Massage and Bodywork

Massage and Bodywork



In today’s fast paced world, where everyone is running after money
and more money, people often tend to ignore the core and engine that
propels their daily lives. No, it’s not your cellphone, but your very
own body.
So this weekend take some time off for yourself and get to know a
little more on how you can better take care, of the most amazing
invention in the world better known as the the human body.
My Foot
“My Foot“,
in addition to being a famous idiom of the english language is also a
very important part of the body. The Organs of your body have their
sensory touches at the bottom of your foot, if you massage these points
you will find relief from aches and pains. Typically they are shown as
points and arrows to show which organ it connects to. It is indeed
correct since the nerves connected to these organs terminate here. This
is covered in great details in Acupressure studies or textbooks.
Now you know why walking is good, so head out to the park right after
you finishing reading this.

Who Needs a Masseuse
Who Needs a Masseuse when you have Shitasu Self Massage.

The Hand
Just like the feet the hand too contains vital links to the various
organs in the body. Whoever said that holding hands has got to anything
with love, it’s just healthy to do it .

Tags: body, hand, feet, work, hectic, health , you

VISIT LINK

http://www.mothernature.com/Library/Bookshelf/Books/46/22.cfm



BODYWORK: A PHILOSOPHY OF BALANCE
Some other forms of incense burns. Candles
glow. Tinkling, starry music emanates, it seems, from everywhere. You are asked to remove your shoes and jewelry and to lie, fully
clothed, on your back on a well-padded massage and Trager therapist Bonita
Cassel-Beckwith, who practices in the suburbs of Philadelphia. "When you
want to regain this feeling of deep massage. But with a little
practice, you can give yourself an effective massage therapist, co-owner and instructor
at the Somerset School of Massage. "When
you need to relax right now, self-massage your scalp with circular motions. Starting at the
nape of your neck, work your fingers around until you have massaged each
part of your scalp. As you hair and give it a little tug. Work until you've covered
each section of the scalp. [td]
[/td]
[tr][td colspan="2"] A Quick Fix for Chair Jockeys
This massage the
muscles over your shoulder blades for about ten seconds. If you can't do
this comfortably, stop. [/td][/tr] [tr][td colspan="2"]Whole-Body
Self-Massage Try these other easy self-massage therapist at Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs in Ojo
Caliente, New Mexico, and author of The Healing Art of Sports massage routine that you
can do anytime, anywhere. [/td][/tr]
Hand Massage Use
the thumb of one hand to massage the bottom
of your foot with both thumbs, concentrating on the arch area. Then use
the fingers from both hands and, next, both palms to

The vicious cycle taking place inside a lesser trigger point is not
especially difficult to disrupt. The knot may not be all that tightly
contracted in the first place. The accumulation of metabolic wastes is
relatively small compared to a severe trigger point, and fairly easy to
“squish” out with gentle pressure. The neurological dysfunction is not
usually particularly entrenched, and fairly likely to change in response
to minor stimuli. Adhesions are not a factor in trigger points that
haven’t been around for long. And isolated trigger points are much
easier to manage than the large groups of trigger points that are
typical of full-blown myofascial pain syndrome.

Read on for some basic instructions and tips.




Self-massage offers
the best bang for buck of all possible trigger point treatments. It’s
not a magic bullet, but it’s free and it works a lot better than
nothing!


Basic self-massage instructions



For an easy case, literally just a few moments of gentle rubbing can
be enough. For slightly more difficult cases, a day or two of applying
small but frequent doses of rubbing will usually do the trick. An
“investment” of about a half dozen miniature treatments per day, each
consisting of about 20–30 kneading strokes, can dramatically reduce the
pain of the vast majority of trigger points.

Here are a bunch more specific tips …

Rub with what? Rub the trigger point with your
fingertips, thumbs, fist, elbow … whatever feels easiest and most
comfortable to you. Tools are often handy for spots that are harder to
reach.

