Massage Warsaw- Massage Therapy – Warsaw Acupuncture

Year: 2009

  • Oops, I did it again

    So, that’s now twice that I slipped up on Saturday.  A new low.  This cleanse business is becoming more of a “cleanse with benefits” the way things are going.  Thank goodness I’m not a nutritionist, otherwise I’d have to seriously consider looking for a new line of work.  Luckily I’m just a humble RMT whose failings on the diet front have no reflection on his skills at massage.  Whew…

    Last night’s indiscretion was mostly my fault, but I think the menu was partly to blame.  How can anyone resist such a deliciously worded menu?  The menu in question belonged to “Real Thailand” on Bloor west of Spadina.  It did not disappoint.  A real Thai restaurant, owned by real  Thai people, serving real Thai dishes.  The menu went far beyond the red/green/orange curry or the chicken/beef in ginger and had my mouth watering just reading about the mussel, king fish and shrimp soup.  So, in yet another moment of weakness, I broke down and had a fantastic dinner.  Weakness can be so yummy.

  • Cleansing Can be Tough Business

    After the initial stumble (Norwegian caviar, English chocolates…. things are tough for an RMT), I was on a bit of a roll for a while.  Nothing passed through these teeth unless it was vegetarian, gluten free and non dairy.  That is until today when a client brought in, for little ‘ol me, home cooked shrimp in an onion & tomato sauce over a bed of quinoa.  Absolutely yummy.  A little bit of a guilty pleasure, but not too much as I figure that shrimp is gluten free, dairy free and such a great, light little seafood that it’s practically vegetarian as well.  I’m starting to think that the best part of the cleansing has got to be the cheating.  And can I help but cheat when the universe seems to be conspiring to keep me well fed?

    The real reason why I cleanse, though, is for the health benefits.  Right away when I start a cleanse, my digestive system kicks into high gear and feels much more at ease.  After about a week I notice an increase in my energy levels and clarity of mind.  Also, food starts to taste better as if my taste buds have heightened senses.  And, one of my favourite side effects is that by the end of 2 or 3 weeks of cleansing, I am usually about 5 or 10 pounds lighter.  Miraculously, most of the weight seems to be from the midsection, which I am perfectly OK with.

    So, I’m back on my cleanse again and it’ll be a bit tricky as this weekend is Taste of the Danforth, so basically as soon as I walk out my front door, I am greeted by ferris wheels, amusement park rides and the smell of souvlaki, lamb and gyros.  The Taste of the Danforth is a meat lover’s paradise, but definitely not a good place for me this weekend.

  • It’s Cleansing Time Again

     

    As I said in my last post, I was in Montreal on the weekend.  It was a great time, but all the rich food, alcohol and unhealthy living took its toll on me.  By the time I got back to Toronto, I felt a bit of a physical mess; my digestive system not quite feeling right.  A great reminder to lay off the red meat binges, the ice cream cravings, and of course social lubricants (alcohol, thou art a cruel mistress).  I was feeling in such a state that I had decided that it was finally time to go on a cleanse again.  (I am no expert on cleanses, and if any of you are, feel free to send me an email if you would like to write a guest post on the subject).  But I thought it would be interesting to let you know how my cleanse is going for me strictly for interest sake.  Again, I am no expert on dietary measures and my situation is in no means the same as yours.  If you are considering a cleanse, please consult an MD or naturopathic doctor first.

    The cleanse I am doing is called Cleanse Smart and is produced by Renew Life.  It consists of 2 bottles of pills.  Bottle #1 is for an organ detox and bottle #2 is a colon cleanse.  The simplest part of the cleanse is taking the pills.  I take 2 organ detox pills in the morning and 2 colon cleanse pills at night.  Both times you must have an empty stomach.  And this is as easy as the cleanse will get.  The tricky part is the diet.  To really do a cleanse, you have to take all the junk out of your diet.  So, for the next while I will be eating like a monk.  Though I get the feeling that there are sects of monks that eat better than I will be.  After all, wasn’t champagne invented by French monks?  Now, if I was going to dedicate myself to religion, I’d definitely want to hook up with the partying monk variety.  But no, I will not be living off of a monkish champagne diet.  Instead, I won’t be taking any meat (red meat, white meat, pink meat, fish meat (Dr. Seuss… anyone, anyone?), steak, hamburgers, pork chops, sushi are all taboo for the next few days), any wheat products (no bread, pasta, couscous… not even a lousy cracker), any alcohol (beer, beer, beer or beer), any instant food (pizza pockets), any dairy (pizza pockets) or anything I might enjoy but might be vaguely suspicious of its questionable nutritional value (pizza pockets).

