hence where exercise strategy might be altered accordingly.

I used to do this when I had a clinic based in a private gym. And others I have coached do the same.

I wandered into the gym, and with the permission of the exercise professional present, I would help them understand why some clients might be struggling, advising on the best alternative strategies.

Am I an exercise specialist? Absolutely not, but the PT or Pilates professional there was, so all I did was advise on what was going on and why and leave the exercise professional to adjust things, once they understood what was going on and why.

A truly joined-up solution that was a WIN for the PT or Pilates professional and a WIN for the client who was struggling, as they learned something new about their body.

So, just by changing the WAY we work, HOW we work and WHERE we work, we have so many new possibilities to leverage OUR amazing skills as a massage or soft tissue specialist.

And importantly, this helps to re-frame perceptions and expectations in professionals and clients alike in terms of what is and is not possible, and who can and cannot do what in our industry.

So often professionals say to me that the way they work and what they do is driven by what clients EXPECT and BELIEVE …

Let’s work together to CHANGE this perception.


Part 4 of this Blog can be found HERE
Simon – The Integrated Fitpro Coach

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Comments 2

  1. Pingback: Total Proactive Integration - The Soft Tissue Specialist’s Perspective - Part 2 | The Integrated Fitpro

  2. Pingback: Total Proactive Integration - The Exercise Perspective 2 | The Integrated Fitpro

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