Make Exercise a Dance

Anecdotal, scientific, and observational evidence align at one incontrovertible conclusion, music affects exercise. More than 250 million iPods deliver the beat. If you’ve ever exercised to music you’ve felt its affect. Just sitting in a chair music, tends to make you move. Even mass market science has taken note. Every study done on the subject concurs, exercise is easier to music. Studies have also found:
*Music distracts you from some of the unpleasantness of exercise
*Runners go longer at a higher intensity with a lower perceived rate of exertion
*Athletes listening to music are less stressed, release less cortisol, the stress hormone
*Heart rate and breathing correlates with a tune’s tempo
*Music influences an athlete's mood as well as performance
*Exercise and music commingle to boost short term cognitive skills like verbal fluency
*Body rhythms such as breathing and heart rate tend to take on the rhythms of the music
*Exercise intensity correlates with music intensity, a fast song helps you move faster
*Music stimulates the neocortex and verbal centers of the brain
*Music is motivating

Music turns exercise into a dance.

photo by marksebastian

Self-Massage: Doing It to Music

Music improves athletic performance and will power your massage. Millions of runners, cyclists, and gym rats move better with their ear buds plugged into a tune. Running with an iPod has been shown to improve athletic performance, while reducing perceived exertion, amping enjoyment and upping motivation. As usual scientists are baffled by the phenomenon. The dance between exercise and music touches on biology, psychology, and kinesiology. One theory is that music affects our ability to withstand pain. But a more compelling one is that it distracts our mind and let’s our body do its job. If we let our mind focus on the music and our body just act, we perform better. Or at least that’s the best explanation to date on why, in one study, basketball players who were prone to choking under pressure shot better after listening to upbeat music and lyrics. Most athletes acknowledge music helps them train and perform. While the neocortex helps us do many things, physical activity is not one of them. DIY massage, a powerful form of physical activity, is greatly enhanced by music. So the next time you sit down to massage your quads, neck, or feet do it to music. photo by mark sebastian

Massage Yourself to Sleep

Have trouble falling asleep? Try massaging your body to sleep or, if you wake up during the night, back to sleep. Just choose a single muscle, maybe your delts or pecs on one side of your body and massage the muscle slowly and deliberately as hard or as soft as feels good. Focus an easy attention on how the massage feels until the muscle relaxes. This will serve as a meditation, the only thing to think about is how the massage feels. Pretty soon you’ll become aware that your whole body has relaxed and with any luck, the next thing you’ll know it’s morning.

photo by planetchopstick
Suggested musical accompaniment: Brahms Lullaby

Seated Massage on Tennis Balls

If you want to relieve muscle pain in your butt while giving your upper hamstrings and seat a treat and try this youtube video. This massage may help relieve pain you're experiencing in your lower back or knees. It will also serve to revive you if you feel your energy stores waning or if you need to get your upper leg muscles charged before a run.

This no hands self-massage routine lets you experience sensations you never thought possible. Every active person can benefit from this improbable combination of seated massage and dance. Try it! But before you do locate a couple of tennis balls and your sitz bones.

Sitz bones, or sitting bones, are the bones in your pelvic girdle that help support your body when you sit. If you study anatomy you probably know them as the ischial tuberosity. They’re the lowest of the three big bones that are your pelvis. When you’re sitting up straight you’ll feel one on each side of your seat. To locate them try placing the tennis balls directly beneath them. You’ll know them when you’re sitting on them because they’re the only bony structures in your butt. Don’t massage them but use them as reference points when working the muscles around them.

For a balanced massage synchronize each tennis balls in relationship to its sitting bone so that each ball is just to the outside of its sitz bones, or just in front, or where ever you like just as long as their relative distance from their respective sitz bone is about the same. Ok try it!

Balls on Butt Massage: Do It while You View It

Self-Massage for Massage Therapists

Massage Therapist Jessica Gumkowski
http://www.massageboulder.com/

Why Self-Massage?

