Have you ever been on the massage table and found it challenging to relax or let go? Maybe throughout the session your therapist gently asks you to “let your arm be heavy,” “relax your neck,” or “let me hold the weight of your leg.” Try as you might, you’re left wondering why you can’t let the tension go.
To enjoy a continuum of health throughout the year, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) recommends practices for harmonizing with nature and the cycles of the seasons. TCM practitioners believe health is influenced and mirrored by nature and that we may optimize health by using approaches based on five elements found in nature: Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, and Wood.
Have you had your tires rotated recently? Been to the dentist for a cleaning? There are some appointments you don’t think twice about making—they’re just a part of life. It’s time to think of massage as routine maintenance.
For the weekend warrior, a massage helps both recovery time and future performance. If you’re taking your favorite four-legged friend with you on those weekend adventures, there’s a good chance they could use some bodywork as well.
In the October/November 2003 issue of Massage & Bodywork (“Injuries of the Knee: Essential Principles and their Applications,” page 16), I described how discovering and learning new information about the injury process revolutionized my understanding and changed the way I treat clients in my practice. Because of the essential principles I learned, I am able to identify the source of clients’ pain quickly and recommend the type of treatment most likely to help them recover.
You are probably familiar with how uncomfortable it is to get salt in your eye or in an open cut on your body. So if I were to suggest you try salt therapy, you might be a bit hesitant if you do not know what it entails.
Sometimes, we enjoy the work of giving generously to others so much that we neglect to release the previous massage and bodywork sessions and instead carry them throughout the day. Doing this over and over can be emotionally and physically draining.
The idiom “trust your gut” means relying on intuition, rather than thoughtful, deep analysis, to make a decision. But research shows there is actually a tangible connection between gut health and brain health, and that linkage can affect emotions and cognitive processing.
Oh, those aching wrists. Here are a few simple Active Isolated Stretches (based on the principle of short, repeated movements) to help ease the hurt.
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