    My first hurdle was timing.  I arrived back from Montreal and promptly took the first set of pills muttering “never again” to myself as I washed them down with a glass of water (quite the ventriloquist act if you’ve ever seen me do this) and went to bed.  I woke up the next morning and washed down the second set of pills and looked around for some brekkie.  Well, my cupboards were practically bare, but also, there was nothing I had that I could consume as part of my cleanse diet.  Those cans of tuna? No.  The carton of eggs? No.  The breakfast sausages?  No.  Some toast?  No.  So, while I had food, I had nothing I was allowed to eat.  If there was nothing I could eat, then I would eat nothing.  No problem. I’ll just have to last a while until I’m done work so that I can go out and buy some veggies.  I was actually doing ok until a client arrived with a thank you present of Norwegian caviar and cookies from Starbucks.  Hmmmmmmmmm.  It would be rude to refuse…. I had just started the cleanse and I’m sure I had bits of the weekend still floating around in me, meaning that I was hardly clean yet and these dirty little cookies wouldn’t reaaaaallly be hurting me.  And so yes, only 12 hours into the cleanse and I was devouring cookies then crackers and caviar like I had just seen food for the first time.  I should add in my defense that the caviar was out of this world.

    Today, the second day of the cleanse, I ran down to China Town East and picked up a cornucopia of  Chinese greens, tofu, and fruit.  So I am now set to weather the storm.  I figure I can nibble on this mixed with some brown rice and be satisfied for a good while.  I was feeling proud of myself after going into work with a  stomach full of nutritious goodies until I had my second client who was so happy with how much better she was feeling since she started treatment that she brought me in a little care package of Cadbury’s chocolates as well as a goody bag of Quality Street chocolates.  Now, normally I can withstand any assault of Cadbury’s or Quality Street, but today I was defenseless, because not only were they chocolate (my favourite food group of them all), but they were from England.  Bloody ‘ell!  I should explain that Cadbury’s and Quality Street are chocolatiers as old as jolly old England itself and the chocolate they make there is superior and in a completely different hemisphere as the “chocolates” made in Canada under license from Cadbury’s and Quality Street.  (It should also be noted that one of the first real stumbling blocks that the European Union had in hammering out its framework was in the legislature over chocolate.  England was at risk of not being able to call its chocolate “chocolate” as it had a higher cocoa butter content that the rest of Europe.  There was a passionate, heated battle in European parliament, that somehow ended with me having pure chocolate gold in my hands on this day).  If you ever have the chance to try the real thing, go for it, you won’t regret it.  (well, except that you might now never really enjoy another chocolate again).

    Long story short (it’s a relative thing…. believe me, when I start on chocolate, it takes a lot to stop me), I greatly enjoyed a taste of England tonight.  I hope my cleanse forgives me.  I will try to be a better, truer cleanser tomorrow.  Amen. (Oh and if the 2 clients that led me into temptation are reading this….. Thank you.  The caviar, cookies and chocolate were absolutely delicious and well worth every morsel of guilt)

  • How to Travel Without Low Back Pain

    The weekend road trip to Montreal seemed like such a great idea until 500km later when I stepped out of the car and found my entire low back in spasm. I almost couldn’t straighten up and was starting to walk with a limp.  Oh how I was almost tempted to go into some downward dog yoga poses right there in the parking lot in order to relieve the pain.  Luckily I didn’t have to resort to that.  Just walking it off a bit and moving around loosened it up.  But it did remind me of a common complaint from my clients and also a condition I lived with for a few years.  Most importantly, it inspired me to write a blog post to help out all those summer travelers.

    One big reason why people start to suffer from low back pain on long car rides is inactivity.  Our bodies are not meant to be immobile for hours on end.  Our muscles need to move about, contract and stretch in order to remain functional.  Inactivity decreases blood circulation, waste removal and nerve conduction to the muscles resulting in muscles that are irritated and sore.

    If immobility is the cause of pain, then surely some motion must be the cure.  From suffering years of low back pain, I developed these exercises that always did the trick for me on car or plane rides.  Try some of these on your next journey and you will see the improvement.

