April 4, 2025 • 59 mins
Jeppe Tengbjerg is the founder and CEO of the International Massage Association and is recognized for his pioneering role in establishing the World Championship in Massage. Born and raised in Denmark, he was inspired by his grandmother, who was a massage therapist and reflexologist. Jeppe has a strong background in professional sports, being a former professional football player and coach, and a business educator before fully dedicating himself to the world of massage therapy. His passion for massage and education is reflected in his work, including the creation of international teaching programs and organizing global massage events.
Visit Jeppe at: https://tengbjerg.dk/
and: https://worldchampionship-massage.com/
Key Takeaways:
- The World Championship in Massage serves as a platform to inspire, educate, and connect massage therapists worldwide.
- Thai massage is highlighted for its international acclaim, particularly after being recognized by UNESCO as a cultural heritage.
- Importance of understanding body mechanics, or ergonomics, in providing sustainable therapy without exerting strain or causing injury to therapists.
- The role of international teaching programs in fostering a higher standard of massage education across different regions.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:33):
Welcome to Native Yoga Toddcast,so happy you are here. My goal
with this channel is to bringinspirational speakers to the
mic in the field of yoga,massage, body work and beyond.
Follow us at @nativeyoga andcheck us out at
nativeyogacenter.com. All right,let's begin.
(01:04):
Welcome to Native Yoga Toddcast.
And today, my special guest isJeppe Tengbjerg, and you can
find him on his websitewww.tengbjerg.dk and Jeppe is
joining me from Denmark, and ohmy gosh, holy cow, I'm so
(01:25):
excited for you to meet Jeppe.
Oh, what an incredible personfor our bodywork community. I'm
just so grateful you're gonnahear everything you need to know
by listening to thisconversation, but definitely go
to his website. And he's createdthe International Massage
Association, and he has createdthe International Massage
(01:49):
Competition that is happening inmultiple places all over the
world. Wait till you hear theway that Jeppe has organized,
spreading positivity, educationand curriculum for bodyworkers
globally, and bringing thecommunity together from multiple
countries all over the world tohelp share and to innovate
(02:12):
within our community. So on thatnote, here we go. Let's begin.
I'm so happy to have thisopportunity to bring Jeppe
Tengbjerg to the podcast today.
Jeppe, thank you so much forbeing here. How are you feeling
today?
Outstanding, and thank you forhaving me here.
Thank you. You know I found youbecause somebody came in for a
(02:37):
Thai massage and they said, thereason that I'm here is that I
saw on social media someonepracticing Thai massage at a
time at a massage, internationalmassage competition. I don't
know if I had the terminologyright, and you can correct me
here in a moment, but I and whenI heard that, I just kind of was
(03:00):
like, You did what you you'recoming in, because you, you
there's a there's a massagecompetition. Like, what is that?
And so then he showed me theperson on social media, and I
started following him. And thenas I saw the event, and as I got
a view of what the event thatyou've put together, I was just
really blown away out at firstthe idea, because I'd never even
(03:23):
thought of it before. I've neverthought about having this sort
of way to showcase and highlightthe amazing arts of massage, the
massage world. And then on topof it, I just got really
intrigued and found yourwebsite, and I've seen all of
the incredible things thatyou've put together for the
massage community on aninternational scale. And so I
(03:45):
just want to thank you, first ofall, for all your effort,
because I you know anyone who'sreally working the way you are
to promote the positive benefitsof massage therapy, I just think
is amazing. I'm just curious,what is your background? When
did you first fall in love? Orhow did you come to become a
(04:05):
massage therapist?
Yeah, I have always had theinterest. Actually, my
grandmother, who's still living,by the way, is was a massage
therapist and a reflexologist,and I grew up as a guinea pig
through the 80s, which, and Iwas very curious, really,
(04:27):
because it felt good receivingreflexology and massages. And I
was a very talented footballplayer. You know, soccer, real
football. And already, when Iwas 12, when we went to
trainings camps, I earned mypocket money by giving massages
(04:50):
without oil, by the way, so itwas pretty painful, but so, but
the funny stuff is really that Iwas always curious, but. You
know when you grow up and yourparents say, yeah, you need an
education, okay, okay, okay,what to do? Then, of course, I
went to business school, and Itook a business degree,
whatever. But still, thismassage was within me, and it
(05:14):
had my interest, as well asacupuncture and reflexology. And
then I was a professionalfootball player, also in many
years. But around when I was2120 22 I decided to go, go all
in, really, within my interest.
So I began taking massageclasses, reflexology, anatomy,
(05:36):
physiology, acupuncture and soon. And since then, really, it
has been a big part of my world.
I was a professional footballerfor a while at the same time,
and I was a professionalfootball coach at the same time.
But the last 10 years, I havebeen this international massage
Association founder and CEO. Sono more time to to play football
(06:03):
and coach,wow, that's amazing. Hepe,
that's so cool. And youperformed at the professional
level in football. So that'slike, that was that's amazing. I
don't know if you've ever heardof the show Ted lasso, but it's
one of my all time favoriteAmerican shows, highlighting the
coolness of football in Europe.
(06:24):
So and then, how? What was theimpetus for the idea to create
the massage competition?
Yeah, when I went to massageschool, actually, I, I already
had an idea of making a schoolof my own, because at the
(06:50):
business school and I had a jobwithin the municipality. I was
working in an educational officeat the Muslim municipality. So I
had some skills, besides beingvery good at anatomy, physiology
and massages, and I had businessskills and I had organization
(07:11):
skills. So I knew that I wantedto make a massage school, and
already did three years after myeducation, really. So I opened
the school in 2001 and thencomes, of course, a lot of years
where I was practicing and I wasteaching and so on. But in 2014
(07:32):
I began to be a little bored. Iwas educating other peoples in
the same over and over again.
And I needed inspiration myself.
And I I remember I was thinking,there must be many others in the
world like me who needinspiration, yes, who really
(07:54):
want inspiration? Yes. And sowhat I did is I had a plan in my
mind. I didn't tell anyone inthe beginning, but first, I
created a master class inmassage in my own country,
Denmark. And these students inthe master class, I wanted to,
(08:16):
want them to help me to createrules and a setup for a world
championship. And so the ideacame in 14 and in and in 15, I
created the class, and in 16, Imade the first Danish massage
championship, because we wantedto do a trainings camp in how to
(08:38):
host a massage championship.
Yeah, wow, before we invite thewhole world, Yeah,
correct. That makes sense, yeah.
Andthen, of course, we also did in,
in the beginning of 2017 thesecond trainings camp. And then
came in 2017 the first worldchampionship in massage. And in
order to tell really how theprocedure and how we promote it.
(09:02):
I actually contacted twopersons. I did not know them at
all. First, I contacted thefounder and the CEO of the world
massage magazine, which is anEnglish, UK based massage
magazine. I wrote him, Hey,Carl, my name is, yep. I have
this, this idea, would you liketo to help me? 30 minutes later,
(09:26):
he write me an email, yep, thecoolest thing in the whole
world, something like that.
Yeah, yeah. I was, of course,very pleased, because I think, I
think real thing was a goodidea, and I'll tell you why it
was a good idea, also in amoment. And then I contacted
(09:48):
Ryan heimi from massachusett.comin America. I did not know him
at all. I just followed him onYouTube a little bit because he
made the material for. Teachers,really, so, so I wrote him, Hey,
Ryan, my name is, yep. I havethis idea, would you like to
help me? And 30 minutes later,he writes me an email, Yep,
(10:11):
great. I mean, nice, and it'sso. So I was right. Many, many,
really wants to elevate andinspire and share, yeah, and
there is a reason why I thinkthis became a huge success. Most
of you guys who are therapistsnow, I don't give so much
(10:35):
massage anymore. Unfortunately,I only teach, but you guys are
working in small clinics,sometimes, very often, on your
own, by your own, and you do nothave colleagues to speak with.
So we need events where we canmeet, meet and discuss our
frustrations and our chances,problems, whatever, and have
(10:57):
fun. Yeah,such a I agree 100% that's why
I'm so happy to be talking withyou right now. But you know,
that's what just even viewingwell first. So I I'm a yoga
teacher as well, and one of thefirst traditions that I got that
I was practicing under was astyle called Bikram yoga, and
(11:21):
Bikram Choudhury. I don't knowif you know any of his history
or have heard of him, but hestarted a yoga competition, and
this was very, you know,received a lot of different
feedback from people as tocompeting in yoga. I thought
yoga was a spiritual discipline.
(11:45):
How are we going to judge awinner in a yoga event and and
what are we going to sit inmeditation and have somebody
judge Okay, the first person tohit enlightenment wins. And
which brings up a really goodpoint, like, how do you even
judge that? And so the yogacompetition was judged a little
(12:05):
more accordingly to likegymnastics meet would be in
terms of studying forms,studying the alignment, the
ability for the practitioner tohold the pose for the duration
that they were striving for, andall these sort of criteria. And
having been involved in that, Idefinitely had my it really
(12:27):
pushed me to challenge, bechallenged, and work outside of
my comfort zone. I havedifferent feelings about it now,
you know, many years later, butI still feel like I gained a lot
from it, I would imagine in themassage therapy field as well.
Perhaps you've received somefeedback that would say, how do
(12:48):
we compete in massage? Right? Ican already feel, from
everything you told me, that thewhole inspiration and motivation
is grounded in the desire tohelp inspire people we're not.
I'm guessing, it's not so muchthat we're competing against one
another to see who's the bestmassage therapist, but more as a
way to celebrate the culture andthe field. Can you talk a little
(13:13):
bit about what type ofcriticism, if you received any
at all, and then what thebenefits perhaps have outweighed
that critique.
Yeah, of course, in thebeginning, we had criticism
actually a lot and but it thatis a good thing, because it
(13:34):
created a debate about how tojudge and what the purposes and
reasons why we are doing this.
But of course, sometimes westill have a little criticism,
but maybe it's a person that hasnot been awake for the last many
years, because the most peoplenow understand why we are doing
it. Yeah, and I will, I willtell you that how that just in
(13:56):
yoga, was also interesting tohear, actually, at the World
Championship massage, it was notlike in the beginning.
Beginning, we had the samecriteria sheets for all
categories, categories, we hadto start somewhere. But now we
have criteria sheets. Is thisespecially designed for each
(14:21):
category regarding the becauseof the purpose? Really, the
purpose is always different fromcategory to category, or at
least very often. So I tell youa little bit about the judging.
