When I was a reserve firefighter, in Los Osos, we answered the call of a woman that thought she was having a heart attack. We arrived at her home and her husband rushed us inside to where she was sitting in her living room with the TV playing in the background. She was pale. Her breathing was rapid and shallow and she was having chest pain. She was obviously in distress. We hooked her up to the EKG and took her vitals. After running all the tests, the paramedics surmised she was having an anxiety attack. After questioning her about how it was triggered, it started while she was watching a market report. The market had dropped significantly that day and she lost a major portion of her retirement investments. We recommended she visit her doctor as soon as possible, just to make sure there was nothing else going on, not watch the news and we left. Anxiety and panic attacks can happen anywhere to anyone at any time. Life is full of ups and downs and twists and turns that can be pretty rough for even the most stoic. With world events becoming more and more turbulent and violent, finding joy and taking a time out can help to keep calm. Get out in nature, watch the bees at work, the treessway in the wind, or the fog lazily wrap up the coast. Take a hike and enjoy the view. Take an afternoon to visit with a dear friend or loved one. Read a good book. Make time in your day or week to do one thing, even for 5 minutes, that brings you joy. Powerful hormones and endorphins are released when we experience positive feelings that can help with lowering blood pressure, stress levels and boost the immune system. What brings you joy? Many of you have had success in doing the stretches and are doing them regularly. Yay! Here is the link, if you want to get started. VIDEOS Massage openings this week: Wednesday - 1:30 3, 4:30, 6pm Thursday - 3, 4;30, 6pm Friday - 11:30, 1, 2:30, 4, 7pm Saturday - 11am, 12:30, 2, 3:30, 5pm The world is a crazy place...and it just seems to get worse. No matter where you turn, there is disturbing news and events taking place in every corner of our world. It can be hard to find the good and still keep a smile on your face. For me, taking time to meditate, walk on the beach or take a hike helps me get connected to my better self and keep my smile. Some easy ways to find your "island of calm": - Turn off your phone for an hour - Do not watch the news or read the paper for a day - Find a quiet place to read a good book - Have coffee with a good friend - Do something kind and unexpected for a stranger _Before you get out of bed, in the morning, remind yourself of 5 things to be grateful for These are just a few suggestions that might help you find your smile and your island of "calm". When all else fails...get a massage. It is the one place you don't have to talk to anyone, falling asleep is a compliment and it is all about you! Happy Father's Day! Enjoy this day and celebrate the men in your life. Being a dad isn't easy and the job gets over-looked and under-appreciated many times. My dad isn't alive anymore and he wasn't perfect but he did his best. I am grateful that he was part of my life. Take the time today to be grateful for those in your life, perfect or not, because they helped influence you into becoming the amazing person you are. The other day I was watching an interview of Steve Maxwell, a 63 year old, former fighter, fitness coach/trainer and functional movement guru. I find his ideas and techniques simple and effective. He is also mentioned in Christopher McDougall’s recent book, “Natural Born Heroes”. During the interview, he mentioned Dr. John Kirsch and his book, “Shoulder Pain? The Solution and Prevention” and how this doctor found that something as simple as hanging was effective in helping heal and prevent problems… WHAT!?!?! That sounded interesting! After looking up “shoulder hanging” on Google, I found a video and more interesting information. Many times in the massage room, I have clients with pain, mobility issues and/or restrictions related to shoulders and sometimes it goes up into the neck. There can be several things going on, but if the muscles surrounding the shoulder blade are tight and restricting movement, that can be the source of numerous problems. There are nerves and blood vessels that flow between the rib cage and shoulder joint. If muscles are tight or posture is poor, these can be impinged and pain will result, not to mention lack of circulation of toxins out and nutrients in. In experimenting with hanging, my own experience has been that I feel like the shoulders have opened up and there is less pain in the area injured several years ago. Massage work also causes me to be in a shoulders forward position, much like working on a computer. Stretching the muscles in the chest area helps relieve the tension and strain on the muscles of the upper back. I would encourage you to be gentle and begin with the doorway stretch. DO NOT BEGIN HANGING WITHOUT SUPPORT! Go to the local school and use the monkey bars and keeping your feet on the ground, just lower yourself slowly and feel what is going on in the shoulders. Watch the video before you go out and try this! I would love to hear some feed back on your experience. Meditation can be intimidating. Some people think it takes hours of sitting like a pretzel while fasting and requires the mind of a Buddhist