You may be wondering why, as a massage therapist, you should practice and promote self-massage. Maybe it’s because self-massage can do things for you that nothing else can. Self-massage can make you a more effective practitioner by improving your body, your practice, and your profession. Of course, all massage therapists use self-massage, if only unconsciously, to relieve minor aches and pains. The intent of this article is to encourage you to go deeper, to receive more.
You already know the benefits of receiving frequent massage: it improves your health and mood, reduces your likelihood of injury, and allows you to become stronger and more active. But if you’re like most practitioners, it’s been a while since you had a massage. Just as the shoemaker goes without a new pair of shoes, the massage therapist too often goes without a massage.
With the possible exception of elite athletes, practitioners have more to gain from receiving massage than any group. Your occupation requires physical exertion and repetitive motion, which often is intense. In many ways your job is similar to that of an athlete’s, you both repeatedly work a specific group of muscles to the point of exhaustion. You both compromise your health with the physical demands you put on your body. As you read this article, you may begin to think of yourself as an athlete of massage.
In many ways, a career in massage therapy is similar to that of an endurance athlete. Both require long hours of daily physical exercise, both are physically and psychically rewarding, both are likely to suffer overuse injuries. Such injuries are inevitable in any physical practice in which the same muscle groups are continually stressed without sufficient recovery.
If practiced regularly, self-massage will allow you to practice massage therapy longer and more effectively while reducing the likelihood of suffering overuse injuries. It will also provide you with a host of unexpected benefits as it becomes one of a handful of powerful massage tools at your fingertips.

GENERAL BENEFITS
Self-massage, like massage therapy, benefits all those who receive it. As a practitioner, self-massage will do even more for your well-being than it will for most people. Your health and mood will enjoy an even bigger boost than most people’s because yours are at greater risk as a result of your profession. Self-massage will reduce the risk of injury for everyone. But it will provide you a greater benefit than most because, as an athlete, you’re more prone to injuries. While self-massage is convenient for non practitioners, it is even more accessible to you because you already have the knowledge to deliver the goods. And while everyone can learn about their body from self-massage, you’ll learn more because you’re already more in touch with the human body.

Health
As a healthcare provider, you must work especially hard to maintain your own health. Not only are you an example to clients and friends, but your health is at greater risk than most people. It’s at greater risk because of the physical stress you put on your body, particularly your upper body, and because you deal with clients who are often ill and sometimes contagious, though they rarely admit it. So your immune system needs to be stronger than most people’s.
According to clinical studies conducted by Tiffany Field at the Touch Research Institute, massage strengthens the immune system when it is received at least twice a week for thirty minutes. With more frequent massage, it is likely that the immune system will be strengthened even more. Self-massage is one way to strengthen your immune system as often as you like.

Mood
As a massage therapist your mood needs to be better than most. You often see people at their worst, under stress from illness or injury. They’re likely to be depressed and that may negatively affect your spirit. According to clinical studies, again, conducted by Tiffany Field at the Touch Research Institute, massage reduces stress, anxiety, and depression when it is received at least twice a week for thirty minutes. Thus, massage is likely to improve your mood. With more frequent massage it is likely that your mood will improve even more. Self-massage is an easy way to boost your mood as often as needed.

Muscle Soreness
Everyone gets sore muscles but, as an athlete, your muscles get sorer than most because of their continual use. In seeking to relieve your client’s muscle pain and soreness you often take on muscle soreness. As you know, massage is an effective way to treat sore stiff muscles. With self-massage, you can relieve sore stiff muscles easily, anytime you need to.

Injuries
As a massage therapist, you’re subject to injuries at a rate similar to that of other endurance athletes. Wouldn’t it be nice if you had a way to prevent those injuries or to at least catch them when they’re small? Self-massage is an effective way to do just that. Not only will it help you recover more quickly after a hard day of massaging others; working on your own body forces you to focus your attention on small problems before they become large ones. You will use your own hands to improve circulation and stretch your own muscle fiber so that you will be less prone to injury.