Of course, it's abouttechniques. It's not about the
number of techniques. It iswhether they are relevant, and
the combination of techniques,whether they are good. And it is
(14:44):
about economic, of course, aswell as in yoga, it's about
economic for the giver as wellas for the receiver. When
you say economic, do you meanthe amount of energy you're
exerting? In based off of theresult of your effort.
It's very much about your ownbody economic in order to save
(15:07):
your joints, protect yourjoints. Yes, it's also about
using your own strength andpower and weight and so on. And
of course, also the receiversshould lie in certain positions
for some creeps and so on, andand then, of course, we have the
flow. It could also, it's whenyou say flow, it's also about
(15:29):
the pace of the massage. Andhere we make many mistakes,
really not not the not thejudges, but the therapist in
general. Because, depending onthe on the on the tissue that
you are giving massage, there isa certain pace that is suitable
(15:51):
or beneficial. You do not givedeep tissue massage fast,
because then the nervous systemwill fight you, against you.
Maybe you can do more speedingmassage when you are
superficial, but not when you godeep. And it's also about which
kind of tissue are you working?
Are you working muscle tissue,tendons, ligaments? Are you
working fascia? And all this hasrequires a different kind of
(16:16):
time and power, really, and it'salways different from also
client to client. Yeah, so thisis the most difficult part, is
really to adapt to each client.
And now, anyway, so we have nowtechniques, we have economics,
and we have the flow. And theflow is also, of course, from
(16:38):
one muscle group to another,whether it is connected with our
sometimes you give ear massageand then you take gave a foot
massage. Doesn't make sense,okay? We also have innovation,
and innovation can be important,not always, not always.
Innovation is important if youhave to adapt to a client, are
(17:03):
you a small woman giving abodybuilder, a guy a massage?
You need to adapt? Maybe withtools? Yeah. And this is also
interesting, adapting, butinnovating. Combining different
methods is not always a goodidea combining, but very often,
if you choose right, you will dovery good. You can make you can
(17:26):
choose bodywork, normal massagewith shiatsu and energy lines.
It is possible, and can alsomake sense. So the combination
we this is also why, from thebeginning, we had a freestyle
category, because we want to seeinnovation. We want to see
everything.
Yeah, amazing. Yeah, it isamazing. Such a good idea. Yeah,
(17:49):
tell you.
I will tell you some ideas andsome stories a little later. But
let's end up with we also havesomething called client contact
with this really the interactionbetween the therapist and the
client and and the the touch.
Really how we whether we cangive the right touch. We can
(18:11):
also see it as judges in thebeginning of all these
championships, the first threeyears, we also give points as
receivers. Because this is it isactually that the other
competitors are receivers.
Oh, cool. So we didnot have any listen. We did not
have any problems with that. Allthe participants were fair. They
(18:32):
were giving fair points. And ifthey didn't, we throw them out.
Nobody was okay. It was not aproblem, and they had up to a
certain number of points togive, and they were fair, and it
so we also had some feedbackfrom the receiver.
Unfortunately, a little bitunfortunately, we had to take it
out of the competition becauseof COVID. We we had to make the
(18:54):
championship as a hybridchampionship. That means,
oh, because it because of, well,let me think about this, because
of COVID. You still tried to runthe championship through,
probably not 2020 but, but maybe2122 and then just here we are
(19:15):
now, 25 it's been a gradual likere, re introduction into it's
okay to be touched. It's okay tohave somebody close to you. Oh
my gosh, that's a whole notherthought. But wait, so let me
just back up a little bit. Yousaid that initially, in the
first three years, thecompetitor, as a competitor, you
also were the receiver. So as acompetitor, you also were able
(19:39):
to be a judge, which is a coolidea. I see where you say there
could be challenge there,because then someone's gonna
say, well, that's not fair. Theydidn't judge me, right? And
they, you know, and he's acompetitor. So I get where that
challenge would be, but I'mtrying to understand that then
changed at COVID time. So thatmeans that the competition
probably started in 27 17. Am Iright? I think he's is that when
(20:02):
the first competition was, hehad one in 1718, and 19, and
then maybe, is my timeline? Am Ithinking correctly? Was
it? Was it was postponed in 2020Yeah, 2021 we wanted to continue
no matter whatI'm with you. I know,
(20:22):
yeah, but it was very muchbecause we wanted to promote the
massage provision. We want tokeep it alive. Yeah, yes, so
and, but the thing then we hadto do it hybrid. So 50% of the
participant had to do it, stayat home. Could not travel to
Copenhagen, and maybe 50% couldcome. It was open, but it was
difficult. Yes. Oh, so, forexample, you are actually in
(20:45):
your studio. Now, I think yourmassage clinic, yes, yeah, you
have a nice camera. You can, youcan give a massage with a
camera. You can even have twocameras, if you like, and then
this way we could see themassage. We had a huge screen
where we could see maybe 10participants at the time. Yeah.
It went amazing. Good for manyreasons. When you do online, the
(21:12):
judges sit and can seeeverybody. They are not going
through the massage tables anddon't see what is behind them,
yeah. So actually, it went verywell, and, and, but the thing
is, why couldn't we take thepoints? It was because the
receiver could have been yourmother, you know? Yeah,
(21:33):
yeah, Mom's gonna give me a 10.
Yeah.
It's only in the big overallfinal that we have judge judge,
receivers now. And there wasanother problem also with with
the participants being judges aswell. For the first three years,
all participants were judges,judges in the final they could
(21:57):
give one point to the ones theythought was the very best. Yeah,
the problem is that there weremaybe 20 from Thailand and one
from Hungary, and now it's notreally valid anymore, so we had
to take that also out. So nowit's only the judges, and we
(22:18):
also take some judges out ifthey have former students, yeah.
So in order to make it valid,trustworthy and all this, we are
very careful how we judge thesechampionships. Wow,
man. I love the attention ofdetail, so great. And I like the
fact that the way you broke downthe categories, and if I were,
(22:42):
if I were, I mean, I'll bereally honest right away. When I
saw the competition, I thought Igot to go to this like, not, not
because I want to, like, assertmy like, I think I'm the best
massage therapist in the world.
I'm coming, you know, like, butmore like, I just want to be
around everybody and just learnfrom everyone that just sounds
(23:02):
so cool to me. But then when youwhen you bring up the idea of
the categories, and then just toeven promote to therapists that
are just entering the field thatthese are some of the different
characteristics that you'regoing to want to really put
(23:23):
attention into. And I'm sorry,because when you said
ergonomics, I thought you saideconomics, but now I understand
when you said ergonomics, mymind went to like, oh, the
economy of movement and energy.
But I guess maybe that is thesame thing as ergonomics, in the
sense that that's that's kind ofwhat. No, no, no, no, your
English is amazing. No worries.
There I am. I, you know, asbeing a therapist for a long
(23:46):
time, this really does matter.
To be able to keep using ourjoints in our profession for six
to seven to eight hours a day,you know, requires a lot of
attention to detail, and thenthe fact that you're bringing up
the flow and the pace, and Idon't know that maybe even
(24:07):
someone who's listening that isnot a massage therapist that
hasn't worked doing body work, Ithink probably everyone
listening has received amassage, even to even think
about what the therapist isgaging as they're working, and
some of the detail that is goinginto perfect, the art, I love
that you're bringing this to theforefront. I think this is so
(24:29):
important. I can see whereyou're you're combining all of
your background, your sportsbackground, your professionalism
in sports, your businessbackground, and the passion for
the bodywork community, havinglearned it from your grandma,
what a great combination ofelements. I'll let you continue,
but I just want to highlightsome of the things that you're
(24:51):
you're bringing to the tablehere. Sorry for the pun, but,
um, you know, keep keep going,please. I feel like I maybe I
interrupted you, but I want tohear. More about how the
structure of the competitionworks.
Yeah. Now we have ninecategories. The last one was
what we call body shapingmassage. So it's we are actually
(25:12):
trying to combine the massageprofession with the beauty
profession and the wellnessprofession. Wow, yeah. And we're
trying to build bridges here,and it's very big. Actually,
this body shaping massage,especially in Eastern Europe and
also other places, actually verygood. It was a French slash
(25:35):
Swiss woman winning last year,and she was, by the way, this
same woman actually also won infacial massage. So we have some
different categories, and we tryto, we will not take all massage
methods in now, because it hasto be also a little bit valid.
It's also difficult to find theright judges. We have to educate
(25:58):
the judges at the same time. Youknow, it's not, it's not easy.
We when the beginning, therewere no massage judges, and we
had to find the very best thatcould evaluate massage by seeing
so we was not anyway, I willtell you a little bit about
another thing that we we do hereat the International massage
(26:20):
Association. We Our job is, ofcourse, to promote the massage
provision, and we do it, ofcourse, with the World
Championship in massage. But dueto COVID, we came up with
another great idea. We we'vemade the best massage promotion
competition. We don't reallyhave a good name for it,
the best, way say that again,the best massage promotion,
(26:44):
promotion competition, like whocan
promoting the massage professionin one way. It could be, it
could be that you are promotingyour clinic, or it could be that
you're promoting a massageMethod or an event you do your
spa or whatever. So, so it'sactually about making
(27:05):
competition. And the idea is, ofcourse, that everyone can see
what good promotion is, and fromthere, become better themselves.
Wow.
Excellent idea. Where did thatone come out? Who? I mean,
obviously the one of the bigchallenges in our profession is
(27:28):
that we come into it with a loveand passion or desire to be
great at the craft, and then tobe a good business person on top
of it and learn all of theskills essential to self
promotion can often feel sooverwhelming and like but wait,
I don't have that background,and then little over time, we
(27:51):
become really great business,entrepreneurially minded
individuals on top of great bodyworkers. But you're right, that
is such a skill that requires alot of education and learning. I
love the fact that you'reweaving that in and bringing
that to the forefront too.
Yeah, and it's, of course wedebate what good massage is as a
(28:15):
promotion video idea, okay? Andof course, we have, we have had
this competition in 2122 2324 44years. And maybe we have 121, 30
videos that we are receiving andis evaluating and actually very
(28:35):
proud of the winners. I thinkthey are very good videos. You
can see them on our on ourwebsite and so on. But we did
actually a survey. I want totell you a little bit about.