Monk. WOW! No wonder it is scary. Meditation can be done almost anywhere, in any position and last from 30 seconds to hours. It also can be done while walking, running or doing repetitive motions, like chopping wood, washing dishes or weeding. You’ve probably been in a meditative state without realizing it and just thought you were daydreaming or drifting to sleep. Stopping for just 5 minutes a day can have restorative effects and make a big difference physically, emotionally and mentally. My favorite time and place is my patio, in the morning just after breakfast. For those of you that hit the ground running until you drop back into bed, maybe 5 minutes after you wake-up might work, just before you go to bed or take time out at lunch. Regular practice will enhance your ability to focus, stay calm, be able to relax faster and tune into your body and what is happening within. There is a whole list of benefits and it is even beginning to find its way into mainstream medicine with some doctors recommending it to patients. Here is a great article from the Mayo Clinic with further information: Meditation: A simple, fast way to reduce stress. If you are looking for some help in getting started with meditation, YouTube.com has several meditations in your choice of length. Here is a short, 5 minute meditation, as an example: 5 Minute Meditation Beating yourself up over the amount of stress you have in your life only increases it and making grand plans to make major changes usually fail. Just try one baby step in making changes and you will have a better chance at succeeding. Meditation can be a quick and easy way to start finding a way to manage your crazy life and find some peace and balance. Give it a try and see what happens. I would love to hear your experience. Many people come to me with low back pain and hip or sciatica issues and there seems to be something they all share, weak gluteal muscles. We have become a population of “sitters” when we were born for moving. If you stand in one place or sit for the majority of your day, you could have weak glute muscles that are contributing to your low back and hip pain. When we sit for long periods of time the Psoas muscles shorten and will pull on the low back when moving to a standing position. Sitting stretches the glute muscles and can weaken them. If you stand for long periods and have weak glute muscles, it causes the Psoas (hip flexors) to work to stabilize the spine and puts strain the low back. Not only will the back and hips have problems, but without strong glutes to help align the leg bones, pain and discomfort in the hamstrings, calves and feet can occur too. Several clients have said that they are fine until after a walk and when they get home, the low back or hips start to bother them. This is a strong indicator that glutes are weak and need strengthening. How do you know if you have weak glutes? Without going into an anatomy lesson, let me give you a simple test you can do to see if you have weak glutes: Lay on your stomach on the floor and rest your chin on your folded arms. Keeping your legs straight behind you and resting on the floor. Lift one leg, keeping it straight and if you feel the knee bend or your low back (lumbar area) dip, it means other muscles are being recruited to assist the glutes and they are weak. Ok, now that you know you need some work, (most of us do!) how do you gain glutes of steel? There are numerous exercises to improve glute strength; squats, lunges, exercise machines, etc., but safety is a big consideration and you have to be especially careful if you have any knee problems. I found a great video on some easy exercises you can do at home. I like these because they are simple and won’t cause any stress on the knees. Click here to watch this 5 minute video. Some other things to pay attention to:
If you get a chance, watch others walking. Can you tell those that have back pain, knee pain or are not using their glutes and leg muscles in synch? As a massage therapist, I have found you can tell a lot about a person just by their walk. Strengthening your glutes and paying attention to how you walk and use your body can assist with alleviating back pain. In the case of glutes, a little work can make all the difference in the world! Plantar Fasciitis is pain and inflammation of the tough and fibrous tissues of the sole of the foot. Anything and nothing can bring it on from running, wearing high heels to just stepping off a curb or getting out of bed in the morning. Usually it hurts the most first thing in the morning and then starts to loosen up as the day goes on, but this isn’t always the case. Some people suffer pain for an extended period of time and some only a day or month. There are no clear cut rules for this frustrating source of pain. All kinds of treatments exist from stretches, taping, orthotics, foot supports, injections and even surgery. What works for one person isn’t necessarily going to work for the next and many times it seems that nothing helps. Rest is usually recommended as well as changing your foot wear. If you are dealing with Plantar Fasciitis, here are some down to earth ways to decrease and help eliminate the problem: 1 – Walk barefoot as much as possible, especially on grass, soft sand, wood floors and carpet. This will stretch and strengthen the feet and by working the tissues, will increase circulation to the area. By walking on the earth you are also connecting with natural healing energy that has proven to reduce pain and inflammation. 