Sarga Bodywork
Boise, ID

We celebrate the broad, densely-innervated surfaces of our feet as perhaps the most effective and intelligent tools to apply these techniques. Feet are amazing tools, and as bodyworkers, the ability to perform massage with our feet opens up a whole new set of biomechanical options.

Using the feet allows us to apply deep pressure with a broad, rather than pointed, surface. It also allows a more relaxed and gradual application of pressure, as the practitioner is able to use their body weight and gravity to ease into just the right depth of pressure. Think of the natural pressure and weight of your dog leaning into you or your cat walking on or kneading you with their paws.

The practitioner also has a high degree of control, due to the balance and stability provided by the Sarga Strap, making it possible to ease off pressure if needed and also to move at a slow enough pace that the body is able to relax and receive deeper pressure. Clients have described the sensation as, “intensely relaxing,” and “the deepest pressure I’ve ever felt, but it doesn’t hurt at all!”

Use of the feet for massage is an ancient practice, most notably in parts of Asia and the Pacific. Many of these techniques, however, do not commonly use lotion or oil for practical reasons – in other words, the practitioner might simply slide off the recipient’s body!

To cross the slippery slope of combining lubrication with foot-based bodywork requires structural support. Keralite Massage and Ashiatsu are two elegant expressions of this combination that require the use of an overhead rope or a bar for balance. Sarga Bodywork evolved as a form of barefoot bodywork that is not limited by the need for overhead support built into a treatment room – instead, it is entirely portable and can be done on nearly any massage table anywhere!

Sarga Bodywork is a synthesis of a variety of bodywork techniques that align with the gravitational and tensional forces expressed by the principles of tensegrity. Tensegrity (a portmanteau of tension and integrity), a concept coined by the architect Buckminster Fuller, is the pattern that results when “push” and “pull” have a synergistic relationship. This basic dialogue of polarity is at the foundation of Sarga Bodywork’s ideology and methodology.

Tensegrity exists in a system when rigid, or compressed, components, such as bars or beams, are suspended and kept in spatial alignment by continuous, tensioned components, such as cables. Such a system is able to withstand significant forces and maintain its structural integrity due to its unique properties.

Biotensegrity, a term coined by Dr. Stephen Levin, is the application of tensegrity principles to biological structures. Biological structures, such as muscles, bones, fascia, ligaments, and tendons are made strong by the unison of tensioned and compressed parts. The musculoskeletal system maintains tension in a continuous network of muscles and connective tissues, while the bones provide discontinuous compressive support. Also implied within this concept is the idea that applying additional tension or force in one part of the body has an effect on the whole body since it is a continuous, tensioned system.

Sarga Bodywork offers a unique expression of the principles of tensegrity, as two bodies, practitioner and recipient – both biotensegrity systems themselves – become part of a larger tensegrity system created between the Sarga Strap, the massage table, the practitioner, and the recipient.

In addition to providing support and tensional force the Sarga Strap can be transformed into a variety of tools, and facilitates a wide range of body mechanics for the practitioner.

The word SARGA has meaning both in Spanish and Sanskrit. In Spanish, SARGA refers to a tapestry woven from many different threads. This is a fitting concept since Sarga Bodywork synthesizes techniques and teachings from many different traditions. In this way, Sarga Bodywork is a colorful tapestry of bodywork traditions, carefully gathered and creatively woven into a beautiful quilt of possibility. It is appropriate that this metaphor of a tapestry is connected to the fabric that we hold in our hands for balance and support. 

In Sanskrit, the word SARGA can refer to creation or origin energy, made manifest into form, and Sarga Bodywork, and the innovative tools used to perform the modality, is a creative and evolving new approach to bodywork taking form.