Rub in what way? For simplicity, either simply
press on the trigger point directly, or apply small kneading strokes,
either circular or back and forth, and don’t worry about the direction
of the muscle fibres. But, if you happen to know the direction of the
muscle fibres — sometimes it’s obvious — then stroke parallel to the
fibres as though you are trying to elongate them. You are
trying to elongate them, after all.

Rub how hard? The intensity of the treatment
should be strong, but easy to live with. On a scale of 10 — where 1 is
painless and 10 is intolerable — please aim for the 5–7 range, and err
on the side of gentle at first.

What should it feel like? Pressure on a muscle
knot should generally be clear and strong and satisfying; it should
have a relieving, welcome quality. This is “good pain.” If you are
wincing or gritting your teeth, you probably need to be more gentle. You
need to be able to relax. See the next section for more information
about how trigger point massage should feel.

What if it backfires? It probably won’t. But
if you experience any negative reaction in the hours after treatment,
simply ease up. In basic therapy, you can always count on trigger points
adapting to stronger pressures over the course of a few days of regular
treatment. If they don’t, either the problem isn’t really trigger
points, or they are worse trigger points than you thought!

Rub where? For basic self-treatment, you can
trust your instincts: rub where it hurts! Do explore for sensitive
spots, but you can limit your exploration to a fairly small area of
muscle tissue around the “epicentre” of your symptoms. So, for instance,
if the top of you shoulder aches, search for trigger points mainly in
the top of your shoulder. You will not necessarily be able to
feel a bump or “knot” in your muscle, so don’t worry too much about
that.

What if the trigger point is not where the pain is?
As you learned earlier in the tutorial, trigger points may generate
symptoms that aren’t where the trigger point is! What’s a beginner to
do? Don’t worry about it too much. Remember, this is basic
trigger point treatment. Bear in mind the possibility of
confusing referred pain, but don’t start worrying about it unless basic
therapy is failing.

Rub how much? Massage each suspected trigger
point for about 30 seconds. This is actually enough for many trigger
points — especially if you think that you have several that all need
attention! Five minutes is roughly the maximum that any trigger point
will need at one time, but there is not really any limit — if rubbing
the trigger point continues to feel good, you should certainly feel free
to keep going.

Rub how often? As long as you aren’t
experiencing any negative reactions, you should massage a key trigger
point at least once per day, and as often as a half dozen times per day.

How do you know it’s working? Getting a trigger
point to “release”



The goal of self-massage for trigger points is to achieve a
“release.” What is trigger point “release” and what does it feel like?
How do you measure success?

Trigger point release, of course, is relaxation of the tightly
contracted sarcomeres that the trigger point is made of, and the
breaking of the vicious cycle that has been keeping them seized up.

Unfortunately, this happy change in state may not be obvious, even
when it occurs! The problem is that the tissue remains generally
polluted with waste metabolites even after a successful release. Release
may actually involve or even require damage to the tissue of
the muscle knots. This means that it will probably still be sensitive to
pressure, even if you’ve succeeded.

For beginners, the way to cope with this problem is to just not worry
about it! Simply trust that you probably achieved a release,
or a partial release, and then wait for the tissue to recover. Over the
next several hours, if you were successful, you will notice a distinct
reduction in symptoms — mission accomplished.


If you released a trigger point, you will notice a
distinct reduction in symptoms over the next several hours — mission
accomplished.

Generally speaking, with easy trigger points, successful release is
associated with “good pain” — that clear, strong and satisfying
sensation that is somehow both painful and yet also relieving. It is
positive in the same sense that throwing up is positive: it’s not
exactly pleasant, and yet your body “knows” that it needs and wants the
pressure. Usually, if you feel “good pain,” a trigger point release is
likely.

On the other hand, if you are wincing or gritting your teeth, you
probably need to be more gentle. Relaxation is an important component of
successful treatment. If you can’t massage the trigger point without
wincing, either you’re being too brutal on yourself, or the trigger
point is simply too severe. Sometimes a trigger point will feel nasty
and hot and burning and still release anyway. But often such a rotten
trigger point will need more advanced treat



http://saveyourself.ca/articles/self-massage.phpV