2 – Stretch! Believe it or not, you are connected from the base of you toes, along your soles, up the back of your legs, glutes, back, neck and up over your head to right above your eyebrows. If you have tight muscles anywhere along this area, it can have an effect on your feet. I highly recommend 5-10 minutes of stretching, preferably right after a good walk or any aerobic activity, everyday. Stretching after activity has the most effect and increase in flexibility. 3 – Massage your feet. Use a small hard ball, like a baseball or lacrosse ball. Some people use tennis balls, but they tend to be too soft. You can try a frozen water bottle or wooden dowel too. Rub from the base of the toes to the back of the heel with as much pressure as you can stand. After massaging, stretch the sole of your foot by bending the toes toward your shin. 4 – Keep moving and stay positive. You will hear all kinds of horror stories about pain and suffering. This doesn’t have to be your experience. It is only a temporary problem with many ways of resolving it, so don’t give up and don’t give in to being told you have to accept it as permanent. There are many medical procedures for helping Plantar Faciitis, however there is also a high percentage of failure too. If you are asking for treatment from your doctor, make sure you follow up any recommendation with your own research and/or a second opinion. Plantar Fasciitis has been recognized as having psychosomatic origins as discussed in “Healing Back Pain”, one of the books written by Dr. John Sarno, M.D. He talks about how our brain creates pain as a distraction to protect us from painful and unwanted emotions. Based on my observations in the massage room, I agree that our emotions have a big impact on our bodies and how we feel. If you have over come or are currently working through Plantar Fasciitis, I would love to hear your story. The other day a client was telling me about her experience with taking a statin drug to control her choloestrol levels. She was having horrible muscle pain and by researching on the internet, she found that her pain might be associated with the drug she was taking. She also learned that statins decrease the amount of CoQ10 in the body, an important antioxidant produced by the body, and can cause increased muscle pain as a result. This pain is usually not helped by taking over-the-counter pain relievers either. In following up with some research of my own, she is right. There are several good articles about the effects of statins and muscle pain is mentioned in all of them. Do your own research and talk to your doctor about your symptoms, your options and if CoQ10 would help.. Here is a good link from the Mayo Clinic about statins, their side effects and CoQ10. Statin side effects Having several clients on cholesterol medications with pain issues, I hope by sharing this information it might help. Our bodily functions have not progressed much beyond our Paleolithic ancestors, but our technology and lifestyles have evolved far beyond our current physiology. If our bodies function better on “caveman” eating habits then why do we think have evolved enough to handle the amount of tension and stress that comes into our lives on a daily basis? One hundred years ago a person processed the amount of information equivalent to a copy of the Wall Street Journal, in their lifetime. Now days it is closer to 13,000 copies and that number is growing daily. The term “information overload” is REAL and it produces stress and tension in our bodies that can become chronic pain. What this means is that most people are in a “flight or fight” mode, everyday, all day long. This includes sleeping hours. In this mode the body is producing high levels of adrenaline and cortisol which contribute to higher heart rates, increased blood pressure and lack of restful sleep patterns. Being in this state causes a hyper-vigilant tension of the tissues and means that muscles are tight, circulation is decreased and waste products are not flushed as they should be. The resulting pain is the body crying out for help. Ever wonder why your stomach is constantly upset or why you can’t remember things? Digestion and brain function are affected by the shutting down of functions not directly related to survival. National Geographic did a great documentary on the effects of stress. You can view it here. So unless you plan on becoming a monk and living in a remote cave, your levels of tension and stress are not going to change. What you can change is recognizing that pain is a symptom of your body asking for help and taking steps to meet your physiological needs. Dr John Sarno has written two good books on Tension Myositis Syndrome and how our bodies cause pain when under stress and tension. I highly recommend checking them out. Another book, “A Headache in the Pelvis” talks about pain as the result of tension and how to deal with it. Basically the recommendation from these sources is to keep moving, recognize the pain as a result of tension and stress, and do self-care. This could be stretching, exercising, yoga, meditation, massage, etc. Just don’t lie in bed and hope it goes away. If you go to a doctor they will most likely prescribe pain