Putting Low Price Before High Quality Can Cost You Big
By Amanda Nevels
Massage Therapis Linda Gutowski didn't opt for an inexpensive table. Yet, she has had the unfortunate
experience of having a client fall to the floor during treatment.
“He was a large football player in his youth and just generally
of a thick build,” she says. When Gutowski asked
the client to turn over, he shifted his body with a bit of
a jump, placing most of his weight on the opposite end
of the table. “The legs on my side [of the table] came off
the floor slightly, and off he rolled.”
Gutowski was horrified, not only about the fact that
her client might have gotten hurt, but also that he was
left completely naked and stunned on the floor. “I immediately
lifted the sheet over my line of sight and asked
him if he was okay,” she remembers. Thankfully, he was,
and they were able to laugh about it—after the fact.
Letting a client sit directly on the crease of a portable
massage table is another way to cause undue pressure,
potentially resulting in the table buckling under a client,
warns nurse and massage therapist Dianne Polseno,
president of Cortiva Institute in Boston, Massachusetts.
“That is the most vulnerable point [of your table] and
your client can easily fall through,” she explains. “It
happened to me once, and the client was humiliated...
it is an experience I wish I could forget.”
These stories drive home the importance of buying
dependable equipment. Without a reliable table, the
safety of both you and your clients is at risk. The following
are some suggestions from table manufacturers
and massage therapists to help take the guesswork out
of purchasing a massage table.
Crunching the Numbers
Jeff Riach, owner and founder of Oakworks, likes to use a
per-use cost analysis to help put purchasing a massage table into perspective. An established
massage therapist averaging approximately 1,000 massages per year will have completed 5,000
massages in a five-year period. If the therapist paid $500 for her table, the cost per massage
would average 10 cents. Provided the table withstands the test of time, this
When you look at it this way, buying a lower-quality table doesn't make sense, says Riach.
Table Basics
WIDTH: Get a table that is not so wide that it ends up
hurting the massage therapist using it, but also a table
not so narrow that the client is uncomfortable and feels
like he is going to fall off. While a narrower 24-inch table
may be easier for a massage therapist to work with, it
may not be comfortable for the client. A table 28 inches
to 32 inches wide is a safe bet.
ERGONOMICS: Make sure the face cradle is comfortable
for the client and easy to adjust. You can undo all the
neck work you just
ACCESSORIES:
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American Massage Therapy Association®