It's not American survey. It'sactually a Danish survey. But we
(28:59):
we try to find out, why are welosing our clients? How come
that we are losing clients, andhow many are we actually losing
and why are we losing them? Andwe made a big survey where we
asked many, many clients, andthey say they they want to try
something new. Yeah, 1/3 of theclientele are leaving us because
(29:24):
they want to try something new.
However, if you can give them anew experience once in a while,
the chances that they stayrises, Okay, makes sense. So
this is why we had to go to toget learn a new stuff, whatever
use of bamboo, or use of copyingor something, you have to give
(29:47):
them a new experience once in awhile. And then they found out,
okay, what you actually do isactually quite amazing. I stay
with you. And so, so thepromotional video competition is
very much. Much about inspire todo new things, new stuff, and to
find out what really isinteresting.
(30:09):
Yeah, well, that's a great idea.
I like that spin, and I feellike probably taking that angle,
like when you make mention of,how do you judge promotional
material? Because if youhighlight somebody just showing
skin and turn and maybemisrepresenting a therapeutic
environment and just trying tomake it look like maybe bringing
(30:33):
too much of sexuality in, orsome other component that
obviously gets a lot of a lot oflikes that type of thing. We
know that, but we got tomaintain some sort of ethics. So
the fact that you're leaning onthis, this concept that you
bring up about innovation andor, let's highlight something
(30:54):
new, I think that's alsobrilliant, man, you're I love
seeing the acceleratingat the beta, yeah.
Man, how cool. Well, man, wheredo you get all your motivation
from? I mean, is this justspringing up from within? I
(31:15):
mean, obviously being aroundother professionals, I
understand what you said. Youhit this point in 2014 of like,
I need some motivation. I thinkyou're, you're lending us toward
the direction of we getmotivation from each other. We
get this from we, I mean, we'dlike to sometimes think, Oh, I'm
so great. It comes from withinme and but no, it's through
(31:37):
community. It's through,listen, I didn't really know
what I started when I began.
Tell it again, as you canimagine, I always say this
because it's a little funny. Butanyway, I there are two
important days in your life,Mark Twain told us the day you
(31:59):
were born and the day you findout why. And back in 2017 after
the First World Championship, Ibegan to realize really my
purpose. We do one or two thingsin life that actually matters.
And here it was, creating acommunity across borders, an
(32:19):
international community that hadnever seen before. And the first
half is, of course, it was myintention, but I never see that
the need for this community wasthis big. Yeah, I didn't realize
that, actually. And now, afterthe first championships, we saw
people traveling across bordersto help each other teach. And
(32:42):
blah, blah, blah, blah, youknow. And, and me, myself and
many others have now beenteaching in America, in Asia, of
course, in Europe and, yeah,many, many places, okay, and,
and it's interesting becausethere are many that's me, who
are school owners. We we canfind the best teachers at the
(33:05):
World Championship, yeah. Andteachers can find new school
owners, yeah. And therapists cancan, of course, share their
skills and find inspiration. Andwe do it, by the way, also have
workshops at the WorldChampionships, yeah. And let me
tell you now you are an Americanpodcaster here. And America was
(33:29):
a little late within thesechampionships. But then we have
now had three Americanchampionships in connection with
the world massage festival. Wow,yeah, we will have the fourth
year in July in Las Vegas. And Ican only encourage Americans to
show up and share their skills.
(33:52):
So July of 25 in Las Vegas,there'll be, like, a branch of
the international competitionyou're holding in Europe that'll
be affiliated through youfollowing the same protocol and
standards and judging criteriain Las Vegas. How cool. I didn't
(34:15):
now, I know. I guess I know. Iguess I know where I'm going in
July.
Yeah, you should actually justanother thing. It's very
important that therapists,schools, spas, support these
hosts and events. If you reallywant to meet and have fun and
(34:35):
share, we should go, yeah. Ijust before we had this
conversation, I sent an email tomany, many former participants
at the Danish championship, andI encourage them to come on,
guys, come and boost yourcareer. Come and have fun,
because they need it, and theyalso want it, yeah, but
(34:57):
sometimes they needed to bereminded,
yeah. Yes, I agree. I mean, evenjust watching the videos of the
some of the techniques that thepeople are doing blew my mind. I
thought, Wow. I guess maybe I'mgetting stale and look at these
incredible different maneuversthey're doing within this little
(35:19):
structure of just the shoulder,like just focusing on one part
of the body, the shoulder. Whoa,I haven't done that movement
before. What? Let me try that.
And so even just the learningcomponent of the content that's
coming out of the competition,in and of itself, is really
amazing. And I think the truetestament, you know, with the
power of social media, and thefact that somebody came in
(35:42):
because, like, he'd never, he'dnever had Thai massage, and here
he's watching somebody do this,really, the choreography of the
movement that I was witnessing,that I saw, that he showed me. I
thought, well, yeah, I see whyyou wanted to come in. You're
right. That looks amazing. Iwant to meet that guy. Actually
reached out to the one of thewinners. And, you know, I was
(36:03):
trying to get some of thewinners to come onto the show. I
haven't had any luck yet, justbecause maybe there's a language
challenge for which I again, Iwant to thank you. You're
multilingual. I am not. I onlyspeak English. You're speaking
multiple languages. I'm sure. Iknow, obviously, you know,
you're Danish and English. Howmany languages, languages do you
speak? Happy with you, with you,working with all these different
(36:25):
cultures aroundthe world. Listen, I manage, of
course, understanding and speaka little bit German and also
Dutch, because I used to live inthe Netherlands for three years,
wow. But, of course, Iunderstand Norwegian Swedish and
so on. But listen, it's English.
Is the common language here. Andthis is also interesting,
because in many ways, I am theaverage of everyone, really. And
(36:51):
of course, there is a big worldspeaking English, but the rest
of the world doesn't, so we haveto find an understandable
English, and the way tocommunicate and time is, of
course, easier now for manyreasons. Now we can even use
apps to translate right away ifneeded, but English is for now,
at least the language I willtell you something because you
(37:14):
keep reminding me, we my bigpurpose with this is, of course,
to share all the knowledge thatwe receive from all our amazing
participants and teachers andall the networks. So we actually
go around when I say we is me,and very often with a co
(37:37):
teacher, we teach classes and weactually try to teach what the
trend is and and also teach whatwe really have been taught or
learned from all the amazingtherapists. And because you
could keep telling me that youhave learned Thai massage, and
(37:58):
Thai massage is very, veryinteresting in many, many ways,
actually very proud, becauseafter three World Championships
time, massage came on to theuniscus World Heritage List.
Yeah, I'm not saying we hadanything to do with that, but
I'm pretty proud. It's a nicecon, yeah, nice thing that
happened that year in 2019anyway, we have made a surveys
(38:21):
regarding the Seven WorldChampionships that we have done,
we have done it with the numberof medals, but we have also done
it with the average of points.
And the last thing we have onlydone for three years, but it's
very interesting because it's itshows us that timers as is, at
least in the statistic, the bestmassage Method in the world.
(38:45):
Wow,yeah, there is. That's cause for
celebration. Man, that is reallyI agree. I mean, personally,
when I first came in contactwith Thai massage in Thailand. I
was practicing here in Florida.
I graduated in 2000 and somebodyhad asked me, well, what are you
(39:07):
going to do with, you know, whatmodality Do you want to go down?
Do you want to learncraniosacral therapy? Do you
want to learn Feldenkrais? Doyou want to neuromuscular
therapy? Or, you know, on thelist goes on, there's so many
options. And I was like, I don'tknow. I'm not sure. I just
wanted to do massage. I didn'tknow I had to, like, specialize.
What are you talking about? Andthen, well, they said, Well,
what are you what are youinterested in? Like, what's your
(39:27):
you know, and I, I was reallypassionate about yoga, and I was
just loving the body work. Like,well, have you heard of Thai
massage? I said, No. And theywere like, well, it's the
perfect blend of yoga, bodymovement massage. And I just
went light bulb, like, Oh mygosh. And so I had never had a
Thai massage, and I'm like, I'mgoing to Thailand. So I went to
Thailand, and when I had myfirst Thai massage, again, this
(39:51):
just like, this is the best.
This is this brings everyelement of all the different
things I've been practicing andstudying. It just. Seemed like
it synthesized it in such aincredible way. Then you have
the culture, and you have thehistory, and you have the
blending of cultures thatcreated Thai massage. And I
just, I've been so enamored withit all along. So I but the big
(40:12):
challenge when I came back toFlorida, you know, you leave,
you're in the center. You're inan epicenter of Study and
Learning and culture andeveryone knowing about
something, and then you leavethat epicenter, and you find
nobody knows about what I'mexcited about. And so education
about what Thai massage is, hasbeen my biggest journey, or a
big part of just being apractitioner is the education
(40:37):
part. So I love hearing whatyou're saying. I just it just
just makes me I just can't tellyou how happy I am.
Thai massage is so, so good,because it also have a problem,
I tell you in a moment, please,is, of course, a good pressure,
(41:01):
or massages, hopefully has goodpressure, but pressure and it
contain stretching and jointmobilization. And as you say,
you come in and it's very niceatmosphere. There is a little
smell of whatever, and it's verycozy when you go into these
(41:21):
clinics, and very nice most ofthe time, at least. The thing is
with thy massage, and why it'snot really perfect is that it is
not adapted very much to thedifferent kind of tissue. Okay,
of course, we try to adapt whichtechniques we are using, because
(41:43):
we have to. And it's time.
Massage is endless of massagescripts, but you understand
that, what are we working with?
Are we working with the muscles?
Is the tendons, or are wetalking about fascia? It all
requires different time. Andwhat you see in thy massage,
it's the same pace, very often,okay, very often. And so so many
of the therapists are doingmagic numbers, you know, three,
(42:07):
three pressure, here, for there,and so on. And which is nice,
and it's also nice mentally,because the receiver can relax
and almost meditate, meditative.
Meditate, meditate. It ismeditate, and but it's not
perfect. It is not perfect. Andcan we reach perfection? It's a
(42:27):
good question. I don't have theanswer. I like the fact that
you're as optimistic as you are.
