Remember that guy or girl in high school who was awesome at neck rubs?
Well, Fortius Sport & Health massage therapist Erin Reid was that girl, and over the last 10 years, the Surrey native has made a career of it, getting her hands on just about every kind of body, from B.C. Lions linebackers to Paralympic swimmers to Cirque du Soleil acrobats.
When her best friend in high school first suggested she put her magical hands to work as a “masseuse,” though, she wasn’t sure.
News stories at the time linking massage parlours to prostitution and other crime painted an unsavoury picture of the profession.
She went into psychology at Kwantlen Polytech University instead, but after a year decided she needed something more hands-on and active.
“I just didn’t want to sit at a desk and drone away,” she said.
A little research revealed massage therapy was a legit career, with solid medical underpinnings, and she was soon enrolled at the West Coast College of Massage Therapy.
Since graduating in 2004, rubbing people the right way has taken her to international sporting competition all over the world, including world para-swimming competitions in Brazil and Germany, and the Beijing Paralympics as a therapist with the Canadian para-equestrian team.
This summer she was at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.
After years of working on so many different kinds of bodies, Reid has learned how to use her own body to full advantage too.
“You learn to use your body smartly, working with people that are big,” she said. “With a 50-pound leg, you learn very quickly not to use your arms; you use your body, put their leg on your shoulder if you’re going to stretch them out. For bigger, workhouse muscles, like hamstrings, quads, glute muscles, you might use forearms or elbows.”
All that handling of muscles, connective tissues and joints over the years has also inspired a somewhat macabre item on Reid’s bucket list – the full dissection of a human body.
“Because you deal with the muscles and fibres all day long, from legs all the way up, it’s just knowing that, OK, I really am on that point,” she explained. “The book told me it was here, but it’s actually down. I think it’s a good reminder. Instead of going back into your books and doing review, you can actually see it on a body.”
Reid joined the Fortius team just before the sports medicine centre opened in May 2013.
She had worked with its director of clinical operations Randy Goodman in host medical at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games along with Fortius lead physiotherapist Rick Celebrini and legendary sport doctor Jack Taunton.
Coming to work at Fortius, which was built on the same collaborative, integrated model used at the Games, has been “amazing,” said Reid.
Unlike other clinics she’s worked at, where therapists tended to guard their clientele jealously, Reid said Fortius is a place where she can collaborate with other professionals and improve her practice.
“It’s nice not to feel like a lone soldier,” she said. “Everybody sees the big picture here.”
For more information about the Fortius team, visit www.fortiussport.com.
