MASSAGE WEEK

Ahhhhhhh

By Terry Orr

Everybody Deserves a Massage Week, July 14-20, 2013

Every year massage therapists and body workers nationwide lend their hearts and hands to raise awareness of the benefits of massage, bodywork, and somatic therapies.

There are various types of massage techniques and each has its own identified benefits of addressing stress, pain or it just simply enhance general well being. There are around 80 Massage therapy styles. Out of these 80, here under are the considered Top Ten Massage Techniques:

1. Swedish Massage - Swedish Massage or popularly known as classic massage is usually done using the hands, elbows and forearms to manipulate the superficial layers of the muscles. This kind of therapy can shorten recovery from muscular strain by eliminating uric acid, lactic acid and other metabolic waste by increasing the level of oxygen in the blood.

2. Sports Massage therapy - This is the ideal and famous massage therapy for athletes but is accordingly suitable for anyone who is undergoing chronic injury or pain or range of motion problems. It is a good or right choice if one has a specific problem sustained through sport – because this massage can improve circulation of lymph and blood fluids that allows optimum metabolic exchange.

3. Deep Tissue Massage – This kind of massage therapy style directly targets the deeper layers of connective and muscle tissue. The therapist usually employs slower frictions techniques or strokes to ease in and out of the muscle. It is required that before employing the therapy, muscles must be relaxed in order to effectively perform deep tissue massage.

4. Indian Head Massage – This is a type of Massage technique is popular in India and is said to be good at relieving insomnia, headaches, migraine, tension, sinusitis and stress. The treatment includes the use of deep kneading and compression movements over the head and other related parts of the head.

5. Reflexology Massage – This is otherwise known as zone therapy which is based on the concept that there are reflex areas in the feet and hands that corresponds to specific glands, specific organs, and other parts of the body. This massage therapy involves the manipulation of specific reflex areas in the hands, foot and ears that correspond to other parts of the body. Pressure is usually being applied to the so called reflex zones to stimulate body organs and relieve areas of congestion.

6. Shiatsu – This massage technique was developed and originated in Japan. It is accomplished by utilizing finger pressure technique on a particular traditional acupuncture points. It works similarly with acupressure by unblocking the flow of life energy and rejuvenates balance in the organs and meridians in order to ensure self-healing.

7. Hot Stone Massage –This type of massage therapy is accomplished by placing smooth stones on certain point of the body to warm, loosen tight muscles and balance the energy centers in the body. Hot stone massage is a good choice for people who have muscle tension but prefers light massage.

8. Neuromuscular Massage – This kind of massage therapy works to reduce muscle pain by stimulating circulation of blood that goes to the nervous system. This kind of treatment involves using static pressure on a particular area called a trigger point but it does not involve the massage of the whole body.

9. Pregnancy Massage – This kind of muscle technique works similarly with Swedish massage but is usually carried out with the mother on her side using pillows to position her body at her most comfortable position. It is employed to ease some of the discomforts that are associated with pregnancy such as swelling of muscles, legs and joint aches or reduced normal circulation of blood.

10. Aromatherapy Massage – The muscle therapy is accomplished by using essential oils (extracted from flowers, herbs, woods, resin and roots) in the body and in the skin. Each of this oil has unique benefits and features. The oils are use for therapeutic reasons and not just for fragrance. Scented oils are applied directly to the body depending on the need.

[http://massagetissue.hubpages.com/hub/The-top-10-Massage-Therapy-Styles-and-its-Benefits ]

So do yourself a favor a get a nice massage this week and every week!!

http://balancedbeingtherapies.com

[Photos from Google] 

Got a Hobby?

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By Diane Forrest

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When my husband became injured and was no longer able to work, he became very anxious.  He loved his job, and the interaction with his customers, and being home alone was a big change for him.  With nothing to do beside watch TV, he became bored.  I had read about a football player who began to knit during the off season, so I suggested that my husband take up some sort of hobby.  I knew he would be unable to knit, I couldn't teach him, since I didn’t know how, but I did know how to do latch hook.  That was something I would do while I was in my dorm room at school.  So I got him a kit, and got him started, but that activity was not for him.  He did like to do the painting by numbers, but his leg spams made that activity difficult.  Then he discovered baking.  He would make the most wonderful brownies and Italian Cream Cakes every week.  He would bring them to the hospital where I worked and share them with my coworkers.   He was happy for a while, until I was eating all the results of his hobby and told him he might want to learn how to do something else.  He got some birds, and enjoyed training them how to talk, but the mess they made became too much for him to clean.  Then we moved to a new house, and our next door neighbor taught him how to do woodworking.  He would beam when he finished making a wooden bowl and present it to a friend.  Many fortunate people have a project he made for them, and still treasure them today.

