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Vision & Muscle Tension, Healthy Holidays, Immune to Inactivity

Tom Saulnier — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 17:51:48 +0000

Is Your Vision Causing Muscle Tension?

– Mary Betts Sinclair

Do you have tension headaches or chronic tension in your upper body? How about neck and shoulder stiffness? Maybe you experience strain in the temples, forehead, neck, shoulders, or back, especially after a long period of working at a computer or reading a book? If so, your tension could be related to how you look at the world.

Healthy vision is comfortable, efficient, and relaxed for the viewer, while poor visual habits can interfere with free and easy movement, making the body chronically tense. We use our eyes much of the day, and if we strain to see, we create tension in the face, neck, shoulders, and back muscles. Squinting and straining when we have trouble making something out, or stiffening our entire neck, spine, and pelvis every time we look up can affect the entire body.

Most of us develop these vision habits without even being aware of them, but there are other health factors that can play a role. Up to 5 percent of children are born with some kind of visual abnormality, or develop one in the first few years of life. A lazy eye, for example, may cause a child to hike up one eye or one shoulder, or twist the neck to look out of the better-sighted eye at all times. Being sensitive to light might cause a child to develop the habit of hanging the head forward. Injuries to or near the eyes can also cause chronic tension in the muscles of the eyes or structures near the eyes. And finally, emotional stress can cause us to hold our muscles tight while we look out at the world.

What To Do

Step One

Talk with your massage therapist about your pain and strain. During a session, your therapist can check you for extra tension in …(To read “the rest of the story” please click here Winter2020 Newsletter )

Reduce Your Skin Cancer Risk, Fit Feet, Dry vs. Dehydrated Skin

Tom Saulnier — Tue, 31 Dec 2019 01:54:41 +0000

Fruits & Veggies Fight Skin Cancer

According to findings published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Dermatology, people who eat foods containing high levels of vitamin A have a 17 percent risk reduction for getting cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma—the second-most common type of skin cancer among fair-skinned people. According to Eunyoung Cho, associate professor of dermatology and epidemiology at Brown University, “Skin cancer, including squamous cell carcinoma, is hard to prevent, but this study suggests that eating a healthy diet rich in vitamin A may be a way to reduce your risk, in addition to wearing sunscreen and reducing sun exposure.

Our study provides another reason to eat lots of fruits and vegetables as part of a healthy diet.” Vitamin A-rich foods include apricots, broccoli, carrots, kale, spinach, and tangerines, to name a few.

Read the full study at www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190731125417.htm.

Test the Waters

Is Your Skin Dry, or Dehydrated?

By Alex Caspero

Chapped lips, itchy skin, redness, and peeling are all common dry-skin symptoms as winter’s brutal cold and sharp winds settle in for the season. And, while many assume these issues are related to dry skin, it may be more perennial dehydrated skin.

DRY SKIN VS. DEHYDRATED SKIN

As a general definition, dehydration means your body is taking in less water than it’s losing. Therefore, dehydrated skin lacks water—compared to dry skin, which typically lacks natural oil. More simply put, dry skin is a skin type, while dehydrated skin is a condition usually related to other lifestyle factors. Dehydrated skin can affect anyone, regardless of skin type, pore size, or genetics.

Unlike other factors that may contribute to dry skin, like psoriasis or eczema, these conditions don’t cause dehydrated skin. Dehydrated skin can also cause dullness, darker under-eye circles, increased appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, and shadows around the eyes.

LIFESTYLE FACTORS

The usual suspects of prematurely aged skin also play a role in dehydrated skin: smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, and too much sun exposure. As both alcohol and caffeine are considered diuretics, reducing (or eliminating) these will benefit both skin appearance and hydration status.

A diet of high-sodium, processed foods and low-water plant-based foods is more likely to (If you’d like to read “the rest of the story”, please click here BS Winter 2020)

Improving Life Quality, Stress Responses, Simple Calf Muscle Stretch

Tom Saulnier — Sun, 30 Jun 2019 21:40:51 +0000

Finding Relief

From Arthritis to Diabetes, Massage Therapy Improves Quality of Life

By Ruth Werner

For some, massage therapy is a short-term intervention to help with injury and rehabilitation. For others, massage is their salve to reduce the stresses of a hurried and chaotic life. For those living with chronic conditions, including arthritis, autoimmune diseases, hypertension, diabetes, and kidney failure, massage therapy is often integrated into conventional health care to provide relief. Here is just a sampling of research validating massage for these conditions:

A clinical trial found that blood pressure readings dropped after massage, and remained below baseline for 72 hours or more.

