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New Clients

February 6, 2021 admin Leave a comment Opinion

New Clients

Your first appointment will involve an extra 10 minutes so we can get to know each other. I want to be sure I understand what you need, and I want you to feel comfortable communicating those needs with me.

I’ll give you the tour and talk a bit about what’s offered, then we’ll sit and I’ll ask you what’s going on in your life, mentally and physically. We’ll just do that for a few minutes, then I’ll give you a bit of space to write in a journal using a prompt I’ve prepared for you. If you like dogs or cats, I can bring the pets out for you to cuddle during the writing.

I’ll explain the massage protocol, then leave the room so you have some privacy for undressing (if you’re comfortable with that) and getting on the table, under the sheets. After the massage, I will again leave the room so you can privately put your clothes back on. You’ll sit on the couch for a moment and we will discuss how the massage went for you for just a couple minutes. I don’t want you to rush out the door with a foggy massage brain. I’ve known clients to forget their wallets, coats and even their shoes. This is a micro-spa, where you are treated like royalty and given ample time around your treatment. I don’t want you to forget anything you brought with you, and I want you to drive safely. It usually takes a few minutes to wake up from a massage.

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What is your role during a massage

February 6, 2021 admin Leave a comment Opinion

What is your role during a massage?

I found the excellent article written by the Mind-Body Continuum in 2014 and wanted to repost it here. Read it below, or click here.

When getting a massage, the massage therapist does most of the work. That’s idea really — having someone work your muscles and (hopefully) make you feel good. So there’s nothing for you to do right? Well, not quite — there are a few things you can do to make sure you get a fantastic treatment.

Don’t worry about your body:

We all do it, especially when going to see someone new. We worry about someone seeing our body without its usual covering of clothes. Women usually worry about hairy legs and whether they’ve had a pedicure. Men might worry about getting an erection (even in non-sexual massage this can happen — it’s about the parasympathetic nervous system rather than sexual arousal in this case). My advice is don’t worry so much, and talk to your therapist if you need to.

As far as your body and its wobbly bits, it’s not really something massage therapists tend to pay attention to — we’re more concerned with how the muscles feel and what we’re noticing beneath the skin. Remember too, that the towels are there for a reason. Massage therapists are taught the art of draping — this means that only the area being worked on is uncovered. As far as women with hairy bits and unpainted toes — we also massage men, and they will (almost) always be more hairy and less painted than you will. Again, we’re noticing what’s under the skin. And as for that tricky male ‘problem’ — if it’s something you think might happen, I recommend wearing briefs rather than boxers to help give more support and show a little less. It does happen from time to time, and generally massage therapists ignore it — if you were to draw attention to it by doing something inappropriate, then it would be noticed, your session would be probably be cut short, and you would be asked not to return (there are places for that — a therapeutic massage room is not the place, respect goes both ways).

Breathe:

This is important, particularly when having a deep tissue massage or if your therapist uses trigger points. When muscles are tight they get sore. When a sore spot is pressed on, we tend to tense up and hold our breath. It’s a crazy human reflex that is counterproductive. When you tense your muscles two things happen. First, it’s harder for the massage therapist to work on them as we can’t get into the muscle. Second, it hurts more. Try it — let your arm relax completely on a surface and use a thumb or finger to press into it (not too hard!)…now contract the muscles in the arm and press on it with the same pressure. Which one was more uncomfortable?
So, what has breathing got to do with it? Our muscles tend to relax on our exhale. If you breathe in, then hold your breath, it’s very difficult to release and relax the muscles. However, if you take a deep breath in, then a long exhale out, your muscles will naturally start to let go and relax. It’s that parasympathetic nervous system again — deep breathing helps to engage the relaxation response of the body.