Immediacy
Other important features of self-massage are immediacy, accessibility, and convenience. Like anyone else, massage therapists can’t always get to another practitioner when they need a massage. Time, money, location, and practitioner availability may all be limiting factors. Practice self-massage and these problems disappear. Of course, it is a good idea to schedule a weekly session with a colleague, and if you could do it daily that would be better still. But most practitioners are lucky if they exchange massages with a colleague more than once a month.

Self-Knowledge
Everyone needs to know their own body. Athletes who depend more on their bodies have a greater need than most people. With self-massage, you are likely to gain a better understanding of your own body, its strengths and its weaknesses. Self-massage is a form of self exploration. Among other benefits, knowledge of your body will enable you to better control your energy level and your ability to relax.

Special Skills
As a massage therapist, you possess special knowledge and experience that make self-massage even more beneficial for you than it is in the hands of the general public. You have a knowledge of anatomy that most people don’t possess. You have a highly developed sense of touch. You are comfortable with massage, its theories and ideas, and you believe in its efficacy. You know the techniques and have been trained to feel the human body and understand what it is telling you. Because you know the language of medicine, you are better able to consult with other medical professionals when needed. In your hands, self-massage truly is massage therapy.

Performance
With improved health and mood, and with fewer injuries, is there any doubt that your performance as a massage therapist will be better? If these were the only benefits of self-massage, they would be sufficient reason to practice it regularly. But there are more, so many more.

EXCLUSIVE BENEFITS
The aforementioned benefits of self-massage apply to everyone, although they’re arguably more relevant to practitioners. Improved health and mood, reduced muscle pain and soreness, injury prevention, improved energy and physical performance are all benefits that everyone, not just massage therapists, can enjoy.
The following benefits of self-massage apply almost exclusively to practitioners. They involve using your body as a canvas to help perfect your practice, developing a better understanding of the differences between assisted massage and self-massage, preventing burnout, teaching self-massage to your clients, and, minimizing overuse injuries suffered as a result of practicing massage therapy.

Self-Experimentation
While helping you feel better, self-massage gives you an opportunity to hone your skills and develop new routines to help your clients. By using your body as an experimental canvas, you can try new techniques. You’ll get new inspiration and ideas by using yourself as a test model, and if they make you feel good, they will make your clients feel good. Self-experimentation is good practice, and one of the bases of homeopathic medicine. Wouldn’t it be just if more healthcare professionals experienced the effects of receiving the therapies, medicines, and treatments they provide, and often inflict on, others?

Teaching It
You may be surprised by how much you will benefit from teaching self-massage to your clients. While not everyone is a candidate, some clients will want to learn self-massage. Practicing self-massage will help you teach them to effectively use it.
Teaching clients the basics of self-massage will extend your reach beyond your office and into the homes of your clients. By empowering them, you will become a more effective practitioner. Self-massage lets you become a co-creator with your clients and will give them a greater appreciation of all you bring to the table.
Taking five to ten minutes at the end of a session to teach an interested client a few strokes that he or she can use to feel better at home will be appreciated. While the benefits of self-massage are not age dependent, you may find that self-massage is of greater benefit to your older clients. It’s been observed that older people are less likely to be touched by another person.
Just as you may give your clients stretching and strengthening exercises to practice at home, you may give them self-massage exercises. Through practicing self-massage yourself, you will be better able to tailor those exercises to your clients’ needs and abilities, and you will be better able to design your massage sessions to cover what self-massage cannot.
Some massage therapists worry that teaching self-massage will hurt their practice by reducing their clients’ need for massage therapy. While that may be true; it may also improve their practice by allowing them to concentrate on what their clients cannot do for themselves. By so doing they will be putting their good where it will do the most.

The Toothbrush
The relationship between massage therapy and self-massage may be compared to that between dentistry and home brushing. It wasn’t until after World War II that most Americans began regularly brushing their teeth. During the war, soldiers were required to brush, and they continued the practice after they left the service. At the time, some dentists feared that brushing would hurt the practice of dentistry. In fact, home care has helped the practice of dentistry by making Americans more aware of oral hygiene and the importance of good dental care. As a result, dentistry has flourished, and the American mouth has never been healthier.
While self-care is an important part of dental care, dentistry is more than that. And while self-care is an important part of massage, massage therapy is more than that. If it were not, there would be no sense in practicing massage therapy; just as there would be no sense in practicing dentistry if it could all be done with a toothbrush. By forming a collaborative relationship with patients, dentists have prospered as has the health of their patients’ mouths. Dentists have generally encouraged their clientele to become responsible for their own healthcare. Contrast this behavior with that of medical doctors, who have generally encouraged their patients to become dependent on drugs and surgery to cure their health problems. Is it any wonder that we’re facing a healthcare crisis in this country?

