·        You might feel most comfortable kneeling astride your partner.

·        Your partner might find that quite a bit of nervous tension disappears after a back massage.

·        You might find that up to a third of the time spent on a massage will be spent on the back. I doubt any of us will complain.

·        The back muscles are usually massaged in three groups. A successful back rub will cover all three groups:  the long muscles that run parallel to the spine, the flat muscle groups that cover the top of the back and lower neck, and the wide band of muscles that stretches from the spine to the side of the back.

·        Begin the back rub with a simple circulation (sweeping motion) that touches all three areas in a simple, continuous stroke. You needn't press hard during this stroke.

·        Then make your hands flat and place your fingers facing the spine. Slide your hands up the spine, press with medium pressure. When you reach the neck turn your hands so that your fingers massage along the top of the shoulders and then down the outer sides of the back.

When you come back down the outer sides of the back, turn your hands back to the original position.

Repeat this circulation movement about ten times.

Then you can move on to pressing the back.  Pressing the back is the most dramatic massage stroke available.

In order to get the technique right, you need to understand one principle fact about massage. Massage is the manipulation of muscle tissue. When pressing on the back,