Carpal Tunnel Massage Program for Yourself and Others
by Stephen Chagnon, BS, RN, LMT
review by Andy Roman

Amazon.com


Steve Chagnon tackles an oft misunderstood condition, carpel tunnel syndrome, with sound anatomy and physiology, smart analogies (“the lymph system is like your drainpipes”) and imagery (“a rubber band wound tightly around your finger”), and simple techniques. His manual builds on the central premise that the proper approach to carpal tunnel syndrome is lymphatic drainage, which must be done with a light touch and with strokes that must go in a specific direction to be therapeutic. It takes a holistic plan of attack by including areas of the body beyond the wrist and forearm.

Chagnon’s basic approach is strong and has all sorts of scientific backup, but he weakens his case with unclear instructions, and confusingly complex illustrations. I’m sure these things demonstrated in person would be crystal clear, but that’s not how I found them in the manual. I had to work at coordinating my hands with the verbal instructions which seemed to conflict with the line drawings with arrows indicating hand position and movement. Maybe it's just me, and I've been out of school too long. I do recommend this manual to go along with personal instruction, so by all means, take Steve’s class!

I have two recommendations for the next edition of this manual: One, separate the instructions for self-massage from those for massaging a client. Or at least make the delineations more clear. Two, the manual is riddled with typos! Clean that up for a more professional presentation. That said, I give this effort a strong B+