Important Differences
There is value in understanding the significant differences between massage therapy and self-massage. Practicing self-massage will show you first hand what they are. It will allow you to identify the unique benefits you can bring to clients. Practicing self-massage will help you understand how you can better treat your client’s issues in collaboration with your clients.
Practicing self-massage will not only show you what self-massage can effectively be used for; it also reveals what self-massage cannot be used for. For example, practicing self-massage may show you that it’s not effective for deep tissue work, nor is it a particularly effective way to relax. Practicing self-massage may demonstrate the disadvantages of working on yourself and highlight the benefits of a collaborative relationship with a skilled professional. You may also learn how ineffective self-massage is for dealing with certain injuries and illnesses.

Burnout
Self-massage may help prevent you from burning out. The burnout rate is believed to be high among massage therapists, although there is no reliable measure of how high. According to massagetherapycareers.com, more than 50,000 massage therapists leave the profession annually.
Burnout is a severe mental, physical, or emotional fatigue usually caused by stress. Self-massage may reduce the likelihood of burnout in a couple of ways. First, massage has been shown to reduce stress when received at least twice per week. Because stress is one of the primary causes of burnout, self-massage is an effective way to prevent it. Second, and perhaps more important, self-massage is a simple way of renewing and reinforcing through physical experience the benefits of massage and the effectiveness of massage therapy. By regularly experiencing self-massage, you’ll feel the benefits of your own hands which will remind you of the good your touch brings to your patients.

Learning It
There aren’t many things, maybe just two, a massage therapist must learn to practice self-massage. You already know the strokes, the techniques, the science, and the art of massage therapy. All you have to learn is to let your hands communicate directly with your own body. Self-massage is a self-contained empirical sensory experience. As such, it doesn’t necessarily matter what you’ve learned from text books and instructors, what matters most is how it feels to you. You know how effective your therapy is with your clients, and you believe in the power of your own hands. Now you just have to apply your touch to your own well-being.

The Sport
Marathon runners stress their lower bodies; massage therapists stress their upper bodies; shoulders, arms, elbows, wrists, and hands. Because you’re on your feet all day, your lower body gets a workout as well. Given the physical demands of the practice, it’s a wonder that the average massage therapist lasts more than a year.
Most practitioners, though, want to spend their life in the profession. Thinking of yourself as an athlete will help you do that by allowing you to connect with the ideas and literature that have developed to help athletes train and stay healthy in their sports. Optimum Muscle Performance and Recovery by Edmund Burke and Serious Training for Endurance Athletes by Rob Sleamaker are two good places to start.
Massage therapists like all endurance athletes are subject to overuse injuries, also known as repetitive motion injuries. As the name implies, these injuries are the result of overusing a particular part of the body, a muscle, or a joint. Practicing massage therapy places a unique set of physical stressors on your body. Think of delivering massage as a form of exercise. Like all exercise, massage if properly performed will strengthen the muscles being stressed, but only if they are allowed to sufficiently recover. Exercise itself weakens muscles, it’s only in the period after you exercise, if your muscles are allowed to rest, that they can recover and grow stronger. This process is known as adaptation.
Most athletes know that to get stronger they must allow their muscles to recover after hard workouts. If you work with athletes, you already know that massage speeds recovery. It therefore makes sense to apply massage to your own muscles after a tough day of exercising them at work.
When applying self-massage, a practitioner should use different strokes, techniques, and intensities than those she applies to her clients, so that she does not further overuse the very muscles she is helping to recover.
Most massage therapists find self-massage especially effective on their neck, thumbs, hands, and forearms.
Most practitioners, enjoy their work and wish to continue practicing indefinitely. Most massage therapists know colleagues though, who after practicing only a few years may be physically unable to continue. By paying attention to your body’s needs you will avoid the injuries that most practitioners suffer.