    Tips for Preventing Back Pain

    • Stop frequently.  You can take a breath of fresh air, enjoy the scenery, grab a snack, etc, etc.  But most importantly, you are stretching out those muscles and moving them in a natural fashion and boosting blood circulation.
    • Keep hydrated.
    • If you’re stuck in a car seat, wiggle a little.  Crank up the tunes and start jiggling!  It’s good for your health!  You might not be inspired enough to break out into a full blown fist pumping dance session, but some slow gentle motion can greatly help you stay loose. Here’s how:

    Mobilize Your Lower Back

    1. Start by raising your left hip then lower it.  Then raise your right hip then lower it.
    2. Then try twisting your left hip forward then back, followed by the right.
    3. Arch your lower back so that your bum sticks out a bit more.  Next round your lower back.

    Exercise Your Gluteal Muscles

    1. Now you can start working your gluteal muscles.  First of all, you want to squeeze both glutes together.  If you do this right you might feel yourself lift off the seat a bit.
    2. Next try squeezing just the left gluteal muscles.  It might help to push your left foot into the floor at the same time almost as if you are trying to raise that left hip off the seat.  Now try the right and alternate back and forth.
    3. If you are feeling especially adventurous, turn the volume up to 11 and just dance without any shame.

    Safety First

    1. A few things to remember for safety sake:  To avoid accidents it is not recommended to do these exercises if you are driving.  To avoid being locked up, try these moves by yourself first so that you feel comfortable enough doing them in a way that doesn’t attract too much attention in public (the key is slow, small movements).

    It might seem a bit strange at first, but with some practise it will become second nature on those long trips.  And by the way, I did these exercises on the ride back from Montreal and was amazed at how I felt no traces of back pain when I stepped out of the car in Toronto.

    If you find the pain too intense or long lasting, you might need a massage or acupuncture treatment.

  • Holiday Hours

    I will be taking Saturday July 31 to Monday August 3 as a holiday to rest up for a bit.  I look forward to seeing you next week Tuesday August 4.  Cheers.  Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

  • What is fascia?

    What is fascia?  If you’ve ever cooked chicken, you’ve probably noticed it. The thin, transparent, filmy material that covers the chicken meat.  Our muscles are covered in fascia.  Fascia covers every muscle and keeps the muscle together.  Fascia covers and protects every single muscle bundle or fascicle that makes up the muscle.  Fascia also covers every single muscle fibre or muscle cell that makes up the bundle,  It is like the framework or scaffolding that the muscle operates within.  Fascia holds and supports the muscle together giving it shape, form and function.  It also helps the muscles slide over each other with less friction.  The body is made up of over 600 muscles that layer over each other and criss cross each other.  Each muscle needs to slide over, under or beside its surrounding muscles without interference in order to function properly.

    Fascia has a few interesting properties too.

    • It is pound for pound stronger than steel.  In other words, unless you know how to treat it correctly it can and will be very difficult to get it to release.
    • Fascia is also the material that makes up tendons and ligaments.
    • It is not contractile.  That is, it doesn’t contract or relax the way a muscle does.
    • It can shrink or expand but we have little control over that.  It also seems to be emotional.  In times of emotional stress, fascia contracts and tightens around the muscle it is trying to protect.
    • When a muscle is hurt, as in a car accident or athletic injury, the muscle and fascia often tears.  This tear eventually heals the same way that a skin cut can heal.  However, the same way that the skin can be left with a thick, inflexible, sensitive scar, the muscle and fascia can also scar.

    The last point is why fascial work can be so important to healing sports injuries and traumatic injuries.  An inflexible scar in a muscle can do a few things:

    • It can remain short, tight and inflexible causing pain whenever the muscle tries to stretch to its full strength.  You might even notice a sharp almost tearing feeling when you try to stretch.
    • The scar can become adhesed or glued to the fascia of surrounding muscles.  This acts as a monkey wrench in the system.  None of the muscles that are adhesed can function pain free in their normal ranges with this.  For example, if a scar forms between your quads and your adductor/groin muscles you might notice that you don’t have the same strength or flexibility with either quad exercises or adductor exercises.  The reason is that those muscles are essentially glued together and pulling on each other each time you use them.

    So now we know that fascia is everywhere; it’s stronger than steel; it can scar; it can become glued to other muscles.  And for many people, it is the key to solving chronic pain from old injuries. I’ll have posts in the future about how I can treat fascial restricitons with active fascial release, rolfing, myofascial release technique and acupuncture.