Breast Recesses: Take your clients and your table beyond the ordinary!
An extraordinary advancement in positioning women comfortably, our exclusive Breast Recesses option does much more than relieve pressure on a client's breasts. With this option, the torso is positioned neutrally, the scapula are closer together and the muscles are shortened for easier access with less resistance. Profoundly increases comfort and treatment effectiveness. You'll find people coming back to you for this table experience!
Ideal for clients with implants or broad shoulders, our Breast Recesses will greatly increase comfort during massage for both men and women of ALL shapes and sizes.
Once therapists begin working with the plugs out, we find that they are rarely put back in. When you do choose put them in, they fit snugly and securely into your table.
We offer the popular recesses as an option on most of our tables, both portable and stationary.
plugs in: shoulders are rounded 
plugs out:shoulders are back
Therapy-enhancing Positioning
Breast Recesses (alias: Pectoral Recess/Scapular Access) will help:
Increase client comfort:
The Breast Recesses (BRs) were developed as part of a prenatal table because pregnant clients’ breast tissue was too sensitive. We discovered it wasn’t just expectant moms who needed accommodation, but that most every female client will appreciate this compression-free positioning. In addition to the relief for the breast tissue, BRs reduce the lordotic curve in the lumbar spine, thereby relieving pressure on the low back.
Facilitate the relaxation response:
When therapists are working the muscles of the upper back (with client in a prone position), breast tissue is compressed. This often leads to “guarding” or “holding” on the part of the client. Healing is facilitated when the client can “let go” and move from the sympathetic state to the parasympathetic, engaging the “relaxation response.”
Shorten musculature for deeper access:
When lying in the prone position on a flat table, clients’ breasts and pecs elevate the torso, the shoulders rotate anteriorally and the scapulae move laterally. This causes the rhomboid and trapezius muscles to be pulled more taut. In contrast, the BRs allow clients to “sink” into the table, inviting the shoulders to come back and the muscles of the upper back to shorten. These shortened muscles are more pliable and deeper layers are more accessible.
Reduce therapist fatigue:
Working on shortened muscles requires less expenditure of energy and allows the muscles to respond more readily. Likewise, clients who can “let go” more and who sense the release of the low back, are more receptive to a treatment. Any residual tension in the clients become part of the therapist’s experience, and so releasing the clients’ tension also serves the therapist. As the therapist finds the work easier, clients also benefit from the reduction of strain.
Enhance assessment:
The BRs allow the vertebral spine to remain neutral while the client is lying on the table. This gives the therapist an outstanding technical advantage as this positioning helps reveal the body's inherent rhythms as well as its stress patterns. Because the rib cage is not constricted (and the scapulae “freed” in the supine position,) the chest is able to open, the muscles are more relaxed and it becomes easier to discern local areas of inhibition within the larger structural pattern.
Increase scapular, occipital and neck access in supine position:
The breast/pec recess in the prone position becomes a scapular recess in the supine position. The scapulae “float” rather that being compressed up into the upper torso. The pecs open up. Shoulder mobilization is uninhibited. The rhomboids/subscapularis can be worked without the client’s weight compressing therapist’s fingertips. The neck/occipitals are readily accessible and easily worked without the therapist bending the wrist.
TAKE IT FROM THEM!
Comments on our Breast Recesses
“The Breast Recess option is remarkable in that one size truly fits all. It shortens the musculature of the upper back allowing deeper access with less effort. A groundbreaking achievement.”
—Erik Dalton
Freedom From Pain Institute
“I’ve had people request individual therapists and certain rooms before, but never a specific table. The Breast Recess table from Custom Craftworks makes such a profound difference in comfort that clients request it all the time.”
—AJ Eckard
Hawaiian Islands School of Massage
“I wish I had pictures of the faces of some of the clients that experience the Breast Recess table and the superior comfort for the first time. What brought me to the decision initially, to buy a Customer Craftworks product, was two fold. First, I have to thank my ex-wife for educating me that most women find lying on their chest very uncomfortable. Second, I have to thank you for opening my eyes to all of the benefits of your Breast recesses and the effect it has on the entire body of the client. What a difference the Breast recesses make in opening the upper back.”
—Jack Ogden, CLMT
Discerning Touch
“Clients think the Breast Recesses are all about them. But it is really all about you. “I used to think that Breast Recesses were the dumbest things in the catalog... then, once I experienced them during a demonstration, it was ‘Oh my gosh!’... How much deeper I can work.”
—Jeri
All You Knead
“As an educator, I put the whole picture out there so the students can make their own, well-informed choices. I help match the student to the table that is best for them. Custom Craftworks offers exclusive options like the Breast Recesses and special foams that are perfect solutions for therapists committed to client comfort. It’s the table I bought for myself—and my clients really appreciate the difference.”
—Chyrise Bay-Voit
Blue Sky Educational Foundation, Grafton, WI
A statement from:
AMTA Council of Schools’
Teacher of the Year
Jan Roberts of the Moscow School of Massage Therapy
Profound bodywork relies upon the therapist's skill at assessing functional relationships throughout the body. Only then can one treat the underlying causes of a client's symptoms.
Custom Craftworks has created an innovative new table system that, because of built-in breast [chest] recesses, allows the vertebral spine to remain neutral while the client is lying on the table. This gives the therapist an outstanding technical advantage. The positioning, made possible by the design of the table, helps reveal the body's inherent rhythms as well as its stress patterns; and it becomes easier to discern local areas of inhibition within the larger structural pattern. The depressions of the breast [chest] recesses provide easy access to the shoulder area without compromising mobility.
My clients benefit from their experience of more fluid movement within the session. And both women and men remark upon the comfort of the breast [chest] recess system. Who says you can't have it all?
Technical Info:
Product:Breast Recesses (BR) and plugs (included)
Price:Adds $109 to the Price of the Table
Description:Oval padded recesses supplied with upholstered foam plugs to restore table to flat surface when needed.
Manufacturing Limitations:Must be ordered with the table (cannot be added later).
Dimensions:20.3 cm wide x 15.2 cm long x 5.1 cm deep. Recesses are located 10.2 cm edge of table, with 5.1 cm space between each.
Other Info:Prenatal table option includes Breast Recesses automatically.