medications and studies show a lack of positive results. Become your own best advocate. Research, ask questions, explore possibilities and don’t be afraid to try something. Dr. Sarno educates his patients and has found that the more pain sufferers learn, the better they work with, rather than against their bodies and become pain free. If you are reading this, you are most likely sitting at a computer. Now check in with your body, is there a bit of an ache in your upper neck or a knot at your shoulder blade that never seems to go away? Meet, Levator Scapula! This muscle is only about two fingers wide but causes worlds of pain for a lot of people. It is tucked under the Trapezius, that big diamond shaped muscle on the back. It connects to the upper portion of the shoulder blade and then separates into individual sections that attach to four of the cervical vertebrae. To make things even more interesting, there is a large group of nerves, the brachial plexus that intertwine among the muscle sections. When the muscle gets tight these nerves get pinched sending pain down the arm and into the hand. These nerves also get impinged if you are always looking down at your cell phone or read with your chin on your chest, but that involves the Scalenes which is another story… The Levator Scapula is a popular spot for tension to hang out and cause a lot of trouble. The muscle is used for several things; lifting the shoulder blade toward the ears, moving the shoulder blade down, moving the head laterally side to side, rotating the head and neck and extending the head and neck. Little kids use these muscles all the time when you ask them why they did something and they look at you and shrug while saying, “I don’t know”. When sitting at the desk and using the computer most people have a tendency to shrug the shoulders up, this tenses the Levator Scapula which contributes to that nasty knot that you feel in the upper shoulders. To decrease and help prevent problems with this little trouble maker here are some tips: - Stay hydrated. Always drink plenty of water to keep muscles working fluidly. - Put computer monitors at eye level. - When working on a laptop, make sure your chin is in neutral position. - Monitor body position through out the day, especially when under addition stress. Think of the bones stacked on top of each other and arms should hang comfortably from the sides of the body, not up next to your ears. - Try to avoid having the head turned in any one direction for too long. - Take breaks to stretch and rotate and move head, neck and shoulders throughout the day to keep muscles more relaxed and circulation moving. - GET A MASSAGE! The Sternocleidomastoid, or SCM, is a muscle that connects the skull to the collar bone. If you rotate your head from side to side, you will see that it attaches from behind the ear and runs down the front of the neck and attaches to the clavicle at the front of your neck. This muscle is beefy and strong and keeps pretty busy, so it is no wonder that it is usually tight and causes problems. Many massage clients will put their hand on the back of the neck when complaining about tight neck muscles or tension headache, not realizing that the real culprit is in plain sight, in the front of the neck. Let’s talk about all the things this over-achieving muscle does; moves the head laterally (like holding a phone on your shoulder), rotates the head from side to side , flexes the neck (looking down at your cell phone) and assists with inhalation by helping to lift the rib cage (stress contributes to tension of rib cage). Basically, if you are moving your head, this muscle is being used. So those of you that use phones; hand sets and cell phones, read or work on laptops in bed or do work that requires you to look down a lot are the ones that will come in complaining about your sore neck and sometimes a headache. Unfortunately most massage therapists don’t work this area because it is painful for the client and is awkward to do. Most of the time, the attention is on the muscles at the back of the neck, but when you get off the table, the pain will come back quickly if the real problem isn’t addressed. Here are some ways to prevent and cut down on problems with your neck… When the back of your neck is tight or painful, take a moment and check in with your body posture. What is the distance between your chin and chest? Have you been looking one direction or the other for a period of time such as in conversation or looking out a car window? By keeping your chin the same distance from your chest as it would be if you were lying down, you will help prevent shortening of the SCM. This will help keep muscles on the back of the neck from being pulled, over-worked and unhappy. A simple stretch for the SCM is to lie on your bed and let your head hang over the edge but keep the neck supported by the edge of the bed. Close your mouth to increase the stretch, and turn your head from side to side, slowly. After a day at the office, this will help keep the SCM loose and the neck will be more comfortable. The Sternocleidomastoid is a muscle that is used all the time. By being aware of how you are moving your head, monitoring stress and tension levels and using proper body mechanics, you can help prevent this muscle from being a pain in the neck! |
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