For Every Body
Massage therapy is a far more effective medicine than most Americans realize. Most people are unaware of the very real benefits of massage therapy. In theory, an ill or injured person should first see the least invasive medical practitioner who is likely to resolve their problem. In some cases that person is a massage therapist. Because of consumer ignorance, health insurance bias, and a healthcare system that values cost over efficacy, they don’t. Making the public more aware of self-massage may be an effective way to introduce the medical benefits of massage therapy to the average person. Self-massage serves as a good introduction to massage therapy because it is accessible to everyone. Wider use of self-massage is likely to increase the use of professional massage therapy for medical purposes. As John F. Kennedy observed, “A high tide raises all boats in the harbor.”

In Summary
Self-massage is good for you, your practice, and your profession. Here are some of the ways you can benefit from self-massage. First, practicing self-massage will improve your health and mood. Second, it will help you prevent and treat overuse injuries. Third, practicing self-massage will decrease your likelihood of suffering burnout. Fourth, by using your body as an experimental canvas, self-massage will enable you to discover new techniques and routines to further help your clients. Fifth, teaching your clients self-massage will empower you to improve their well being beyond your physical reach. And finally, self-massage will make massage more popular and point more people toward your practice for professional medical care.

FAQ: About YoMaMa

What is YoMaMa?
YoMaMa is the union of yoga and massage, actually self-massage. By incorporating a massage tool as a yoga prop, your yoga students receive the benefits of massage and yoga. YoMaMa brings a new awareness to an ancient practice.

Who practices YoMaMa?
People who want to experience yoga and their bodies in an exciting new way.

Why Combine yoga and massage?
Merging yoga and massage delivers a deeper physical experience and a healthier practice. The combination of benefits will empower old students and attract new practitioners to your mats.

What are the advantages of YoMaMa?
Your students will receive all the benefits they’d normally get from yoga plus many of the most salubrious perks of massage, including:

• Relief from muscle pain and soreness
• Improved health and mood
• Increased energy
• Reduced likelihood of injury
• Improved knowledge of your physical nature
• Improved athletic performance and fitness
• Faster recovery time between workouts
• Reduced muscle tension and stress
• A trigger point release to your entire back body and feet

To learn more about the benefits of self-massage, see Chapter 2 of Self-Massage for Athletes, a book that serves as a resource for YoMaMa practitioners.

Does YoMaMa provide any other benefits?
In addition to the long term benefits of a yoga practice, YoMaMa packs a sensational short term benefit, an immediate sense of physical well-being. This benefit is measured by how much better practitioners feel leaving the class than entering it. Your students will walk out of class feeling as if they’ve experienced a full body massage and a yoga practice.

Is YoMaMa a form of therapy?
YoMaMa heals the body, mind, and spirit in a new immediate way by mating two of the oldest therapies in the world.

What form does it take?
YoMaMa is both a preventive and a remedial therapy. All active people sustain tiny injuries, of which they are largely unaware. Because yoga and massage can both prevent those injuries from growing, they are excellent preventive therapies.

How does YoMaMa work as a remedial therapy?
The goal of preventive and remedial therapies is similar. Both therapies prevent a medical problem from growing larger, while allowing the injury to heal. Preventive medicine corrects a problem before you’re aware of it. Remedial medicine is a post awareness therapy. As such, both yoga and self-massage help you stay healthy and become healthier.

How much class time will the massage component take?
As little as ten minutes or as much time as you like. The massage component is time well spent because it delivers benefits that would otherwise only be available through a massage therapy session.

Why is it called YoMaMa?
The practice is named YoMaMa because it combines one part traditional
yoga with two kinds of massage. The first massage component is the implicit massage that is traditionally part of yoga but is rarely noticed. For instance, in a seated pose when weight is brought to bear on your glute muscles and the muscles are moved they’re massaged. Many yoga asanas impart an implicit massage to your internal organs, especially twisting poses. The second massage component in YoMaMa is explicit and is delivered by a yoga prop or massage tool.

