Massage Warsaw- Massage Therapy – Warsaw Acupuncture

Category: Massage Student & Therapist Resources

  • Working as a Massage Therapist in Guatemala

    Odds are that at some point in your life, you have stumbled upon a place that seemed perfect, representing some version of paradise.  Perhaps it was the climate, the sea, the ocean, or the people that you met, but the place inspired in you a longing to linger.  San Pedro de Laguna, Guatemala sits on the shores of the magnificent crater lake, Lago de Atitlan which is ringed by 3 volcanoes. The lake is a striking azure against a perpetually cloudless sky.  Sitting atop an extinct volcano, the area offers almost unobstructed 360 degree panoramic views of sunsets.  The population is mostly indigenous, and their native dress is a technicolour explosion of indigo, purple and red.  San Pedro has been slowing down travellers for decades and has developed a sizeable community of expats who have all decided this is the one place in the world they want to stay. San Pedro is special in that not only are there a plethora of reasons to stay here, there are also many ways to stay here.  Many foreigners have successfully opened hotels, restaurants, cafes, bars, and spas.  San Pedro has also become a holistic centre in Guatemala, hosting a few spas and therapists that offer massage, steam, sauna, and other natural remedies.

    I had the good fortune of meeting Tami, an Israeli massage therapist living and working in San Pedro. She had been travelling and living overseas for 25 years.  You could safely say that she has wanderlust.  Tami was happily travelling the world when a friend invited her to spend Christmas in San Pedro.  For her, the mountains, lake, and work/life balance seemed ideal.  The expat community was also ideally suited to her.  She felt like she could be herself here, and quickly lost the desire to leave and discover the next destination.  She has been here ever since.

     

    The intersection near Tami’s clinic. Her sign is the yellow one. To find her, just ask around. Everyone knows her.

     

    Tami’s practice is located off one of the main pedestrian alleys.  At the intersection there is a cluster of restaurants and cafes and a yellow sign  pointing to Tami’s clinic.  A one minute walk down an alley leads to her clinic. Tami’s clinic offers Swedish massage, hot stone massage, reflexology, and healing with crystals.  She also teaches all these techniques in multi-day workshops.  Once you get to San Pedro, she is pretty easy to find, as everybody knows everybody.  To make arrangements ahead of time, you can visit her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tami-Massage-and-reflexology-in-san-pedro/176674989104195 or call her at 4225-7121.

     

    Sign for Tami’s Clinic

     

    The market in San Pedro is primarily made up of travellers who spend only a few days in town.  Serving transient customers changed the nature of her work.  Back home in Israel, she could easily arrange clients to follow a treatment plan of 10 weekly that would target and treat their ailments.  It was simple to build up a repeat client base and achieve results.  In San Pedro, the majority of customers are travellers that are only there for a solitary dose of pampering or therapy before leaving for the next town.  In these single treatments it is difficult to achieve real, lasting results.  However, sometimes, travellers are physically in such dire straits that they don’t have a choice but to stay and get regular treatments over a couple of weeks.

    Tami is fortunate enough to own her home where she runs her practice. Property ownership can be one of the trickiest parts of the equation.  Neighbouring El Salvador allows a maximum 49% ownership of real estate or business, meaning that foreigners can never have a controlling interest in their business.  Other countries, like Thailand, do not allow foreigners to own any real estate.  Ownership there means marrying a local or having trustworthy local business associates that have exclusive legal title to the business.  Luckily, Guatemala has more attractive laws which allow foreigners to own land and property outright without citizenship, residency or local investors.  Business permits are also fairly straightforward to acquire.  When you open a business in Guatemala, it is all legally yours.

    San Pedro offers a great combination of a developed expat community, a steady flow of tourists, favourable real estate and business ownership laws, but most importantly a beautiful, friendly, culturally fascinating place to live.  There are many other ideal locales around the world waiting to be discovered by you.  Keeps your eyes open, you never know when you will discover your new home.

  • 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.

     

  • 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

  • How to Cure Flat Feet

    Here is an excellent video explaining how the medial arch of the foot works and then illustrating how that affects proper gait.

    The arch of the foot is supported by muscles and ligaments and over time can start to fall as we age.  Some people have had flat feet their whole lives.  Most people will look to orthotics to support their flat feet or low arches, but a passive support like an orthotic arch does not go after the key problem: weak foot muscles and poor gait.  Strengthening these foot muscles can help to rebuild that arch without the aid of lazy footwear.  This may take a year or two to accomplish, but the benefits will last a lifetime.

     

    The following videos show a few exercises for strengthening the medial arch of your foot:

    The following video shows you the towel scrunching exercise to strengthen the general intrinsic muscles of the feet.  You might find it more challenging if instead of simply contracting and relaxing, you try to scrunch ALL of the towel into a ball

     

    It is also important to strengthen some of your calf muscles.  The tibialis posterior and tibialis anterior muscles do the bulk of the work lifting your arch.  Strengthening them will help to support the arch.  As an added bonus, these exercises will also help with ankle stability issues.  This video shows how to strengthen the tibialis posterior muscle:

     

    There are some good videos on strengthening the tibialis anterior muscle on this post.

  • You Need More Sleep

    You Need More Sleep

  • The Bodyworlds Plastination Process

    If you’ve ever wondered how in the world they make those incredible displays at Bodyworlds, have a look at this: