Massage Warsaw- Massage Therapy – Warsaw Acupuncture

Year: 2009

  • How Much Anatomy Does a Massage Therapist Know?

    The lights are dimmed down low, the music is playing softly and you are being slowly lulled off to sleep by the massage until you feel a pain very similar to the pain you were complaining about.  You wonder how the RMT was able to find “the spot” and ask what it is.  The RMT answers back with some Latin words you have never heard of before and you ask yourself why it seems that all RMT’s speak Latin as a second language.  Surely they can’t all be Romanian….

    In Ontario Canada, all RMT’s complete 2 or 3 years of education where we learn a great deal of anatomy and palpations.  To illustrate what some of the classes are like, here is an interesting video about palpations or the art of knowing what muscle, bone, ligament or tendon you are on simply from feeling.  It is made by Functional Anatomic Palpation Systems to advertise some of their seminars on palpations offered to RMT’s. It might help you understand how RMT’s are so fluent in latin. You can find out more about their seminars at http://www.functionalanatomyseminars.com/

  • Research: Acupuncture & Headaches

    Here is a selection of research on the effectiveness of acupuncture in treating headaches.

    In a 2005 randomized trial, Linde et al studied the effects of acupuncture, sham acupuncture and a control on 302 patients with migraine headaches. The study found the acupuncture and sham acupuncture produced a greater reduction in moderate to severe headaches.

    A study by Hansen & Hansen in 1985 showed that classical Chinese acupuncture was more effective than the sham acupuncture placebo in relieving headaches.

    A study by Vincent in 1989 found that acupuncture was more effective than the sham acupuncture placebo in treating chronic migraine headaches.

    A systematic review by Melchart et al in 2001 included, among others, 16 trials comparing acupuncture to sham acupuncture. The review found that true acupuncture was reported to be significantly superior to sham acupuncture.

  • Wedding Weekend

    Hi everyone, you’re probably going to assume that I am always on vacation after this one, but I will be off this weekend after I see a few clients this morning. I will be back to work on Monday. My lovely cousin Gina is getting married in Ottawa this weekend and I can’t miss the opportunity for some good old Trinidadian fruit cake. Have a great weekend.

  • 'Tis the Season

    For massage therapists, Christmas usually comes pretty early…. about 4 months early. After business slows to a crawl in the summer, September usually brings a pretty sharp spike in business. It seems that every year as soon as the weather starts to cool a bit there is a flood of new clients looking for a massage. It’s different from the “slip and fall season” of the winter, the ” gardening back pain season” of the spring, or the “weekend warrior season” of the summer. This busy season is different in that it has nothing to do with physical activity or accidents and everything to do with insurance.

    Most people with full time jobs have extended health care benefits as part of their salary. The average person has a pool of about $500 that can be used to pay for massage therapy. These benefits can be used and drawn upon until the end of the year, at which time they expire and the balance is magically reset to $500. This means that if you don’t use your benefits in the current period, you basically lose it… all $500 of it. This is otherwise known as the “use it or lose it” system, and September is the time of year when the heavens open up, light bulbs go off and people suddenly realise that they only have 4 months left to get approximately 6 massages otherwise it’s money out the window. This is not exactly the most worrisome predicament in the world and I am sure you will somehow find a way to work through it. Remember to first check with your insurance provider to find out the details of your policy. Specifically you need to know how much is covered in total, how much is covered per visit, and what paperwork (usually a doctor’s note) is required in order to qualify for benefits.

    The beauty of the September insurance rush is the opportunities it brings to change your life. Simply dedicating some time regularly to caring about your health can open many doors to you. During their first massage, people often become aware of what is happening to their bodies as a result of the habits of their lifestyle. From this first glance, many become regular massage addicts, yoga students and gym members. This is the perfect season to start down that path of developing healthy habits that could help you live a longer, healthier, happier life.

  • Not as bad as I thought

    As soon as my shift was done, I jumped on the computer to see the damage.  I would’ve loved to have seen it live, but work called.  Luckily enough, Global TV keeps all their news broadcasts online for a month after airing, so if you would like to catch a glimpse of my brush with fame, check out Global TV’s Website. You will need to click on “Family Health” on the left navigation bar, then click on the video clip for “Detox Diets”.

    You might have trouble finding me.  The video crew came and shot for an hour.  They boiled the raw footage down to a 2:30 segment, and in that, you might be able to see yours truly (the “bald by choice” guy in the black tshirt) for about 10 seconds… just long enough for me to say “flush” (which my friend Amanda finds hilarious).  I was pretty happy that my part got whittled down so much.  Half the time I was talking to the camera I found myself wondering what the heck I was saying. From all the footage we shot, you can see me drinking a glass of water, saying that I lost 8 pounds, and saying “flush!”  Hardly a long career in superstardom… drink water, lose 8 pounds, flush, drink water, lose 8 pounds, flush.  no matter how many times I replayed it, I don’t get it.  I did, however, correctly predict that the box would steal the show.  You can see the box in the opening shot with the anchor people.  I am sure that the box got at least 1 second more air time than me.

    I can’t imagine I will receive a ton of business from the exercise, but that isn’t important.  I think that in this business, the money is secondary.  None of us became RMT’s in order to get rich.  We did it to do a job that we loved.  And the experience was just a lot of fun and a great change of pace.   My name was mentioned (though no mention of my being an RMT).   But most importantly, I get to start every conversation for the next week with “Did you see me on TV the other night?”

    Oh, and as a plus, I emailed the good people at Renew Life and they were so pleased that they offered to mail me some more cleanses to try out.  I will let you know how that develops.

    In the meantime, let me know if you need any celebrities or entertainment at your next event.  And, yes, I do barmitzvahs.

  • The Longest Wait

    Yesterday’s attempt at free publicity is already behind me, but now that the cameras are put away and the lights aren’t glaring in my eyes anymore, I find myself anxious to see how it turned out.  The cast and crew were at my clinic for about an hour and probably put together a minute and a half segment for the news tonight.  The question is what parts will they show for the minute and a half ?  (btw, that’s roughly one tenth the minimum personal allowance according to Andy Warhol, which doesn’t seem quite fair.  It seems that there are way too many people out there that are getting far more of their allotment than they should.  Don’t I deserve at least the full 15 minutes?).  There was the interview which would have been wonderful if it weren’t for my 10 pound swollen tongue which mangled my words and the super slidey sofa which had me slouching and crouching like one of the hobbits from The Lord of the Rings (My Precious…).  Followed by about 4 or 5 shots of me pretending to pop some detox pills and wash them down with water (You won’t believe how technically difficult it can be to take pills).  And then about 10 minutes of still video footage of the Cleanse Smart Detox Box.  So, out of my interview, my taking pills or the footage of the box I’m guessing that the box is going to grab the spotlight away from me.  It is certainly the more photogenic of the two of us.  It didn’t flub its lines.  And it had a lovely colour scheme (I’m not sure how the white balance works on Asians such as myself.  If the camera wasn’t a Sony, I’d probably call it a racist).  But anyway, the show won’t air until 6PM tonight on Global, so I won’t know how much of a leotard I was until then.  For now, I am just stuck imagining the outcome and alternately calling up people telling them to watch the news or stay away from their TV sets.   All this for some free publicity.