ARTHRITIS

Massage, by itself or in combination with aromatherapy, can be an effective strategy to help manage symptoms and improve function in people who have arthritis. Some studies looked at wholebody relaxation treatments, while others examined bodywork, including self-massage, targeted to the affected area. (See studies by Perlman, Nasiri, Tosun, Atkins, Peungsuwan, Zwoli´nska).

AUTOIMMUNE DISEASES

Autoimmune diseases, including lupus, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and scleroderma, present challenges that massage therapy can address. Pain, fatigue, quality of life, mood, and self-efficacy (the belief that one can succeed and thrive in spite of obstacles) are all positively affected by massage for people who live with autoimmune diseases (Schroeder, Finch, Poole). In addition, these specific benefits have been found: (To Read “The Rest of the Story”, please click here… BS Summer 2019

Things Clients Worry About…and Why They Shouldn’t

Tom Saulnier — Sat, 29 Dec 2018 00:00:21 +0000

It Don’t Mean a Thing!

Things Clients Worry About and Why They Really Shouldn’t

By Cindy Williams

First things first. The last thing a client should be doing during a massage session is worrying. Worry is a stressor that causes the same physical symptoms that massage therapists are attempting to relieve. Clients often worry about, and even become downright embarrassed by, natural physiological processes that don’t make one iota of difference to the massage therapist. If anything, the physiological occurrences show us that your body is responding well to the work being done. If you have found yourself having embarrassing body responses during a massage and have worried about what your massage therapist is thinking, please read on and allow me to put your mind at ease.

OOPS, I TOOTED

Let’s get right to the point … farting, burping, and drooling, which might normally be embarrassing occurrences, are all acceptable and even sometimes expected during a massage therapy session. Here’s why.

The pace of modern life causes people to regularly be in a state of doing. Running errands, taking kids to and from school and activities, making dinner, cleaning house, doing laundry, going to work, meeting friends, taking care of parents, responding to emails and texts—the list goes on and on. Put very simply, the stress of constant action causes the sympathetic side of the nervous system, the side that drives the body in motion, to dominate over the parasympathetic side, the side that places the body at rest. Massage therapy reverses that.

I REALLY HAVE TO PEE!

Another side effect of the body being in parasympathic mode is (To read the rest of this article and view this entire issue, please click here BS Winter 2019)

Sports Massage, Snowflake Effect, Unplug to Recharge

Tom Saulnier — Fri, 21 Sep 2018 22:08:22 +0000

Is Sports Massage Right for You?
By Eric Stephenson, LMT

Are you a weekend warrior, self-proclaimed athlete, or someone who just generally likes to push themselves a little too hard at the gym? If that’s the case, then sports massage might be just what the body ordered.

We all know physical activity generates positive health benefits for your body,
but it can also create negative effects that arise when you push past your physical limit. That’s when you show up on our massage tables with injuries related to this overexertion.

THE ATHLETE IN ALL OF US

Olympic, collegiate, and professional athletes utilize massage therapy to mitigate and recover from sports injuries. Oftentimes, teams employ and even travel with a massage therapist. And research continues to show what athletes already know—massage has a positive effect on athletes and their performance.1

The benefits of sports massage extend beyond professional athletes to anyone who participates in regular exercise. Whether it be golf, tennis, or ballroom dancing, if you engage in physical exercise, sports massage is a good option for you. And, if you suffer from a nagging injury or orthopedic condition that keeps you from performing at your best, sports massage is especially helpful.

KINDS OF SPORTS MASSAGE

Did you know that about 65 percent of injuries—both athletic and lifestyle- related—come from overuse of the muscles? The other 35 percent are caused by true trauma.2

Sports massage is (to read “the rest of the story”, please click here BS autumn2018

Wrist Relief, Acupressure Ill/Elderly, Cancer

Tom Saulnier — Tue, 24 Apr 2018 00:10:14 +0000

Comfort Touch
Acupressure for the Ill, Elderly, or Anyone Needing a Caring Touch
by Mary Kathleen Rose

Hazel never remembered my name. She often seemed confused about why I had come to her home, but once I began the hands-on bodywork session, she responded to my touch as if it were familiar. Hazel was 90 years old when her daughter first contacted me, hoping that massage could alleviate the chronic pain her mother experienced as a result of an injury and subsequent surgery to her hip.

I visited Hazel regularly in her home to give her massage. Usually, I worked with her lying face-up in her bed, making ample use of pillows to help her get comfortable. Sometimes she sat back in her reclining chair, and I pulled up a stool beside her to sit on as I worked.

I felt her sense of trust, as she smiled faintly and closed her watery blue eyes. I noticed the steady quality of her breath as she relaxed, letting go of the tension in her body.

When I saw Hazel, I used the nurturing acupressure techniques I developed while working with hospice patients and other elderly clients in my practice years earlier. This approach has come to be called Comfort Touch—a safe, appropriate, and effective form of bodywork for use with special populations, including the elderly and the acute and chronically ill, both in medical settings and home care.