What does the massage tool look like?
The massage tool looks like a big blue “S,” standing for Super Yoga. It’s molded from a durable polymer composite and measures twenty inches long by ten inches wide, and weighs two pounds. At each end of the “S” is a small ball or knob which serves as a powerful massage tool. In fact, the entire prop can be used for massage. The serpentine piece between the knobs can glide over and compress muscles, to improve circulation and energy.

How does the tool work?
You can use the massage tool much as you’d use any other yoga prop to assist in asanas. The tool also gives you the power to deliver a complete back body massage in about ten minutes. Lying supine, your body will naturally relax letting you release trigger points and neuromuscular tension while restoring balance and energy. You’ll feel an intense and immediate release and will leave class feeling a sense of well-being bordering on euphoria. Students will attend yoga classes more often and bring friends to experience the wow effect of YoMaMa. Teachers will find their classes grow in size and will have to schedule more private sessions as more people are attracted to this new style of yoga.

How can I use the massage tool?
Lie on your back and allow your body to relax onto the yoga mat. Then place the end of the tool under your back body. Allow gravity to press your muscles onto the knob. The pressure releases muscle tension, stress, and trigger points while promoting chi balance. Then by moving the knob along the muscles in your back body a couple of inches at a time, first on one side of your body and then on the other, you’ll gradually massage points along your entire back body releasing waves of tension and stress. YoMaMa puts the power of massage directly in your hands.

How about my feet?
You can massage them using the little knob at the end of the tool. This too provokes a powerful release of energy. YoMaMa gives you the benefits of a foot massage without the costs.

When can the massage tool be used in class?
It may be used anytime but it should be used at least twice, once to massage your lower back body and feet, and a second time right before shavasana to massage your upper back body from your head to your glutes, along your erector spinae muscles, and the muscles around your scapula.

Can the tool be used at other times during class?
Yes the massage tool can be incorporated into yoga asanas just like other yoga props at your discretion. For instance, when balancing on one leg and extending the other leg straight-out in front of you, the tool can be used to both massage the foot of your extended leg, and support it. By pressing the knob into different points on your foot, you’ll get an intense foot massage and yoga stretch. The tool can also deliver a potent glute massage by balancing on one leg while folding the other leg on top of your knee and pressing the knob into your glutes. YoMaMa delivers an exciting new dimension to the physical experience of yoga.

Is the massage tool easy to use?
It’s easy to learn, and simple to use. Any yoga teacher trained as a YoMaMa instructor can lead you through the massage component effortlessly. YoMaMa is extremely easy to teach. If you teach yoga and are interested in teaching YoMaMa,contact us.

What does it cost?
You can get it online for between $30 and $40, and by delivering a constellation of massage benefits, it pays for itself in no time. So it’s cheap if you use it and expensive if you don’t.

Where can I get it?
The tool, called the Backnobber II is made by the Pressure Positive Company, can be purchased at their website www.pressurepositive.com or at Amazon. You can also use the Thera Cane® or Body Back Buddy™ massage tools.

Why teach YoMaMa?
It’ll attract more students to your yoga classes and private sessions because it provides a new and exciting experience for everyone. You’ll feel improvement in your own body and see it in your students. YoMaMa delivers the goods to students and teachers. For more information on YoMaMa contact Rich.

Thumbs Up or Down

Check out my latest YouTube video: Balls On Quads Massage: Do It While You View It. It's fun action. The intent of the video is not to teach you anything but to help you to feel something, to help you feel better when you finish than when you started. If it does that it has succeeded, if not it has failed. Give it a try let me know how it does.