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When he passed away, I found myself needing something to occupy my time, so I began baking, only I didn’t eat my hobby, instead I sent it to friends and family and let them enjoy it.  Then I began to make cards.  I could never find a card that said what I was feeling, so I thought, why not make my own.  I love finding just the right picture, and lace and ribbons to place on them to make each one special and unique. I have even done a few wedding invitations party invitations and all occasion cards.

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A hobby is defined as an activity that is regularly undertaken for pleasure, typically during one's leisure time. Some examples include sports, crafts, collections and games.  Some of Terry's hobbies include Genealogy, playing cards, reading, watching sports and playing golf, and feeding/watching the birds.  And lately home remodeling. I still enjoy baking and making cards, and also love to play cards or other games.  This month is national hobby month.  If you don’t have a hobby you enjoy, why not find something you think you would like to do, and begin working on it.  Not only is it a great stress reliever, you may find that you could turn it into a lucrative business such as photography, woodworking, making stained glass or picture frames, baking cakes or painting.

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What are some of your hobbies?   
Leave a comment and let us know.

Exercise with your Children Week

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By Terry Orr

You want healthy kids?

Want them to exercise?

Want them involved in outdoor and indoor activities?

Want them involved in sports?

Want them to learn to play well with others?

Want them to learn how to deal with losing a game and feel good about it?

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The answer is simple and the execution can be challenging at best.

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Get involved, participate and lead by example.

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From a parent, grandparent, relative and friend perspective – I fully understand and appreciate how difficult it is in the fast paced global environment – but the cost of not finding a way is simply too great (now and in the future).

Stephen R. Covey
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As the late Stephen R. Covey of “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” wrote and talked about, the key is BALANCE.  Establishing priorities and doing the Right Thing.

Links:

http://www.eatright.org/kids/article.aspx?id=6442469404

http://familyfitness.about.com/od/motivation/tp/exercise_with_children.htm

Family Golf Month

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By Terry Orr

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What is Golf?

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players (or golfers) use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes. Golf is defined, in the rules of golf, as "playing a ball with a club from the teeing ground into the hole by a stroke or successive strokes in accordance with the Rules."

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It is one of the few ball games that does not require a standardized playing area. Instead, the game is played on a "course", generally consisting of an arranged progression of either 9 or 18 "holes". Each hole on the course must contain a "tee box" and a "putting green" with the actual hole, and there are various other standardized forms of terrain in between such as the fairway, rough, and hazards, but each hole on a course and indeed among virtually all courses is unique in its specific layout and arrangement.

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Golfing can be one of the best spots and most frustrating!

My sister and I fortunate to each have sons who are professional golfers.  Her son, Randy travel’s the PGA tour selling golf equipment and my son Warren teaches golf and helps run a Pro shop in Seattle.  Pretty cool!  She spent years helping young golfers through Junior Golf.

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Family golf is a wonderful way to opportunity to share and enjoy memories and outings and something the entire family can do for years.  So go ahead, take a vacation to one of the many family friendly golf resorts and have a blast!

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Links:

http://pdf.pgalinks.com/p-g-a/family_clinic_bp.pdf

http://thefamilygolfchallenge.com/

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Eye Safety

Sports and Home Eye Safety Month

In continuing with our theme over the past couple of months of Safety, we highlight Sports and Home Eye Safety in September.  From personal and firsthand experience this topic should be near the top for everyone.

Think Safety First!

It is estimated that 100,000 Americans suffer eye-related injuries from sports activities each year.

What sports are most likely to be associated with eye injuries?

Basketball leads the list for the sports injuries in this country. Really, most of them occur from basketball and baseball—they make up about a third of all sports injuries in this country. This is followed by swimming and pool sports; and then racket sports and court sports; and then football, soccer, and golf. Now most of the injuries in these sports are caused by getting poked in the eye by a finger, because larger balls like basketballs really don’t fit into the eye socket. But smaller balls like racket balls and golf balls do fit into the eye socket and really give a lot of force directly to the globe. Golf balls, especially, because of their high velocity, cause just devastating eye injuries.