It can reach perfection? Anotherquestion, though happy along
that note and where my mind wentwhen you said the challenge with
it, people with orthopedicdisorders, and say, going into a
(42:48):
session with somebody who justlike, say, back bending, for
example, in the classic Cobra,where we put the knees on the
hamstrings, catch the hands,lean back and facilitate
somebody coming into a reallydeep extension. I personally
have spondylolisthesis, and soback bending is really painful
(43:10):
now, and so I'm really scaredsometimes to go to a Thai
massage with somebody whodoesn't really know what they're
doing, because they're justgonna they learn these moves,
and they think I'm just gonna dothese moves on everybody, and
then there's so much variationwithin each person's orthopedic
situation that I just craveexpertise. But I am finding it
(43:33):
fascinating that you arepointing out the pacing and the
timing and the relationship tothe work on each specific tissue
and and that there's, there's athere's the capacity and
potential for improvement.
Amazing. Iwill, I will add a little bit
please, please. In 2017 and 2018we also have a theory test
(43:57):
within anatomy, physiology,pathology, history, philosophy
at the World Championship, itwas in English, and I tell you
that even though the Thaitherapists were amazing, they
truly failed here in theory ofthe Anatomy and Physiology. We
wanted to use this knowledge. Wewanted to find out, what are
(44:24):
they missing really, not onlythe tie, but everybody, all
countries, so and we we alsoused it if necessary, if there
was a tie within points, then weused the theory. But it never
really was an issue, and wenever used it really, and we had
to take it out, because if youmake a test, you will have to do
(44:44):
it in all languages. Okay, so wetook it out, but we learned a
lot from it. We learned aboutwhat the Romanians were good at
and not good at, and the Thaiand. And the Americans and blah,
blah, blah, wow, wow.
Very interesting. But we alsorealize another thing, that
(45:09):
especially in Europe, we don'thave massage teacher educations.
You have in America some massageinstructor courses. And in
Thailand, they also have a fewinstructor courses. Maybe you
have taken one yourself, butespecially in Europe, it was
just massage therapists thatwere teaching other therapists.
(45:34):
And the problem is, you might bea good therapist, but that
doesn't mean that you understandhow to each others great point.
I realized this very, very earlyin the in the process. So
together with Ryan hoyman,massagement.com and three
Russians, we who has a festivalin Russia. This was before war
(45:59):
and all this, we created what wecall International Teacher
classes, two classes. We began,of course, with physically
classes, because this was beforeCOVID And before war. And now we
have done it into onlineclasses. So wherever you are,
you can take our basic class andour advanced class, really, and
(46:23):
we are trying to give someknowledge in many things when
you're a teacher, because youand I, everybody learns in
different ways, and we needskills to teach this way,
whether this is you need skillswithin online teaching, or
skills within communication orwhatever, yeah, so, so we this
(46:48):
is another thing that actuallyhas improved the massage
profession, especially inEurope. We have now educated
more than 150 teachers aroundthe world, from Sri Lanka to
America to whatever, yeah, whichis, which is nice, yeah, that's
(47:11):
amazing that we had to benefitor developed, yeah. Oh my
gosh. You understand theproblem. I understand the
problem. One of the biggestchallenges in doing trainings
and teaching other people to beteachers. Oh, there's so many
challenges. You brought up. Abunch of
(47:33):
them, you know, but it's animportant task.
Important task, yes,and nobody did the task. Really,
there was these instructorprograms. I don't know them
actually in America, I just knowyou have them. Maybe you can
find out the level and so on.
And what are the criteria tobegin a school? And this is the
(47:53):
problem, really, that allcountries have different rules.
Yeah, we cannot even say to theparticipants or our students.
Hey, you can begin your schoolin Italy without any problems
with this class. Italy has somerules. Spain has rules and so
on. So it's just an inspirationplatform that people can take,
(48:17):
you know, can use, yeah, yeah,yeah. Well,
how? Well, I just thank you forbuilding bridges in the
international community. Ihaven't really, I haven't met
someone like you in a whilethat's really pushing
(48:38):
extensively to build bridges andand I like from what I'm picking
up on, the fairness component,like you said this, okay, if we
have a standard test in anatomyand physiology, it needs to be
offered in all these differentlanguages. We can't expect
someone to come and be feelwelcome. If we have this
exclusion area component of youcan only do it if you know
(48:58):
English. You know so and you'retaking all of these things into
consideration, which isobviously necessary if we're
going to build a cooperative,global community. I know most of
us are working in the communitylevel, with our within our own
culture, you know, on theground, you know, in the office,
with people in face and I justthink, though that we need
(49:24):
people like you. He to do whatyou're doing now, when you
mentioned the Mark Twain quote,I'm gonna agree with you, you
found your calling, because thisis really important work. So I
just I'm grateful. Thank you somuch. You it, do you? Where do
(49:47):
we go from here? Like not youand I?
Yeah, of course. I want peopleto come to Denmark and share
their skills and have fun. Dothis also have. Fun. And of
course, the World Championshipis a little serious, because
it's a world championship andbut we have other events you can
(50:10):
go to, not only ima, but wepeople who also outside ima is
having an event. They have agood event in Romania, for
example. We also have seamscharity events in Germany, and
we have a lot of nationalchampionships going on
everywhere in the world. And myjob is really to come and help
(50:33):
them make sure that everythingis in order and is valid, and
they consider all what they haveto consider. So so now we go
around and and most of thechampionships are open, for
example. Now you are in USA inbeginning of March, March the
(50:53):
second there is a Mexicanchampionship in Tijuana. Wow.
Very nice place. I don't knowabout the city, but it's very
nice. Host a very nice event,and people can Google it and
find it and and I will also say,in Canada, near Montreal, half
an hour drive from Montreal,there is a Canadian
(51:15):
International Canadianchampionship in the beginning of
April, and that's one that is avery good one. Nice to take an
airplane get to Montreal andfind it, because this is it was
awarded Best NationalChampionship at the World
Championship, best nationalchampionship at the world
(51:36):
championship last year, becauseit is the best the year before,
it was the championship inJapan, which is a, well, maybe
the biggest nationalchampionship, at least it is the
biggest event, because besideshaving maybe a 200 participants,
or 150 or something like that,they have maybe 1500 at the
(51:58):
workshops that is connected withthe Japanese championship, and
they will have anotherchampionship here in May as
well, in Tokyo.
Wow, that would be so amazing togo to Japan and do a massage.
I'mcalling myself, by the way, so
and take andtake workshops and learn and
like, have, like, a whole arrayof different modalities to and
have all these people gettogether, oh, man, what is the
(52:21):
overall vibe? I mean, I'mimagining like when you said
hungry, I thought, Wow, I'venever been to hungry. How cool
would it be to just arrive inHungary meet a bunch of other
people that are doing the samething as me, and then actually
probably receive a fair amountof body work, as well as share
(52:41):
body work and have that, thatsort of connection and and then
obviously leaving having met andmade new friends that probably
will last beyond and go down theroad. So I'm what is your
overall feeling? I mean, youknow during these events, I
mean, you got to be, I knowyou're probably, you probably
(53:02):
hit some stress levels thatmaybe your next level. Because
when I you know, I know how muchwork I've see my other friends
that are that engage in theselarge events or coordinate these
large events, I'm always mindboggled at the amount of plates
they're spinning at once. Andhow do you manage your stress
(53:24):
when you're hitting those peakchallenge moments when you're
spinning multiple plates?
Yeah, listen, it's tough. Alwaysvery tough. And of course,
during the big events, I don'tsleep very much, yeah, but I am
(53:45):
pretty healthy. You know, dailylife, I always exercise and get
as much rest as possible. Sobut, but I also do all these
things because I want to explorethe world, and now it gives me a
reason. Just last weekend, Ivisit Dublin and Belfast,
(54:09):
Northern Ireland, Ireland,Northern Ireland. We never been
there.
I know many. I want to go sobad. What was it like? Yeah, it
was amazing. I and I tell you,it's because I had a student, a
Romanian student. I taught inRomania, here in, I don't know,
November or October last year.
And I found out, Hey, she'sliving in Dublin, and I've never
(54:29):
been to Dublin. And then my wifeand I, we, we like traveling, of
course, when we have theopportunity. And I we went to
Dublin, she took care of us. Wewent to some museums, and we
went to Northern Ireland to seeBelfast and many things anyway.
So we do this also for privatereasons, really, to have a
(54:52):
social life, to have fun, yeah,great point.
Great point. It is a greatpoint. Then,
exactly. They have some fun. Letme so you make time for fun,
you'd make Yeah,and of course, I mean, I think
for me, the best holidays arevery often with other people,
(55:13):
not only my wife and I, but withother people also. And I like
that, yeah, we have been manyplaces, and we will continue
doing this absolutely also whenI 10 years from now, because now
we know people all over theworld and the participants, it's
the same. They come and meet andthey found out, hey, Mongolia is
(55:33):
just around the corner. We flyto Mongolia or whatever. So
it's, it's very nice. Well,HEPA, I'm so grateful. I really
appreciate this opportunity. Iwant to make sure that everybody
listening will have a very easytime of finding the links to
make so they can get a view, avisual of everything that we've
(55:58):
been speaking about, I have yourwebsite, which is, I know I'm
messing up how a pronunciationof your last name, but it's
spelled t, N, G, B, J, E, R, G,dot, D, K, pronounce for me,
please. 10 gear. Thank you. I'mgonna keep trying. I promise. I
(56:19):
will. I will. I will try. Whereelse should we look any further
than that? Because I noticedwhen I went to your website, I
needed to go into the upper leftwhere there was the little
lines, and then I could go downto where there was English, and
then I could see some English.
And from information in English,is there another website that
(56:40):
would highlight the actualcompetition, or like a main hub
spot that, or is going to thatwebsite that I just mentioned
really the the primo place togo.
And you should find that wasn'tmy Danish site. You should find
the world massage the WorldChampionship and massage page,
the International massageAssociation, okay? And there you
will find all the links for theall the social medias, and we
(57:02):
have many okay with the you areon Instagram, Facebook, whether
you are a YouTuber, whether thethreats and the Twitter and the
WhatsApp channel and thetelegram channel, you have it
all nice. Join and find us andenjoy all
right. Well, thank you again. Ilook forward to meeting you in
(57:23):
person one day at your event inyour home country. It would be
an honor to visit, and I want tostay in touch with you. Happy to
see how I can further getinvolved. And again, I really
appreciate your generosity withresponding to my request to join
me here and and yourgraciousness. So thank you
again.
Thank you for having me. Thankyou. Native yoga. Todd cast is
(57:51):
produced by myself. The thememusic is dreamed up by Bryce
Allen. If you like this show,let me know if there's room for
improvement. I want to hear thattoo. We are curious to know what
you think and what you want moreof what I can improve. And if
you have ideas for future guestsor topics, please send us your
(58:12):
thoughts to info at Native yogacenter. You can find us at
Native yoga center.com and hey,if you did like this episode,
share it with your friends. Rateit and review and join us next
time you.
Welcome to Native Yoga Toddcast,so happy you are here. My goal
with this channel is to bringinspirational speakers to the
mic in the field of yoga,massage, body work and beyond.
Follow us at @nativeyoga andcheck us out at
nativeyogacenter.com. All right,let's begin.
(01:04):
Welcome to Native Yoga Toddcast.
And today, my special guest isJeppe Tengbjerg, and you can
find him on his websitewww.tengbjerg.dk and Jeppe is
joining me from Denmark, and ohmy gosh, holy cow, I'm so
(01:25):
excited for you to meet Jeppe.
Oh, what an incredible personfor our bodywork community. I'm
just so grateful you're gonnahear everything you need to know
by listening to thisconversation, but definitely go
to his website. And he's createdthe International Massage
Association, and he has createdthe International Massage
(01:49):
Competition that is happening inmultiple places all over the
world. Wait till you hear theway that Jeppe has organized,
spreading positivity, educationand curriculum for bodyworkers
globally, and bringing thecommunity together from multiple
countries all over the world tohelp share and to innovate
(02:12):
within our community. So on thatnote, here we go. Let's begin.
I'm so happy to have thisopportunity to bring Jeppe
Tengbjerg to the podcast today.
Jeppe, thank you so much forbeing here. How are you feeling
today?
Outstanding, and thank you forhaving me here.
Thank you. You know I found youbecause somebody came in for a
(02:37):
Thai massage and they said, thereason that I'm here is that I
saw on social media someonepracticing Thai massage at a
time at a massage, internationalmassage competition. I don't
know if I had the terminologyright, and you can correct me
here in a moment, but I and whenI heard that, I just kind of was
(03:00):
like, You did what you you'recoming in, because you, you
there's a there's a massagecompetition. Like, what is that?
And so then he showed me theperson on social media, and I
started following him. And thenas I saw the event, and as I got
a view of what the event thatyou've put together, I was just
really blown away out at firstthe idea, because I'd never even
(03:23):
thought of it before. I've neverthought about having this sort
of way to showcase and highlightthe amazing arts of massage, the
massage world. And then on topof it, I just got really
intrigued and found yourwebsite, and I've seen all of
the incredible things thatyou've put together for the
massage community on aninternational scale. And so I
(03:45):
just want to thank you, first ofall, for all your effort,
because I you know anyone who'sreally working the way you are
to promote the positive benefitsof massage therapy, I just think
is amazing. I'm just curious,what is your background? When
did you first fall in love? Orhow did you come to become a
(04:05):
massage therapist?
Yeah, I have always had theinterest. Actually, my
grandmother, who's still living,by the way, is was a massage
therapist and a reflexologist,and I grew up as a guinea pig
through the 80s, which, and Iwas very curious, really,
(04:27):
because it felt good receivingreflexology and massages. And I
was a very talented footballplayer. You know, soccer, real
football. And already, when Iwas 12, when we went to
trainings camps, I earned mypocket money by giving massages
(04:50):
without oil, by the way, so itwas pretty painful, but so, but
the funny stuff is really that Iwas always curious, but. You
know when you grow up and yourparents say, yeah, you need an
education, okay, okay, okay,what to do? Then, of course, I
went to business school, and Itook a business degree,
whatever. But still, thismassage was within me, and it
(05:14):
had my interest, as well asacupuncture and reflexology. And
then I was a professionalfootball player, also in many
years. But around when I was2120 22 I decided to go, go all
in, really, within my interest.
So I began taking massageclasses, reflexology, anatomy,
(05:36):
physiology, acupuncture and soon. And since then, really, it
has been a big part of my world.
I was a professional footballerfor a while at the same time,
and I was a professionalfootball coach at the same time.
But the last 10 years, I havebeen this international massage
Association founder and CEO. Sono more time to to play football
(06:03):
and coach,wow, that's amazing. Hepe,
that's so cool. And youperformed at the professional
level in football. So that'slike, that was that's amazing. I
don't know if you've ever heardof the show Ted lasso, but it's
one of my all time favoriteAmerican shows, highlighting the
coolness of football in Europe.
(06:24):
So and then, how? What was theimpetus for the idea to create
the massage competition?
Yeah, when I went to massageschool, actually, I, I already
had an idea of making a schoolof my own, because at the
(06:50):
business school and I had a jobwithin the municipality. I was
working in an educational officeat the Muslim municipality. So I
had some skills, besides beingvery good at anatomy, physiology
and massages, and I had businessskills and I had organization
(07:11):
skills. So I knew that I wantedto make a massage school, and
already did three years after myeducation, really. So I opened
the school in 2001 and thencomes, of course, a lot of years
where I was practicing and I wasteaching and so on. But in 2014
(07:32):
I began to be a little bored. Iwas educating other peoples in
the same over and over again.
And I needed inspiration myself.
And I I remember I was thinking,there must be many others in the
world like me who needinspiration, yes, who really
(07:54):
want inspiration? Yes. And sowhat I did is I had a plan in my
mind. I didn't tell anyone inthe beginning, but first, I
created a master class inmassage in my own country,
Denmark. And these students inthe master class, I wanted to,
(08:16):
want them to help me to createrules and a setup for a world
championship. And so the ideacame in 14 and in and in 15, I
created the class, and in 16, Imade the first Danish massage
championship, because we wantedto do a trainings camp in how to
(08:38):
host a massage championship.
Yeah, wow, before we invite thewhole world, Yeah,
correct. That makes sense, yeah.
Andthen, of course, we also did in,
in the beginning of 2017 thesecond trainings camp. And then
came in 2017 the first worldchampionship in massage. And in
order to tell really how theprocedure and how we promote it.
(09:02):
I actually contacted twopersons. I did not know them at
all. First, I contacted thefounder and the CEO of the world
massage magazine, which is anEnglish, UK based massage
magazine. I wrote him, Hey,Carl, my name is, yep. I have
this, this idea, would you liketo to help me? 30 minutes later,
(09:26):
he write me an email, yep, thecoolest thing in the whole
world, something like that.
Yeah, yeah. I was, of course,very pleased, because I think, I
think real thing was a goodidea, and I'll tell you why it
was a good idea, also in amoment. And then I contacted
(09:48):
Ryan heimi from massachusett.comin America. I did not know him
at all. I just followed him onYouTube a little bit because he
made the material for. Teachers,really, so, so I wrote him, Hey,
Ryan, my name is, yep. I havethis idea, would you like to
help me? And 30 minutes later,he writes me an email, Yep,
(10:11):
great. I mean, nice, and it'sso. So I was right. Many, many,
really wants to elevate andinspire and share, yeah, and
there is a reason why I thinkthis became a huge success. Most
of you guys who are therapistsnow, I don't give so much
(10:35):
massage anymore. Unfortunately,I only teach, but you guys are
working in small clinics,sometimes, very often, on your
own, by your own, and you do nothave colleagues to speak with.
So we need events where we canmeet, meet and discuss our
frustrations and our chances,problems, whatever, and have
(10:57):
fun. Yeah,such a I agree 100% that's why
I'm so happy to be talking withyou right now. But you know,
that's what just even viewingwell first. So I I'm a yoga
teacher as well, and one of thefirst traditions that I got that
I was practicing under was astyle called Bikram yoga, and
(11:21):
Bikram Choudhury. I don't knowif you know any of his history
or have heard of him, but hestarted a yoga competition, and
this was very, you know,received a lot of different
feedback from people as tocompeting in yoga. I thought
yoga was a spiritual discipline.
(11:45):
How are we going to judge awinner in a yoga event and and
what are we going to sit inmeditation and have somebody
judge Okay, the first person tohit enlightenment wins. And
which brings up a really goodpoint, like, how do you even
judge that? And so the yogacompetition was judged a little
(12:05):
more accordingly to likegymnastics meet would be in
terms of studying forms,studying the alignment, the
ability for the practitioner tohold the pose for the duration
that they were striving for, andall these sort of criteria. And
having been involved in that, Idefinitely had my it really
(12:27):
pushed me to challenge, bechallenged, and work outside of
my comfort zone. I havedifferent feelings about it now,
you know, many years later, butI still feel like I gained a lot
from it, I would imagine in themassage therapy field as well.
Perhaps you've received somefeedback that would say, how do
(12:48):
we compete in massage? Right? Ican already feel, from
everything you told me, that thewhole inspiration and motivation
is grounded in the desire tohelp inspire people we're not.
I'm guessing, it's not so muchthat we're competing against one
another to see who's the bestmassage therapist, but more as a
way to celebrate the culture andthe field. Can you talk a little
(13:13):
bit about what type ofcriticism, if you received any
at all, and then what thebenefits perhaps have outweighed
that critique.
Yeah, of course, in thebeginning, we had criticism
actually a lot and but it thatis a good thing, because it
(13:34):
created a debate about how tojudge and what the purposes and
reasons why we are doing this.
But of course, sometimes westill have a little criticism,
but maybe it's a person that hasnot been awake for the last many
years, because the most peoplenow understand why we are doing
it. Yeah, and I will, I willtell you that how that just in
(13:56):
yoga, was also interesting tohear, actually, at the World
Championship massage, it was notlike in the beginning.
Beginning, we had the samecriteria sheets for all
categories, categories, we hadto start somewhere. But now we
have criteria sheets. Is thisespecially designed for each
(14:21):
category regarding the becauseof the purpose? Really, the
purpose is always different fromcategory to category, or at
least very often. So I tell youa little bit about the judging.
Of course, it's abouttechniques. It's not about the
number of techniques. It iswhether they are relevant, and
the combination of techniques,whether they are good. And it is
(14:44):
about economic, of course, aswell as in yoga, it's about
economic for the giver as wellas for the receiver. When
you say economic, do you meanthe amount of energy you're
exerting? In based off of theresult of your effort.