IT Band Self-Massage

Massaging your iliotibial bands can be a big help if you run, cycle, or are experiencing pain in your knees.
The IT band lives on the lateral portion of your thigh and runs from just below your knee to your pelvis. It’s made of tough connective tissue and muscle. The muscle is in the middle.
When it’s working right your IT band stabilizes your hip and knee. When it’s not working right you might experience pain along the outer portion of your knee. IT band syndrome is the overuse injury often suffered by runners and sometimes cyclists.
Massage can help. To help you give it a try I've posted a youtube video: IT Band Massage Quickie: Do It while You View It. I'm planning to post a couple more, a longer version with massage tools and another with the IT band stretched a little.
Another IT band massage video I like is this one by Art Riggs. If you're experiencing problems in your legs and you think it might be related to your IT bands this video is worth watching. And finally this one by Massagenerd is also worth checking out.

Quadriceps Massage

If you've got quads, you'll benefit from massaging them. But this massage is particularly helpful if you run (especially up hills), cycle, ski, board, play soccer, practice karate, squat, or jump rope.

Your quadriceps are a muscle group made up of four distinct muscles which live in the front of your thigh. The four muscles are rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, and vastus intermedius. But you can call them all Bob. They're probably the strongest leanest muscles in your body. They straighten your knee when getting up from a seat, walking, running, cycling or any other activity that requires you to straighten your leg. So if your knees are a problem, the problem may be in your quads. Massage them regularly and your knee may feel better, but your quads definitely will. Try it: Quad Massage: Do It while You View It.

Naked Aerobic Foot Massage

Clothing is not at option. Check out this new youtube video Naked Aerobic Foot Massage: Do It while You View It. It's intended to be a workout and foot massage, but mostly a workout. You can do it at your desk in about 2 minutes. And it really can get aerobic. Try ten reps with a minute recovery. This video is meant to be part of a series of aerobic foot massage videos. I posted the first of the series, Aerobic Foot Massage, in June. Clothing was optional in that one. Hope you like them.

Therapeutic Foot Massage and Exercise

I hope you'll try my new foot massage video, Foot Massage with 2 Tennis Balls: Do It while You View It, for foot therapy and a workout. I used it to treat my neuroma and cramping in my feet. The cramping in my feet had been a problem my whole life. The neuroma had been bothering me on and off for a few years but grew much worse in the last six months. And now both problems are gone. In addition to its therapeutic value, this video can be a pretty good workout. Do it fast, hard, and often. It'll give you an aerobic workout at your desk and get the circulation going in your feet no matter how cold your office gets.

Chest Pec Self-Massage

Since being hit by a car in July, I've been unable to run and have been doing lots of swimming and more weight lifting. As a result my pecs were sore so I came up with this chest massage YouTube video. It's done me some good, hope it does you some. Try it out Chest Pec Massage: Do It while You View It. Let me know what you think.

photo by Mylor

Hamstring Massage

Want healthier, happier, younger, snappier, more articulate hamstrings? Check out the latest youtube video Hamstring Massage: Do It while You View It. A tennis ball, a backnobbber II, and your own hands are all you need. Actually all you need are your hands but the other stuff is nice. Give it a try and let me know what you think.




photo by ijiwar jimbo creative commons license

Foot Health and Self-Massage

Four million years for the human foot to evolve, 200 years for modern shoes to undo it.

Your feet are highly evolved complex instruments. Each foot contains 26 bones, 33 joints, and 20 muscles. Most of the major muscles live in the soles of your feet along with more than 200,000 nerve endings. These are among the richest concentrations of sensory neurons in your body. Their purpose is to transmit information to the rest of you, especially your legs. They thrive on sensation, without it they die.

Modern Shoes
Your shoes act as sensory deprivation chambers for your feet. Sensory deprivation has been shown to be harmful, sometimes deadly. Want to drive someone crazy? Deprive them of sensory input. Want to damage your body? Deprive it of sensory stimulation. That’s what shoes, in part, do to your feet.

Information Transfer
Our feet, as evidenced by their large supply of nerve endings, are designed to transmit information about our environment. Without shoes, our feet tell us when they hit the ground so our legs can absorb the impact. Because of the cushioned shoes we wear our feet don’t get the message and neither do our legs so neither can do their job. Our whole body pays the price, especially our legs. For more on this check out this article You Walk Wrong.