What kind of eye injuries do you see in people who do not wear protective eyewear while playing in sporting activities?

We see sporting injuries involving just about all parts of the eye, and often times people have a scratch on the cornea—and this can occur really from relatively minor trauma to the eye. And these are really painful but they tend to do well with appropriate treatment. But if you have a little more forceful blow to the eye, you’ll tend to get bleeding in the back of the eye or the front of the eye, or a cataract or retinal detachment, or even fractures of the bones—or even worse is a direct rupture of the eye.

If someone is hit in the eye but their eye doesn’t hurt, does that mean that everything will be OK?

Unfortunately, no. It’s a common misconception because anyone whose had a significant blow to the eye really should have an urgent evaluation of the eye. And this is because some minor injuries can be quite painful, but really some potentially blinding injuries are painless.

What should a person do if they get an injury to their eye while playing sports?

First is you really don’t want to touch, rub, or press on the eye because this can cause further damage—especially if the eye has any kind of an opening in it. You’d like to cover the eye up to minimize further damage, and sometimes if you don’t have a protective shield, you can just use either a paper or Styrofoam™ cup and tape it over the eye. If the vision is blurred, you really should get in to see somebody urgently. If you felt something hit the eye with any more than a minor force—either hitting your eye or your eyelids, even if the vision’s normal—you should get a thorough examination to look for silent but potentially blinding injuries to the eye like retinal tears or injuries that predispose to glaucoma. It’s OK to triage damage to go to an emergency room, but if you really need a more thorough examination to look for more subtle or severe damage, you really need to have this by an ophthalmologist or optometrist.

How easy is it to prevent eye injuries?

That’s the awesome thing, it’s really very easy. We know that about 90 percent of sports-related eye injuries can be prevented by wearing appropriate protective eyewear. And most of these lenses in this eyewear are made out of polycarbonate, which is an incredibly strong and clear plastic. But the recommendations for the type of protection really vary according to the sport. So, for example, if you have a relatively low-risk sport, such as singles tennis, a sturdy street-wear frame is really adequate protection. But if you have high-risk sport like ice hockey, a helmet and full facial protection is really recommended. And you really need to have these things fit by somebody who knows what they’re doing: an eye care professional who’s knowledgeable in sports eye wear. And I’d really recommend you ask around for a good one before spending the money.

Who needs to wear protective eye-wear?

Ideally, everyone should wear it, but the people that it’s most important for are functionally one-eyed athletes. And by functionally one-eyed, I mean somebody whose visual acuity, despite wearing glasses, can’t be corrected to better than 20/40 in their poorer-seeing eye. If a functionally one-eyed person has an injury to their better seeing eye, it really is a life changing event.

For example, in many states that person could no longer get a driver’s license to drive. Also, there are people who’ve had prior damage to their eye that are especially vulnerable to injury. Or people who are moderately or severely near-sighted because they have about a 10 times greater chance for developing things like retinal detachments following eye trauma if you compare them to a person who is not near-sighted.

And then lastly, another group that’s at high risk for sports injury is children. And this is because children really engage in sports in a fairly fearless manner and they’re also athletically immature so they’re pretty susceptible to sports injuries. And there are several good studies that show that eye injuries are markedly reduced in baseball and hockey youth leagues that have mandated appropriate protective eye-wear.

Do protective lenses hamper athletic performance?

There is a misconception of that and it’s probably the most common excuse for people not wearing protective lenses is that they think they’re not going to do as well. However, these lenses have been designed differently and really are very sports-specific. And there are multiple studies out now that show that properly fitted protective lenses do not impair sports performance. (University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics)  http://www.uihealthcare.com/kxic/2007/september/eyesafety.html

Some of the Home Eye Safety items to remember this time of year are working out in your yard, picking up branches, leaves; trimming and pruning are all excellent examples of working where eye safety is critical.  While those leaf blower work wonders, they also kick up a dust and debris and often find your face and eyes – been there and done that and have learned the hard way to wear my safety glasses while doing those activities.

As adults we also need to set the example for your children – make sure that the kids are wearing protective gear as well – each and every time.

Sparky has it right!