It's very much about your ownbody economic in order to save
(15:07):
your joints, protect yourjoints. Yes, it's also about
using your own strength andpower and weight and so on. And
of course, also the receiversshould lie in certain positions
for some creeps and so on, andand then, of course, we have the
flow. It could also, it's whenyou say flow, it's also about
(15:29):
the pace of the massage. Andhere we make many mistakes,
really not not the not thejudges, but the therapist in
general. Because, depending onthe on the on the tissue that
you are giving massage, there isa certain pace that is suitable
(15:51):
or beneficial. You do not givedeep tissue massage fast,
because then the nervous systemwill fight you, against you.
Maybe you can do more speedingmassage when you are
superficial, but not when you godeep. And it's also about which
kind of tissue are you working?
Are you working muscle tissue,tendons, ligaments? Are you
working fascia? And all this hasrequires a different kind of
(16:16):
time and power, really, and it'salways different from also
client to client. Yeah, so thisis the most difficult part, is
really to adapt to each client.
And now, anyway, so we have nowtechniques, we have economics,
and we have the flow. And theflow is also, of course, from
(16:38):
one muscle group to another,whether it is connected with our
sometimes you give ear massageand then you take gave a foot
massage. Doesn't make sense,okay? We also have innovation,
and innovation can be important,not always, not always.
Innovation is important if youhave to adapt to a client, are
(17:03):
you a small woman giving abodybuilder, a guy a massage?
You need to adapt? Maybe withtools? Yeah. And this is also
interesting, adapting, butinnovating. Combining different
methods is not always a goodidea combining, but very often,
if you choose right, you will dovery good. You can make you can
(17:26):
choose bodywork, normal massagewith shiatsu and energy lines.
It is possible, and can alsomake sense. So the combination
we this is also why, from thebeginning, we had a freestyle
category, because we want to seeinnovation. We want to see
everything.
Yeah, amazing. Yeah, it isamazing. Such a good idea. Yeah,
(17:49):
tell you.
I will tell you some ideas andsome stories a little later. But
let's end up with we also havesomething called client contact
with this really the interactionbetween the therapist and the
client and and the the touch.
Really how we whether we cangive the right touch. We can
(18:11):
also see it as judges in thebeginning of all these
championships, the first threeyears, we also give points as
receivers. Because this is it isactually that the other
competitors are receivers.
Oh, cool. So we didnot have any listen. We did not
have any problems with that. Allthe participants were fair. They
(18:32):
were giving fair points. And ifthey didn't, we throw them out.
Nobody was okay. It was not aproblem, and they had up to a
certain number of points togive, and they were fair, and it
so we also had some feedbackfrom the receiver.
Unfortunately, a little bitunfortunately, we had to take it
out of the competition becauseof COVID. We we had to make the
(18:54):
championship as a hybridchampionship. That means,
oh, because it because of, well,let me think about this, because
of COVID. You still tried to runthe championship through,
probably not 2020 but, but maybe2122 and then just here we are
(19:15):
now, 25 it's been a gradual likere, re introduction into it's
okay to be touched. It's okay tohave somebody close to you. Oh
my gosh, that's a whole notherthought. But wait, so let me
just back up a little bit. Yousaid that initially, in the
first three years, thecompetitor, as a competitor, you
also were the receiver. So as acompetitor, you also were able
(19:39):
to be a judge, which is a coolidea. I see where you say there
could be challenge there,because then someone's gonna
say, well, that's not fair. Theydidn't judge me, right? And
they, you know, and he's acompetitor. So I get where that
challenge would be, but I'mtrying to understand that then
changed at COVID time. So thatmeans that the competition
probably started in 27 17. Am Iright? I think he's is that when
(20:02):
the first competition was, hehad one in 1718, and 19, and
then maybe, is my timeline? Am Ithinking correctly? Was
it? Was it was postponed in 2020Yeah, 2021 we wanted to continue
no matter whatI'm with you. I know,
(20:22):
yeah, but it was very muchbecause we wanted to promote the
massage provision. We want tokeep it alive. Yeah, yes, so
and, but the thing then we hadto do it hybrid. So 50% of the
participant had to do it, stayat home. Could not travel to
Copenhagen, and maybe 50% couldcome. It was open, but it was
difficult. Yes. Oh, so, forexample, you are actually in
(20:45):
your studio. Now, I think yourmassage clinic, yes, yeah, you
have a nice camera. You can, youcan give a massage with a
camera. You can even have twocameras, if you like, and then
this way we could see themassage. We had a huge screen
where we could see maybe 10participants at the time. Yeah.
It went amazing. Good for manyreasons. When you do online, the
(21:12):
judges sit and can seeeverybody. They are not going
through the massage tables anddon't see what is behind them,
yeah. So actually, it went verywell, and, and, but the thing
is, why couldn't we take thepoints? It was because the
receiver could have been yourmother, you know? Yeah,
(21:33):
yeah, Mom's gonna give me a 10.
Yeah.
It's only in the big overallfinal that we have judge judge,
receivers now. And there wasanother problem also with with
the participants being judges aswell. For the first three years,
all participants were judges,judges in the final they could
(21:57):
give one point to the ones theythought was the very best. Yeah,
the problem is that there weremaybe 20 from Thailand and one
from Hungary, and now it's notreally valid anymore, so we had
to take that also out. So nowit's only the judges, and we
(22:18):
also take some judges out ifthey have former students, yeah.
So in order to make it valid,trustworthy and all this, we are
very careful how we judge thesechampionships. Wow,
man. I love the attention ofdetail, so great. And I like the
fact that the way you broke downthe categories, and if I were,
(22:42):
if I were, I mean, I'll bereally honest right away. When I
saw the competition, I thought Igot to go to this like, not, not
because I want to, like, assertmy like, I think I'm the best
massage therapist in the world.
I'm coming, you know, like, butmore like, I just want to be
around everybody and just learnfrom everyone that just sounds
(23:02):
so cool to me. But then when youwhen you bring up the idea of
the categories, and then just toeven promote to therapists that
are just entering the field thatthese are some of the different
characteristics that you'regoing to want to really put
(23:23):
attention into. And I'm sorry,because when you said
ergonomics, I thought you saideconomics, but now I understand
when you said ergonomics, mymind went to like, oh, the
economy of movement and energy.
But I guess maybe that is thesame thing as ergonomics, in the
sense that that's that's kind ofwhat. No, no, no, no, your
English is amazing. No worries.
There I am. I, you know, asbeing a therapist for a long
(23:46):
time, this really does matter.
To be able to keep using ourjoints in our profession for six
to seven to eight hours a day,you know, requires a lot of
attention to detail, and thenthe fact that you're bringing up
the flow and the pace, and Idon't know that maybe even
(24:07):
someone who's listening that isnot a massage therapist that
hasn't worked doing body work, Ithink probably everyone
listening has received amassage, even to even think
about what the therapist isgaging as they're working, and
some of the detail that is goinginto perfect, the art, I love
that you're bringing this to theforefront. I think this is so
(24:29):
important. I can see whereyou're you're combining all of
your background, your sportsbackground, your professionalism
in sports, your businessbackground, and the passion for
the bodywork community, havinglearned it from your grandma,
what a great combination ofelements. I'll let you continue,
but I just want to highlightsome of the things that you're
(24:51):
you're bringing to the tablehere. Sorry for the pun, but,
um, you know, keep keep going,please. I feel like I maybe I
interrupted you, but I want tohear. More about how the
structure of the competitionworks.
Yeah. Now we have ninecategories. The last one was
what we call body shapingmassage. So it's we are actually
(25:12):
trying to combine the massageprofession with the beauty
profession and the wellnessprofession. Wow, yeah. And we're
trying to build bridges here,and it's very big. Actually,
this body shaping massage,especially in Eastern Europe and
also other places, actually verygood. It was a French slash
(25:35):
Swiss woman winning last year,and she was, by the way, this
same woman actually also won infacial massage. So we have some
different categories, and we tryto, we will not take all massage
methods in now, because it hasto be also a little bit valid.
It's also difficult to find theright judges. We have to educate
(25:58):
the judges at the same time. Youknow, it's not, it's not easy.
We when the beginning, therewere no massage judges, and we
had to find the very best thatcould evaluate massage by seeing
so we was not anyway, I willtell you a little bit about
another thing that we we do hereat the International massage
(26:20):
Association. We Our job is, ofcourse, to promote the massage
provision, and we do it, ofcourse, with the World
Championship in massage. But dueto COVID, we came up with
another great idea. We we'vemade the best massage promotion
competition. We don't reallyhave a good name for it,
the best, way say that again,the best massage promotion,
(26:44):
promotion competition, like whocan
promoting the massage professionin one way. It could be, it
could be that you are promotingyour clinic, or it could be that
you're promoting a massageMethod or an event you do your
spa or whatever. So, so it'sactually about making
(27:05):
competition. And the idea is, ofcourse, that everyone can see
what good promotion is, and fromthere, become better themselves.
Wow.
Excellent idea. Where did thatone come out? Who? I mean,
obviously the one of the bigchallenges in our profession is
(27:28):
that we come into it with a loveand passion or desire to be
great at the craft, and then tobe a good business person on top
of it and learn all of theskills essential to self
promotion can often feel sooverwhelming and like but wait,
I don't have that background,and then little over time, we
(27:51):
become really great business,entrepreneurially minded
individuals on top of great bodyworkers. But you're right, that
is such a skill that requires alot of education and learning. I
love the fact that you'reweaving that in and bringing
that to the forefront too.
Yeah, and it's, of course wedebate what good massage is as a
(28:15):
promotion video idea, okay? Andof course, we have, we have had
this competition in 2122 2324 44years. And maybe we have 121, 30
videos that we are receiving andis evaluating and actually very
(28:35):
proud of the winners. I thinkthey are very good videos. You
can see them on our on ourwebsite and so on. But we did
actually a survey. I want totell you a little bit about.
It's not American survey. It'sactually a Danish survey. But we
(28:59):
we try to find out, why are welosing our clients? How come
that we are losing clients, andhow many are we actually losing
and why are we losing them? Andwe made a big survey where we
asked many, many clients, andthey say they they want to try
something new. Yeah, 1/3 of theclientele are leaving us because
(29:24):
they want to try something new.
