Massage Warsaw- Massage Therapy – Warsaw Acupuncture

Author: Admin

  • The Situation in Alberta

    We might forget how lucky we are with the state of massage therapy in Ontario.  We are provincially regulated with one college and one massage therapists association.  There is one required minimum of training hours and one set of practical exams.  The homogeneity of the industry is a real plus.  We know that when we are treated by an RMT that there is a minimum level of competency and adherence to regulations.  Because of this, there is no risk that receipts won’t be honoured by insurance companies or that your RMT won’t have liability insurance.

    Alberta is going through some growing pains on the road to regulation.  Here is an interesting article of some of the challenges they are facing.  There is more than one association with more than one set of requirements.  Some associations require only a few hundred hours of training, while others follow the Ontario example of 2200 hours.  Needless to say that as some of the province becomes regulated, some masseuses will suddenly find that they are not licensed to bill as a massage therapist.  There is an example of a masseuse that has worked for over 10 years in the industry but with almost no education.  She is facing losing a lot of business as much of her clientele likely chooses to go to a therapist that is licensed and eligible for insurance coverage.  It is a difficult situation that could be remedied with enrollment in a course, but by the look of it, she doesn’t plan to pursue that course.  She did of course, have a choice long go.  There are 3 associations, two require the 2200 hour standard, while the third has no standards.  It should come as no surprise that enrollment in the third association has five times the membership.  Choosing the easiest option is human nature, so is complaining about the “unfairness” when you realise you made the wrong choice.

     

  • Get Rid Of Neck and Shoulder Pain With These Exercises

    The lower trapezius muscle helps to pull the shoulder blades back and down.  It directly counteracts the pulling of the pectoralis minor muscle, which tries to pull the shoulder blades forward into a slouch.  Unfortunately, we are usually stronger in our pectoralis minor chest muscle than we are in our lower trapezius back muscle, resulting in shoulders that are pulled forward.  This forward shoulder posture gives us chronic neck and shoulder pain by putting the shoulder muscles in a state of constant tension as they are always being pulled and stretched.

    Strengthening the lower trapezius muscle can bring a balance to the shoulders and leave them in a more neutral, ergonomically efficient position.  Here are some exercises that can help:

     

    The second video does not have any sound, so pay close attention.  This exercise is perfect for those of you that have a gym membership.  If not, a theraband can be all you need.

    1. Do the exercise slowly
    2. The thumb should be pointed towards the ceiling at the beginning and behind you at the end position.
    3. Start with the shoulder shrugged forward, then pull the shoulder blade back.
    4. Do not over extend the shoulder to the point of feeling any pinching or sharp pain.
    5. Use only a small amount of weight/resistance.  Form is the most important thing here.  If you feel you are cheating to do the reps, take some weight off.

     

  • Body Scan Images of Two People: One is 120 lbs, and the Other is 250 lbs

    The picture is pretty surprising and gives insight into obesity.  You may notice that the skeletons are roughly the same size.  Believe it or not, our skeletons do not gain or lose very much mass depending on our weight.  You might also notice that the muscle mass even though slightly larger on the obese subject is roughly the same size as that of the average person.  The bulk of the size difference is adipose tissue or fat.  The digestive system of the obese subject is more than twice the size of the normal subject’s.  The same is true for the heart.  Pumping so much extra blood to feed the 100 lbs of excess fat tissue and enlarged digestive system puts a real strain on the heart and can lead to many problems.

     

    http://i.imgur.com/KLZ8N.png

  • The Benefits of Yoga

    Yoga can be key to helping you recover from an injury, undo years of bad postural habits, or relieve your stress.

    Like few other exercises, yoga has the ability to get you focussing on breath, willing chronically tight muscles to loosen.  It creates a mind body awareness of how you are positioned and starts a dialogue between you and your body that will help you find physical cues of rising stress levels and enact change simply by thinking about it.

    This enhanced state relaxation is key to getting muscles to release.  One reason tight muscles stay tight is because of the pain-tension cycle.  Often there is nothing wrong with the muscle.  There is no damage, but the muscle simply won’t release because it is painful which is causing tightness, which causes more pain, which causes more tightness.  By destressing the person, focussing on the breathing, and entering certain positions, the pain-tension cycle can be broken and the muscle may find it easier to release.

    The positioning in yoga is unique and shows an ancient understanding of modern concepts such as anatomy trains.  Anatomy trains was pioneered by Tom Myers.  It shows that there are chains of fascial connections that link many muscles from the feet all the way to the head.  Basically, the fascia fascia on the soles of the feet is connected to the fascia of your calf muscles, which is connected to the fascia of your hamstrings, which is connected to the fascia of your glutes, which is connected to the fascia of the back’s erector muscles, which is connected to the fascia of the neck and head.  The advantage of yoga over traditional stretching is that traditional stretching focusses on stretching the fascia of one muscle at a time, while yoga stretches all the fascia of all the muscles in a given anatomy train at once.  This means that if a fascial restriction in your foot is leading to tightness in your lower back, yoga helps to address it.

    The yoga poses are also helpful because they are the opposite of the harmful postures we assume most of the day.  Daily work in front of your computer may cause you to slouch.  Yoga asks you to assume the opposite posture: chest open, shoulders back, head tall.  Daily work may have you sticking your gut out, while yoga asks you to suck in your belly and elongate your lower back while you tuck in your glutes.  By reversing the postures you can change what your body sees as normal and give your body time to repair itself.

    Yoga works.  Why not give it a try?

  • Yoga For Better Posture

    Even if you have had horrible posture for most of your life, you can still change it by taking the right steps today.  Yoga can be a valuable tool in correcting a long career of bad posture.  The following video shows a simple exercise that strengthens all of your erector muscles (the muscles that run beside your spine), interscapular muscles (the muscles that pull your shoulder blades together), and your lower trapezius muscles.  Strengthening these muscles can result in a straighter, stronger back, and a reduced slouch.

  • Gluteus Medius Exercises to help IT Band Pain

    The gluteus medius muscle is located in the upper part of the glutes, just below the hip bone (iliac crest).  The gluteus medius muscle is very important in stabilizing our hips during exercise or sport.  It is weak in most people and this weakness can be a major source of problems in the lower back, SI joints and IT band.  Running or jogging can reveal long hidden weakness in this muscle, but you don’t have to be an athlete to have gluteus medius problems.  Because simply standing, walking, or sitting requires participation of the gluteus muscle, clients that lead mostly sedentary lifestyles often develop weakness here that leads to different pain syndromes.

    Here is an interesting article and another explaining the importance of the gluteus medius muscle as well as some exercises to help strengthen it.