To some extent your body compensates for this lack of sensory feedback by getting used to the shoes in question and calculating the correct response to each step you take. To make the calculation easier, it makes sense to wear shoes with little cushioning and be consistent in the shoes you wear.

Massage
Bare foot walking provides a massage for your feet as they directly touch a rich and varied terrain. Shoes prevent your feet from getting the daily massage they need. Unless you’re walking around barefoot, you need another way to get your feet the sensory stimulation they must have to remain healthy.

A handy way to deliver the sensory information your body needs is massage, and the handiest way to massage your feet may not be with your hands but with your balls, tennis balls that is. Just put them under your feet and run with them. You should be seated when you try it. Here, take a look at this foot massage video and give your feet a treat.

Recommendation
Keep a couple of tennis balls under your desk, and from time to time kick off your shoes and roll your feet over your tennis balls. Your whole body will thank you for it.

Trigger Point Yoga

Admit it, you go to yoga for one reason and one reason only because it makes you feel better. For you, better might mean healthier, stronger, more flexible, or happier. Adding massage to your yoga practice will make you feel even better. How much better? For some it’s the difference between a firefly and a fire. Here’s why:

Massage and yoga are two different ways to stretch your muscles and two different ways to release trigger points. Trigger points are those nasty little knots that form in muscles day and night. If your body is to feel its best, you must continually release them. Yoga and massage release different types of trigger points.

If you weren’t aware that yoga asanas release trigger points, you’re not alone. Few yoga practitioners are aware of this hidden benefit. Fewer still are aware that trigger points are continually forming in their muscles. The more active you are the more trigger points you’re likely to have. Every time your muscles are overworked trigger points grow.

One reason you practice yoga is because of a need, albeit unconscious, to release trigger points. In part, it’s that release that gives you a sense of pleasure and pain. But yoga doesn’t release all of your trigger points. Some trigger points are resistant to yoga and release only when direct pressure is applied to the muscle, by pressing on it with a finger or a massage tool. The best way to eliminate trigger points is a combination of pressing and stretching your muscles which is what trigger point yoga is all about.

What’s a trigger point?
Think of a trigger point as a knot of muscle fibers. It serves as a defense mechanism when your muscles are injured, over worked, or weakened in some way. The tiny strands that make up your muscles contract into a hard knot. Imagine an injured muscle as being like a scared turtle receding into its shell. It’s a good defensive strategy but not good for getting any work done. Trigger point therapy is a way of getting your muscle to come out of its shell so it can get back to doing its job.

If the trigger point is not released your muscle will remain weakened. Other muscles will be recruited to do its job and they too will be compromised as they try to make up for your slacker muscle. In a weakened state, they’re more likely to get injured and form trigger points of their own, until your entire muscle group looses strength and range of motion.

This loss usually happens gradually over a long period of time so its not noticeable. Your loss of strength and range of motion will be blamed on the usual suspects: old age and arthritis. You will become less and less active and eventually your body will give up and you’ll take drugs to ease the pain. That too will happen over a long period of time so you’ll accept it as part of the natural aging process. Don’t!

What Types?
There are two types of trigger points, active and latent. The active ones emit pain on their own so you are aware you have one. The latent ones are sneakier and only emit pain when pressed. Latent trigger points are much more common. Both types reduce muscle function and can be resolved in the same way. Unless they’re released they will continue to weaken your muscular system and burn excess energy doing so.

Pressing it is stretching it
When trigger points are pressed they hurt. If they continue to be pressed the pain will give way to gain, and disappear like a fist when you open your hand.

Go
If you want to leave the yoga room feeling much better than when you entered it, add a touch of trigger point massage to your yoga practice. Click here to learn more about trigger point yoga.

above photo by Neeta Lind

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Neck massage is one of the kindest things you can do for your body. I just posted a new neck massage video that I've been working on for the last few weeks. Working on this video, experimenting with different neck massage routines, was one of the most pleasant things I've done in the name of work in a long time. If you don't want to spend hours, days, and weeks looking for the best neck massage of all time just click and follow along: Neck Massage: Do It while You View It.
Thanks and let me know what you think.