However, if you can give them anew experience once in a while,
the chances that they stayrises, Okay, makes sense. So
this is why we had to go to toget learn a new stuff, whatever
use of bamboo, or use of copyingor something, you have to give
(29:47):
them a new experience once in awhile. And then they found out,
okay, what you actually do isactually quite amazing. I stay
with you. And so, so thepromotional video competition is
very much. Much about inspire todo new things, new stuff, and to
find out what really isinteresting.
(30:09):
Yeah, well, that's a great idea.
I like that spin, and I feellike probably taking that angle,
like when you make mention of,how do you judge promotional
material? Because if youhighlight somebody just showing
skin and turn and maybemisrepresenting a therapeutic
environment and just trying tomake it look like maybe bringing
(30:33):
too much of sexuality in, orsome other component that
obviously gets a lot of a lot oflikes that type of thing. We
know that, but we got tomaintain some sort of ethics. So
the fact that you're leaning onthis, this concept that you
bring up about innovation andor, let's highlight something
(30:54):
new, I think that's alsobrilliant, man, you're I love
seeing the acceleratingat the beta, yeah.
Man, how cool. Well, man, wheredo you get all your motivation
from? I mean, is this justspringing up from within? I
(31:15):
mean, obviously being aroundother professionals, I
understand what you said. Youhit this point in 2014 of like,
I need some motivation. I thinkyou're, you're lending us toward
the direction of we getmotivation from each other. We
get this from we, I mean, we'dlike to sometimes think, Oh, I'm
so great. It comes from withinme and but no, it's through
(31:37):
community. It's through,listen, I didn't really know
what I started when I began.
Tell it again, as you canimagine, I always say this
because it's a little funny. Butanyway, I there are two
important days in your life,Mark Twain told us the day you
(31:59):
were born and the day you findout why. And back in 2017 after
the First World Championship, Ibegan to realize really my
purpose. We do one or two thingsin life that actually matters.
And here it was, creating acommunity across borders, an
(32:19):
international community that hadnever seen before. And the first
half is, of course, it was myintention, but I never see that
the need for this community wasthis big. Yeah, I didn't realize
that, actually. And now, afterthe first championships, we saw
people traveling across bordersto help each other teach. And
(32:42):
blah, blah, blah, blah, youknow. And, and me, myself and
many others have now beenteaching in America, in Asia, of
course, in Europe and, yeah,many, many places, okay, and,
and it's interesting becausethere are many that's me, who
are school owners. We we canfind the best teachers at the
(33:05):
World Championship, yeah. Andteachers can find new school
owners, yeah. And therapists cancan, of course, share their
skills and find inspiration. Andwe do it, by the way, also have
workshops at the WorldChampionships, yeah. And let me
tell you now you are an Americanpodcaster here. And America was
(33:29):
a little late within thesechampionships. But then we have
now had three Americanchampionships in connection with
the world massage festival. Wow,yeah, we will have the fourth
year in July in Las Vegas. And Ican only encourage Americans to
show up and share their skills.
(33:52):
So July of 25 in Las Vegas,there'll be, like, a branch of
the international competitionyou're holding in Europe that'll
be affiliated through youfollowing the same protocol and
standards and judging criteriain Las Vegas. How cool. I didn't
(34:15):
now, I know. I guess I know. Iguess I know where I'm going in
July.
Yeah, you should actually justanother thing. It's very
important that therapists,schools, spas, support these
hosts and events. If you reallywant to meet and have fun and
(34:35):
share, we should go, yeah. Ijust before we had this
conversation, I sent an email tomany, many former participants
at the Danish championship, andI encourage them to come on,
guys, come and boost yourcareer. Come and have fun,
because they need it, and theyalso want it, yeah, but
(34:57):
sometimes they needed to bereminded,
yeah. Yes, I agree. I mean, evenjust watching the videos of the
some of the techniques that thepeople are doing blew my mind. I
thought, Wow. I guess maybe I'mgetting stale and look at these
incredible different maneuversthey're doing within this little
(35:19):
structure of just the shoulder,like just focusing on one part
of the body, the shoulder. Whoa,I haven't done that movement
before. What? Let me try that.
And so even just the learningcomponent of the content that's
coming out of the competition,in and of itself, is really
amazing. And I think the truetestament, you know, with the
power of social media, and thefact that somebody came in
(35:42):
because, like, he'd never, he'dnever had Thai massage, and here
he's watching somebody do this,really, the choreography of the
movement that I was witnessing,that I saw, that he showed me. I
thought, well, yeah, I see whyyou wanted to come in. You're
right. That looks amazing. Iwant to meet that guy. Actually
reached out to the one of thewinners. And, you know, I was
(36:03):
trying to get some of thewinners to come onto the show. I
haven't had any luck yet, justbecause maybe there's a language
challenge for which I again, Iwant to thank you. You're
multilingual. I am not. I onlyspeak English. You're speaking
multiple languages. I'm sure. Iknow, obviously, you know,
you're Danish and English. Howmany languages, languages do you
speak? Happy with you, with you,working with all these different
(36:25):
cultures aroundthe world. Listen, I manage, of
course, understanding and speaka little bit German and also
Dutch, because I used to live inthe Netherlands for three years,
wow. But, of course, Iunderstand Norwegian Swedish and
so on. But listen, it's English.
Is the common language here. Andthis is also interesting,
because in many ways, I am theaverage of everyone, really. And
(36:51):
of course, there is a big worldspeaking English, but the rest
of the world doesn't, so we haveto find an understandable
English, and the way tocommunicate and time is, of
course, easier now for manyreasons. Now we can even use
apps to translate right away ifneeded, but English is for now,
at least the language I willtell you something because you
(37:14):
keep reminding me, we my bigpurpose with this is, of course,
to share all the knowledge thatwe receive from all our amazing
participants and teachers andall the networks. So we actually
go around when I say we is me,and very often with a co
(37:37):
teacher, we teach classes and weactually try to teach what the
trend is and and also teach whatwe really have been taught or
learned from all the amazingtherapists. And because you
could keep telling me that youhave learned Thai massage, and
(37:58):
Thai massage is very, veryinteresting in many, many ways,
actually very proud, becauseafter three World Championships
time, massage came on to theuniscus World Heritage List.
Yeah, I'm not saying we hadanything to do with that, but
I'm pretty proud. It's a nicecon, yeah, nice thing that
happened that year in 2019anyway, we have made a surveys
(38:21):
regarding the Seven WorldChampionships that we have done,
we have done it with the numberof medals, but we have also done
it with the average of points.
And the last thing we have onlydone for three years, but it's
very interesting because it's itshows us that timers as is, at
least in the statistic, the bestmassage Method in the world.
(38:45):
Wow,yeah, there is. That's cause for
celebration. Man, that is reallyI agree. I mean, personally,
when I first came in contactwith Thai massage in Thailand. I
was practicing here in Florida.
I graduated in 2000 and somebodyhad asked me, well, what are you
(39:07):
going to do with, you know, whatmodality Do you want to go down?
Do you want to learncraniosacral therapy? Do you
want to learn Feldenkrais? Doyou want to neuromuscular
therapy? Or, you know, on thelist goes on, there's so many
options. And I was like, I don'tknow. I'm not sure. I just
wanted to do massage. I didn'tknow I had to, like, specialize.
What are you talking about? Andthen, well, they said, Well,
what are you what are youinterested in? Like, what's your
(39:27):
you know, and I, I was reallypassionate about yoga, and I was
just loving the body work. Like,well, have you heard of Thai
massage? I said, No. And theywere like, well, it's the
perfect blend of yoga, bodymovement massage. And I just
went light bulb, like, Oh mygosh. And so I had never had a
Thai massage, and I'm like, I'mgoing to Thailand. So I went to
Thailand, and when I had myfirst Thai massage, again, this
(39:51):
just like, this is the best.
This is this brings everyelement of all the different
things I've been practicing andstudying. It just. Seemed like
it synthesized it in such aincredible way. Then you have
the culture, and you have thehistory, and you have the
blending of cultures thatcreated Thai massage. And I
just, I've been so enamored withit all along. So I but the big
(40:12):
challenge when I came back toFlorida, you know, you leave,
you're in the center. You're inan epicenter of Study and
Learning and culture andeveryone knowing about
something, and then you leavethat epicenter, and you find
nobody knows about what I'mexcited about. And so education
about what Thai massage is, hasbeen my biggest journey, or a
big part of just being apractitioner is the education
(40:37):
part. So I love hearing whatyou're saying. I just it just
just makes me I just can't tellyou how happy I am.
Thai massage is so, so good,because it also have a problem,
I tell you in a moment, please,is, of course, a good pressure,
(41:01):
or massages, hopefully has goodpressure, but pressure and it
contain stretching and jointmobilization. And as you say,
you come in and it's very niceatmosphere. There is a little
smell of whatever, and it's verycozy when you go into these
(41:21):
clinics, and very nice most ofthe time, at least. The thing is
with thy massage, and why it'snot really perfect is that it is
not adapted very much to thedifferent kind of tissue. Okay,
of course, we try to adapt whichtechniques we are using, because
(41:43):
we have to. And it's time.
Massage is endless of massagescripts, but you understand
that, what are we working with?
Are we working with the muscles?
Is the tendons, or are wetalking about fascia? It all
requires different time. Andwhat you see in thy massage,
it's the same pace, very often,okay, very often. And so so many
of the therapists are doingmagic numbers, you know, three,
(42:07):
three pressure, here, for there,and so on. And which is nice,
and it's also nice mentally,because the receiver can relax
and almost meditate, meditative.
Meditate, meditate. It ismeditate, and but it's not
perfect. It is not perfect. Andcan we reach perfection? It's a
(42:27):
good question. I don't have theanswer. I like the fact that
you're as optimistic as you are.
It can reach perfection? Anotherquestion, though happy along
that note and where my mind wentwhen you said the challenge with
it, people with orthopedicdisorders, and say, going into a
(42:48):
session with somebody who justlike, say, back bending, for
example, in the classic Cobra,where we put the knees on the
hamstrings, catch the hands,lean back and facilitate
somebody coming into a reallydeep extension. I personally
have spondylolisthesis, and soback bending is really painful
(43:10):
now, and so I'm really scaredsometimes to go to a Thai
massage with somebody whodoesn't really know what they're
doing, because they're justgonna they learn these moves,
and they think I'm just gonna dothese moves on everybody, and
then there's so much variationwithin each person's orthopedic
situation that I just craveexpertise. But I am finding it
(43:33):
fascinating that you arepointing out the pacing and the
timing and the relationship tothe work on each specific tissue
and and that there's, there's athere's the capacity and
potential for improvement.
