Something you may take for granted when you’re out and about is whether you will be supported by various seating options: in public transit, in theatres, in restrooms. Which brings me to something I have been remiss in not addressing before: is my table robust enough to support you? After all, can a fat client truly relax if they don’t trust my furniture’s ability to keep them from a sudden meeting with the floor?
I am actually on the third massage table of my career. My first one was three inches narrower for budgetary reasons: those extra inches were only available if I wanted to pay twice what my starter table cost! The furniture industry is not the only place we can encounter the fat tax: larger clothing is often priced higher, and airlines with inadequate policies for fat clients may oblige them to pay for a second seat (which isn’t even guaranteed to remain empty due to overselling of flights).
My table’s recommended working weight is 600 pounds and it has passed various load tests (including a static load test of 2,400 lbs and a vertical drop test of 600 lbs). It is made of wood, which means that clients of all sizes will hear some mild groaning and creaking underneath as I apply pressure to different parts of the body from different angles.
My eventual goal is to upgrade to a mechanical table that can be gently raised and lowered while a client is lying down, but it’s not a realistic aim for this calendar year. So I am making sure that this table is in good working condition with periodic checks, and I will be posting full information on its tests and certifications on my site in the coming days. Fat friendly businesses should be making this information available so that potential clients don’t have to ask for it.
Support your fat friends by sussing out the seating situation: is the waiting room full of skinny-legged chairs with arms? Does the theatre or restaurant have chairs that won’t bruise fat patrons? Are the toilets solidly mounted to the floor, or precariously clinging to a wall? We deserve to be able to sit down with full confidence that our furniture won’t fail us.