Relax:

Yes, that’s right, relax. We know that’s one of the reasons you came to get a massage, to relax. And now you’re breathing, so that helps…but you still need to focus more on relaxing completely. Let go of the control of your muscles. If your therapist needs to move your limbs, they will do so. We know that when you lift your arm up for us, you’re just trying to help. But don’t. If your therapist needs you to move yourself, they will ask you. But, if you engage the muscles when a limb is lifted, that really doesn’t help. As I said above, engaged muscles tighten, and your massage therapist can’t work them effectively. It also takes away from the therapeutic benefit of your massage — you’re paying for it, so don’t take away the value of your own treatment.

To talk or not to talk:

Communication is important during your massage. Your therapist might ask you if you’re comfortable, or if the pressure is ok. Be honest. If you’re too cold, or too hot the temperature can be adjusted or extra towels can be added. If you’re uncomfortable, and therefore can’t relax fully, your position can be adjusted. If the pressure is too soft or too hard, it can be modified. But massage therapists are not mind readers — we won’t know unless you tell us. Sometimes there are obvious signs (like a client is shivering or flinching), but it helps if you tell us before it gets to that point. Sometimes you might not be asked, or everything was ok when you were asked but it’s not now. Speak up. A therapist can’t tailor a massage to your needs if you don’t tell them what your needs are. By the way, no pain no gain is a bit of a fallacy too. While a therapeutic massage can, at times, be uncomfortable, there is no reason you should be writhing in pain (unless you want to be!) A good therapist will work with your levels of comfort, remembering that everyone is different. And each session can even be different, depending on what is happening with the client at that point in time.

Then there is the question of having a general chat during your massage. There are a few different thoughts on this. Some people believe it’s a big no-no and that the only communication should be about pressure and comfort — you’re there to tune out and switch off. Others believe that a massage therapist is the ideal person to talk to about what’s happening in life — de-stressing can be as much about the emotional release of getting things off your chest, as the physical benefit of releasing the muscles. Personally, I believe it’s up to the client. I have some clients that are happy to chat beforehand, but once they’re on the table, they like to switch off completely. I also have some clients that love to chat while they’re on the table. It gives them a chance to talk to someone about what’s been bothering them or can provide a distraction if I’m working on a particularly sore trigger point. I even have clients who like to ask me about me and what’s happening in my life — they tell me this helps them to switch off from what’s happening in their own life. It is also important to remember that people do form a bond when they see a regular therapist — after all, there is a certain level of trust in taking off most of your clothes and literally putting your body in someone else’s hands. Learning a little about this person you’re entrusting yourself too is not a bad thing. If you ask something your therapist feels is inappropriate they will tell you.

Liked this piece? Recommend me! want to read more posts like this one? Feel free to check out my blog.

Winter Solstice 2020

December 20, 2020 admin Leave a comment Opinion

What is the Winter Solstice?

The Winter solstice is when the Earth’s Northern hemisphere is tilted the farthest from the sun than any other time of year. We will have the shortest day and the longest night, whereas the Southern hemisphere will be celebrating their longest day and shortest night.

What does it mean?

A lot of cultures find the solstices to hold great power. The Druids certainly found them to have great meaning, and Stonehenge marks the Winter Solstice.

This website is livestreaming the Solstice from Stonehenge: EnglishHeritage.org

I’ve just started reading about Shamanism and ancient cultures, but haven’t gotten into the importance of the Solstices yet. I don’t really have an answer for what it means to people.

But if you want to read more about it, I found this Washington Post site to be educational.

Happy Holidays!

Many sources say Christmas is celebrated on December 25th because it is close to the Winter Solstice, which so many people were already celebrating. Here’s one site discussing that.

It also appears related to the celebration of Hanukkah, as argued here.

My Gift to You

If you’re subscribed to my email list, you will be getting a $50 Winter Solstice gift. The catch is that you have to give it to someone else. I want to encourage gift giving, and I want to see new faces enjoying massage therapy.

The receiver of your gift doesn’t have to know you didn’t pay anything for the gift certificate, so it makes a great gift for someone you may have forgotten about or didn’t know what to buy for them. Enjoy!

And if you don’t want to miss out on my next deal, be sure to sign up for my email list.

