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Naples Daily News Tuesday, November 6, 2001
Treading lightly: East meets west as local massage therapist utilizes Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy
Michelle Mace-Lambert brings new meaning to downtrodden.
"Being walked on never felt so good," said the licensed massage therapist who utilizes Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy.
 Roughly described, Ashiatsu, which means foot pressure, entails one massage therapist dangling from what appear to be monkey bars hanging from the ceiling and one client lying face down on a table, getting walked all over by said dangling therapist.
The copyrighted massage technique was developed several years ago by a Colorado massage therapist who incorporated various ancient Asian techniques with the addition of two parallel bars mounted in the ceiling to support the therapist and to allow the therapist to control the amount of pressure exerted on the client's muscles.
The advantage of using her feet, Mace-Lambert says, is that the technique enables her to perform a deeper massage than the strength of her hands and arms allow.
"The idea behind it makes sense," said Tony Hansen, who owns Absolute Health Therapeutic Massage, where Mace-Lambert and Charlotte Haenel are the only two certified Ashiatsu Oriental Bar therapists in Southwest Florida; there are only 400 practitioners throughout the United States. Mace-Lambert also offers the massage technique at The Registry Resort. "It uses leg muscles, which are much stronger than the arm muscles."
From a boss's perspective, Hansen appreciates the technique, or as it as known in the business, the modality.
"It's a lot less hard on the therapist," he said. His center's dozen therapists offer more than a dozen massage techniques. Most therapists can handle performing just three or four deep tissue massages in a day because of the strain on their own muscles and joints. "A lot of the therapies we do are physically demanding on the therapist."
From a client's perspective Ashiatsu takes massage to a deeper level — especially for larger men.
 "It seems like when I get a massage they can never go deep enough," said Domonic Tomei, whose 6-foot-plus, 200-pound-plus frame poses a daunting task to regular massage techniques.
As Tomei lay face down on the massage table, Mace-Lambert sprayed her bare feet with an alcohol solution before clambering on the table.
"Most people have a little shoe scraper outside (the door)," Tomei joked. "She has a belt sander."
Mace-Lambert admitted it is tough to keep her feet maintained for massages — particularly because she is a runner. Surprisingly, however, she claims her sense of touch and feeling in her feet is as acute as in her hands.
"I can literally feel the tightness," Mace-Lambert said, standing on Tomei's spine. "I can feel the tension."
And what the client feels is a sort of strange shape on the back; the foot, after all, is a different shape from the hand. But the foot is able to apply pressure over a larger area than a hand, and Mace Lambert can not only press down with the full weight of her body but also use the overhead bars to push down and apply even more pressure if needed.
"The big question," Tomei said, "can you teach my wife to do this?"
Another one of Mace-Lambert's clients thinks so much of Ashiatsu massage that he's having the bars installed in the ceiling of his Florida room.
William Johnson was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis two years ago, and for the past nine months, he's made massage therapy part of his treatment process.
"It does more for my back than anything I've had done to me," Johnson said. "It's a lot different from deep tissue massage but with the same benefits."
The most notable difference is the sight of the massage itself, where Mace-Lambert, in a leotard stands on a client and hangs from the overhead bars.
"This for me is fun," she said. "I'm a rock climber, and this is right up my alley."
A massage therapist for four years, Mace-Lambert discovered Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy while on her honeymoon last summer in Colorado. She immediately tracked down the only instructor and took the weeklong course.
Because of the arm and leg strength required, therapists have to be fit and fairly petite.
"You don't want someone like a truck driver walking on you," Mace-Lambert said.
But supporting herself from the overhead bars allows her to massage everyone from the most petite women to big, truck-driver types.
"I've even walked on pastors," she said.
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