SAFE FOR ALL
Comfort Touch is a nurturing form of acupressure that promotes deep relaxation and relief from pain. For many people with compromised health, conventional massage (with gliding and kneading strokes) can cause discomfort or even injury. Fortunately, for those people with conditions such as arthritis, lymphedema, neuropathy, and fibromyalgia, Comfort Touch is not only safe, but its broad, encompassing compression is very calming to the nervous system. (To read more of this and other informative “quick read” articles, please click here BSspring-2018

Your MT’s Secret Skill: Constant, Fluid Contact

Tom Saulnier — Mon, 02 Oct 2017 23:41:51 +0000

Constant, Fluid Contact Your Massage Therapist’s Secret Skill
By Cindy Williams, LMT

Have you ever wondered why a session with certain massage therapists stands out as exceptional, but you can’t quite put your finger on what they are doing that makes their work so great? Perhaps you’ve noticed that once your massage therapist begins the hands-on portion of the session, you melt into an altered state that remains consistently soothing until the very last stroke is completed.

I’ve heard blissed-out clients describe this experience as “the massage therapist performing a fluid dance around the table” or “a master musician playing my body like an instrument.” That secret skill your practitioner has is constant, fluid contact, also known as effleurage. And it is intentional.

EFFLEURAGE DEFINED

In massage school, the first massage stroke students learn is called effleurage. A French word in origin, effleurage is defined as along, broad, fluid, gliding stroke that can be applied at different depths and paces, and used to begin, end, or transition between strokes and body parts. It covers the entire length and width of the body part to which it is being applied and assists in maintaining continuous contact with the client throughout a massage progression.

Full-body, Swedish massage sessions (see “Swedish Massage Strokes,” page 8) typically progress in the following fashion: begin with effleurage; transition to more specific and focused strokes that address parts of muscles that are tense, painful, or immobile; then finish with effleurage. While the strokes between effleurage can be applied in a variety of ways, progressing from general to specific and back to general without the hands leaving the body is an important factor in creating peaceful fluidity.

CONSTANT CONTACT FROM START TO FINISH

When switching between types of massage strokes, or completing one body part and moving to the next, what’s important is not only that your massage therapist get from Point A to Point B, but also how they get from Point A to Point B. Fluidity is essential to inviting and maintaining a client’s sense of peace, relaxation, and trust. Abrupt beginnings and endings, and the therapist not effectively communicating through touch where they are leaving and going, can cause clients to stay in sympathetic nervous system response (an activated state of being) rather than settling into the parasympathetic (a restful state of being). Constant contact through effleurage is the key, and the quality and application of your therapist’s effleurage strokes from the beginning of the session through to the end of the session can greatly affect your experience.

To read the entire article, please click here Body-Sense-Autumn-2017

Movement Therapies, Tipping, Reiki

Tom Saulnier — Wed, 23 Mar 2016 02:44:29 +0000

Movement Therapies – Strengthen Your Body and Accentuate Your Healing

– Cindy Williams, LMT

…True freedom from pain and discomfort can be achieved using movement therapies incorporated with consistent massage sessions.

When movement patterns “turn off” certain muscles and “turn on” others to keep you out of pain, the design of the joint and surrounding supportive tissues is compromised. Eventually, if not addressed, a whole new challenge has replaced the original one.

MASSAGE CAN WORK WONDERS,

BUT YOU CAN WORK MIRACLES

Every time I get a massage, I ask for additional specific work to my ankle and lower leg, which feels nothing short of scrumptious. There are many benefits to getting massage on my ankle and lower leg, including increased blood flow, softening of hard tissues, awakening of nerve sensation, and releasing of trigger points. For about two days after, the pain in my ankle is greatly reduced. But what hasn’t changed is the pattern of how I walk, which I created during the last eight years.

Here’s the truth. Unless you are actively involved in unwinding the pattern and returning to the way the body was designed to move in space, you will only heal so much. You will eventually go back to your compensation pattern, unless you are taught how to move differently. You must be involved in retraining your body back to its optimum function utilizing muscles and surrounding tissues as they are designed to work.

A SAMPLING OF THERAPIES

So what are movement therapies? Of the many modalities available to choose from, here is a sampling and explanation of a few of the most commonly known. (The following descriptions are taken from the bodywork glossary at www.massagetherapy.com/glossary.)

• Aston-Patterning (neurokinetics)—Aston-Patterning is an educational process developed by Judith Aston in 1977 that combines movement coaching, bodywork, ergonomics, and fitness training. The movement work (neurokinetics) has two divisions. The first part involves instruction in the most efficient way to perform the simple activities of daily living and then progresses to complex activities. The second part teaches the client how to use movement to decrease accumulated tension in the body. The practitioner uses specific assessment methods to create sequences of movement and fitness depending on the movement pattern of the client. The client’s current, observable, and palpable condition, as well as history of injury, trauma, scar tissue, and habits are taken into consideration when designing the approach to repatterning. How you do what you do in every movement you create is the baseline of this work.