Kinesiology Notes: Muscle Terminology

December 20, 2020 admin Leave a comment Education

PE 307: Kinesiology Notes

Muscle Fibers

Two major types of muscle shape fiber arrangements

	Parallel	Pennate
Fiber arrangement description	Run parallel to length of muscle, have longer fibers	Run obliquely to tendons, have shorter fibers
Range of motion (large or small)	large
C/S area	small
Strength/Power	small
Types	Flat: thin and broad, may run from aponeurosis. Fusiform: spindle shaped Strap: long fibers Radiate: triangular shaped (flat and fusiform combo)	Unipennate: fibers run from tendon on one side Bipennate: fibers run from both sides of central tendon Multipennate: fibers run from several tendons

Four properties related to a muscle’s ability to produce a force:

Irritability	Being responsive to chemical, mechanical, or electrical stimuli
Contractility	Ability to contract and develop tension or force when stimulated
Elasticity	Ability to return to its original length following stretching
Extensibility	To be stretched back to its original length following contraction

Intrinsic muscles are located within the body part on which they act. Ex: hand, foot

Extrinsic muscles are located outside the body part on which they act.

The origin is the proximal attachment, considered the least movable part and attaches closest to the midline.

The insertion is the distal attachment, considered the most movable part.

Two types of muscle action:

1. Isometric/Static: tension develops within the muscle, but the joint angle remains constant.

2. Isotonic/Dynamic: Tension develops within the muscle to cause or control joint movement.

Two types of isotonic:

1. Concentric: muscle develops tension as it shortens, force developed is greater than the resistance, “speeds up” resistance, joint angle changes in the direction of the applied muscular force.

2. Eccentric: muscle develops tension as it lengthens, force developed is less than the resistance. Keeps the weibght/resistance from being accelerated downwards by gravitational force in traditional weight training exercises.

N.B. Movement may occur at any given joint without muscle contraction, this is referred to as a passive (as opposed to active) movement due to the external force(s) (e.g. gravity, resistance, relaxation, therapist moving joint through its range of motion)

Careful of the etymology. Iso = same, tonic = tension (“isokinetic” is a form of rehab. Ex cybex or biodex)

Role of Muscles

Agonists/prime movers: primary muscles that initiate and carry out the action
Antagonists: muscles that oppose the action of the agonist muscles. Usually located on the opposite side of the joint from the agonist, they work in cooperation with the agonist by relaxing and allowing movement.
Stabilizers: muscles that surround the joint or body part and contract to stabilize the area to enable another limb to exert force and move
Synergist: assist in the action of the agonist
Line of pull: the resultant force produced at an attachment by a muscle.
Angle of pull: the angle between the ‘line of pull’ of the muscle and the bone on which it inserts

Neuromuscular Concepts

All or none principle: When a motor fiber is stimulated, all of the muscle fibers in that motor unit contract to their fullest extent or they do not contract at all.

Muscle length-tension relationship: the maximal ability of a muscle to develop tension/force varies, depending on the length of the muscle during contraction. Generally, a muscle can develop the greatest amount of force/tension if it’s stretched 100-130% of its resting length.

Muscle force-velocity relationship: as the force needed to cause movement of an objects increases, the velocity of concentric action decreases, whereas the velocity of eccentric action increases (at least until the point at which control is lost)

Biarticular muscles: cross and act on two different joints

Multiarticular muscles: Cross and act on 3+ joints

Reciprocal inhibition/innervation: Neuromuscular phenomenon in which the innervation, contraction/shortening of agonist muscles is accompanied by the inhibition of the antagonist muscles.

Active and passive insufficiency: as a muscle shortens, its ability to exert force diminishes. When a muscle becomes shortened to the point it cannot generate or maintain active tension, active insufficiency is reached. If the opposing muscle becomes stretched to the point where it can no longer lengthen and allow movement, then passive insufficiency is reached.

Misc.

Goniometer: a device used in OT, PT, AT, etc that measures joint angle and ROM