Amazing. Iwill, I will add a little bit
please, please. In 2017 and 2018we also have a theory test
(43:57):
within anatomy, physiology,pathology, history, philosophy
at the World Championship, itwas in English, and I tell you
that even though the Thaitherapists were amazing, they
truly failed here in theory ofthe Anatomy and Physiology. We
wanted to use this knowledge. Wewanted to find out, what are
(44:24):
they missing really, not onlythe tie, but everybody, all
countries, so and we we alsoused it if necessary, if there
was a tie within points, then weused the theory. But it never
really was an issue, and wenever used it really, and we had
to take it out, because if youmake a test, you will have to do
(44:44):
it in all languages. Okay, so wetook it out, but we learned a
lot from it. We learned aboutwhat the Romanians were good at
and not good at, and the Thaiand. And the Americans and blah,
blah, blah, wow, wow.
Very interesting. But we alsorealize another thing, that
(45:09):
especially in Europe, we don'thave massage teacher educations.
You have in America some massageinstructor courses. And in
Thailand, they also have a fewinstructor courses. Maybe you
have taken one yourself, butespecially in Europe, it was
just massage therapists thatwere teaching other therapists.
(45:34):
And the problem is, you might bea good therapist, but that
doesn't mean that you understandhow to each others great point.
I realized this very, very earlyin the in the process. So
together with Ryan hoyman,massagement.com and three
Russians, we who has a festivalin Russia. This was before war
(45:59):
and all this, we created what wecall International Teacher
classes, two classes. We began,of course, with physically
classes, because this was beforeCOVID And before war. And now we
have done it into onlineclasses. So wherever you are,
you can take our basic class andour advanced class, really, and
(46:23):
we are trying to give someknowledge in many things when
you're a teacher, because youand I, everybody learns in
different ways, and we needskills to teach this way,
whether this is you need skillswithin online teaching, or
skills within communication orwhatever, yeah, so, so we this
(46:48):
is another thing that actuallyhas improved the massage
profession, especially inEurope. We have now educated
more than 150 teachers aroundthe world, from Sri Lanka to
America to whatever, yeah, whichis, which is nice, yeah, that's
(47:11):
amazing that we had to benefitor developed, yeah. Oh my
gosh. You understand theproblem. I understand the
problem. One of the biggestchallenges in doing trainings
and teaching other people to beteachers. Oh, there's so many
challenges. You brought up. Abunch of
(47:33):
them, you know, but it's animportant task.
Important task, yes,and nobody did the task. Really,
there was these instructorprograms. I don't know them
actually in America, I just knowyou have them. Maybe you can
find out the level and so on.
And what are the criteria tobegin a school? And this is the
(47:53):
problem, really, that allcountries have different rules.
Yeah, we cannot even say to theparticipants or our students.
Hey, you can begin your schoolin Italy without any problems
with this class. Italy has somerules. Spain has rules and so
on. So it's just an inspirationplatform that people can take,
(48:17):
you know, can use, yeah, yeah,yeah. Well,
how? Well, I just thank you forbuilding bridges in the
international community. Ihaven't really, I haven't met
someone like you in a whilethat's really pushing
(48:38):
extensively to build bridges andand I like from what I'm picking
up on, the fairness component,like you said this, okay, if we
have a standard test in anatomyand physiology, it needs to be
offered in all these differentlanguages. We can't expect
someone to come and be feelwelcome. If we have this
exclusion area component of youcan only do it if you know
(48:58):
English. You know so and you'retaking all of these things into
consideration, which isobviously necessary if we're
going to build a cooperative,global community. I know most of
us are working in the communitylevel, with our within our own
culture, you know, on theground, you know, in the office,
with people in face and I justthink, though that we need
(49:24):
people like you. He to do whatyou're doing now, when you
mentioned the Mark Twain quote,I'm gonna agree with you, you
found your calling, because thisis really important work. So I
just I'm grateful. Thank you somuch. You it, do you? Where do
(49:47):
we go from here? Like not youand I?
Yeah, of course. I want peopleto come to Denmark and share
their skills and have fun. Dothis also have. Fun. And of
course, the World Championshipis a little serious, because
it's a world championship andbut we have other events you can
(50:10):
go to, not only ima, but wepeople who also outside ima is
having an event. They have agood event in Romania, for
example. We also have seamscharity events in Germany, and
we have a lot of nationalchampionships going on
everywhere in the world. And myjob is really to come and help
(50:33):
them make sure that everythingis in order and is valid, and
they consider all what they haveto consider. So so now we go
around and and most of thechampionships are open, for
example. Now you are in USA inbeginning of March, March the
(50:53):
second there is a Mexicanchampionship in Tijuana. Wow.
Very nice place. I don't knowabout the city, but it's very
nice. Host a very nice event,and people can Google it and
find it and and I will also say,in Canada, near Montreal, half
an hour drive from Montreal,there is a Canadian
(51:15):
International Canadianchampionship in the beginning of
April, and that's one that is avery good one. Nice to take an
airplane get to Montreal andfind it, because this is it was
awarded Best NationalChampionship at the World
Championship, best nationalchampionship at the world
(51:36):
championship last year, becauseit is the best the year before,
it was the championship inJapan, which is a, well, maybe
the biggest nationalchampionship, at least it is the
biggest event, because besideshaving maybe a 200 participants,
or 150 or something like that,they have maybe 1500 at the
(51:58):
workshops that is connected withthe Japanese championship, and
they will have anotherchampionship here in May as
well, in Tokyo.
Wow, that would be so amazing togo to Japan and do a massage.
I'mcalling myself, by the way, so
and take andtake workshops and learn and
like, have, like, a whole arrayof different modalities to and
have all these people gettogether, oh, man, what is the
(52:21):
overall vibe? I mean, I'mimagining like when you said
hungry, I thought, Wow, I'venever been to hungry. How cool
would it be to just arrive inHungary meet a bunch of other
people that are doing the samething as me, and then actually
probably receive a fair amountof body work, as well as share
(52:41):
body work and have that, thatsort of connection and and then
obviously leaving having met andmade new friends that probably
will last beyond and go down theroad. So I'm what is your
overall feeling? I mean, youknow during these events, I
mean, you got to be, I knowyou're probably, you probably
(53:02):
hit some stress levels thatmaybe your next level. Because
when I you know, I know how muchwork I've see my other friends
that are that engage in theselarge events or coordinate these
large events, I'm always mindboggled at the amount of plates
they're spinning at once. Andhow do you manage your stress
(53:24):
when you're hitting those peakchallenge moments when you're
spinning multiple plates?
Yeah, listen, it's tough. Alwaysvery tough. And of course,
during the big events, I don'tsleep very much, yeah, but I am
(53:45):
pretty healthy. You know, dailylife, I always exercise and get
as much rest as possible. Sobut, but I also do all these
things because I want to explorethe world, and now it gives me a
reason. Just last weekend, Ivisit Dublin and Belfast,
(54:09):
Northern Ireland, Ireland,Northern Ireland. We never been
there.
I know many. I want to go sobad. What was it like? Yeah, it
was amazing. I and I tell you,it's because I had a student, a
Romanian student. I taught inRomania, here in, I don't know,
November or October last year.
And I found out, Hey, she'sliving in Dublin, and I've never
(54:29):
been to Dublin. And then my wifeand I, we, we like traveling, of
course, when we have theopportunity. And I we went to
Dublin, she took care of us. Wewent to some museums, and we
went to Northern Ireland to seeBelfast and many things anyway.
So we do this also for privatereasons, really, to have a
(54:52):
social life, to have fun, yeah,great point.
Great point. It is a greatpoint. Then,
exactly. They have some fun. Letme so you make time for fun,
you'd make Yeah,and of course, I mean, I think
for me, the best holidays arevery often with other people,
(55:13):
not only my wife and I, but withother people also. And I like
that, yeah, we have been manyplaces, and we will continue
doing this absolutely also whenI 10 years from now, because now
we know people all over theworld and the participants, it's
the same. They come and meet andthey found out, hey, Mongolia is
(55:33):
just around the corner. We flyto Mongolia or whatever. So
it's, it's very nice. Well,HEPA, I'm so grateful. I really
appreciate this opportunity. Iwant to make sure that everybody
listening will have a very easytime of finding the links to
make so they can get a view, avisual of everything that we've
(55:58):
been speaking about, I have yourwebsite, which is, I know I'm
messing up how a pronunciationof your last name, but it's
spelled t, N, G, B, J, E, R, G,dot, D, K, pronounce for me,
please. 10 gear. Thank you. I'mgonna keep trying. I promise. I
(56:19):
will. I will. I will try. Whereelse should we look any further
than that? Because I noticedwhen I went to your website, I
needed to go into the upper leftwhere there was the little
lines, and then I could go downto where there was English, and
then I could see some English.
And from information in English,is there another website that
(56:40):
would highlight the actualcompetition, or like a main hub
spot that, or is going to thatwebsite that I just mentioned
really the the primo place togo.
And you should find that wasn'tmy Danish site. You should find
the world massage the WorldChampionship and massage page,
the International massageAssociation, okay? And there you
will find all the links for theall the social medias, and we
(57:02):
have many okay with the you areon Instagram, Facebook, whether
you are a YouTuber, whether thethreats and the Twitter and the
WhatsApp channel and thetelegram channel, you have it
all nice. Join and find us andenjoy all
right. Well, thank you again. Ilook forward to meeting you in
(57:23):
person one day at your event inyour home country. It would be
an honor to visit, and I want tostay in touch with you. Happy to
see how I can further getinvolved. And again, I really
appreciate your generosity withresponding to my request to join
me here and and yourgraciousness. So thank you
again.
Thank you for having me. Thankyou. Native yoga. Todd cast is
(57:51):
produced by myself. The thememusic is dreamed up by Bryce
Allen. If you like this show,let me know if there's room for
improvement. I want to hear thattoo. We are curious to know what
you think and what you want moreof what I can improve. And if
you have ideas for future guestsor topics, please send us your
(58:12):
thoughts to info at Native yogacenter. You can find us at
Native yoga center.com and hey,if you did like this episode,
share it with your friends. Rateit and review and join us next
time you.
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