• Trager Approach—The Trager Approach was developed more than 65 years ago by Milton Trager, MD. Two aspects make up the Trager Approach: one in which the client is passive, and the second in which the client is actively involved. The passive portion
is done on a table with the client fully clothed and passively guided through effortless, natural movement in order to find restrictions and bring freedom to locked-up areas. It is a gentle approach and does not induce pain or discomfort. The active portion includes a series of movements you can easily incorporate into your daily life to more deeply root the effects of the table work as well as your own awareness within your body. Essentially, these are designed to empower you in your own healing.

• Feldenkrais Method—This method establishes new connections between the brain and body through movement reeducation. Two formats of instruction are used: awareness through movement and functional integration. In the one-on-one functional integration session, a teacher uses hands-on manipulation to guide the student toward new movement patterns. Awareness through movement classes are group sessions in which the teacher verbally guides

students through repatterning. Feldenkrais proposed that nearly our entire spectrum of movement is learned during our first few years of life, but that these movements represent a mere 5 percent of all…Want to read more? Click here for full Publication BSSpring16

Massage Therapy Works, Eliminate Sick Days

Tom Saulnier — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 20:45:38 +0000

IN THIS ISSUE: * 9 Tips for living authentically in the new year * The inside scoop on how massage therapy works * Is it the cold? The Flu? Eliminate sick days * The pathway to your healthiest skin yet

“How, Exactly, Does Massage Therapy Work?”

The Anatomy of Happiness – By Douglas Nelson

As I greeted Craig in the waiting room, the radiant smile on his face told me we were making good progress on his shoulder pain.

“My shoulder is so much better,” he remarked as he entered my treatment room. “I hardly think about it anymore—not when I am exercising, not during sleep, not at work, nothing. I am thrilled.” As a massage therapist who specializes in dealing with specific muscular issues, this is exactly what I hope to hear from the people I serve.

“The muscle in the back of my shoulder you treated last session seemed to completely eliminate the remnants of my shoulder pain. Each of our previous sessions has focused on slightly different aspects of my shoulder discomfort, with different muscles playing a role each time.

I must say that the educational process has been just as valuable as the hands-on work. It has given me a greater understanding of my own body, what to do, and maybe more importantly,
what not to do. I discovered that there were motions at work–and also at the gym—that were irritating my shoulder, and I have a better sense of what was happening to my shoulder and why. This whole process is so interesting and educational.”

As someone who prides himself in both precise hands-on treatment and client education, I found that Craig’s statement was music to my ears. “So, I’m a little perplexed,” he announced.

“About what?” I asked. “About how massage works,” he said with a smile. As a massage therapist who was feeling pretty good about himself,

I was thrown for a bit of a loop. “I came to see you for help with my shoulder,” he continued, “but one of the most striking benefits of my massage treatment is the effect on my mood. When I leave your office and go back to work, I seem to function much more efficiently; I get way more stuff done than usual. Mostly, I am in a much better mood, much happier, and more positive about the world. I have really enjoyed understanding …Click here for full publication Body-Sense-Winter-2012

Massage Workout, Massage for Teens, Sun

Tom Saulnier — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 23:05:31 +0000

Massage as the Body’s Workout

Can Bodywork Sometimes Make You Sore?

Shirley Vanderbilt

You’ve just had a wonderful massage, and you go home feeling both relaxed and rejuvenated. But later that night you feel like you’re coming down with something. Or perhaps the next morning, you wake up with twinges of muscle soreness, maybe some fatigue, and you just don’t feel yourself. What happened? Chances are it’s the massage, and it’s perfectly OK.

Keith Grant, head of the Sports and Deep Tissue Massage Department at McKinnon Institute in Oakland, Calif., says, “It’s very much like doing a workout. If the muscles aren’t used to it, they often respond with some soreness.” Grant notes this should last for no more than a day or two. If it lasts longer, the

therapist can find all the kinks that have built up from daily stress and too little or too much exercise. The whole point of a therapeutic massage is to release that tension, work out the kinks, and help your body relax so it can function at an optimal level. All of this work stretches muscles, pushes blood into them, and gets things working again.

A Closer Look

There are several theories, in addition to muscle function, as to why people sometimes experience after-effects from massage.

Massage can stimulate the lymph system, which is comprised of several organs

Can Bodywork Sometimes Make You Sore? You’ve just had a wonderful massage and you go home feeling both relaxed and rejuvenated. But later that night…Click here for complete newsletter: Summer 2009