Team Bear Send-Off Party

Published on May 12, 2008 in AIDS/LifeCycle and Service. 0 Comments

I’ll be there with my massage chair, doing massage for donations to Team Bear. Also, I’ll be raffling off a two-hour massage gift certificate (not a one-hour like it says). Sister Mary Juanita High will be blessing the riders and roadies, too, and we’ll have music - lots of music! Ejector and DJ Agent Adam will both be providing music.

B-Unit is located at 2111 Franklin Street in Oakland at the Bench N Bar.

If you can’t make it, you can donate here.

Improve Your Sleep

Published on April 22, 2008 in Health. 1 Comment

What can you do to improve your sleep? Running up a sleep debt seems to be the way of life for many people, which can lead to mental and physical fatigue.

  1. Have a regular time for sleep. Spend the final hour of your day preparing for sleep. Have a sleep ritual that includes things like brushing your hair and teeth, massaging your feet, hands and shoulders, taking a warm shower, spend a short amount of time reading. These things done nightly will start to prepare the body and mind for sleep.
  2. Prepare a quiet, dark, distraction-free place to sleep. Make the environment in the room where you sleep as relaxing as possible. Quiet is a relative term, of course, as some people like white noise in the background while some like no noise at all. White noise can be the ocean, a fan blowing, the sound of cars on the highway, anything that provides a general regular background sound.
  3. Avoid caffeine at least a few hours before sleep. Even if a person can sleep while stimulated by caffeine, its action on the body is disruptive to the regular cycles of sleep (moving from stage 1 > 2 > 3 > 4 > 3 > 2 > REM > repeat). Each stage of NREM and REM sleep is important to the proper functioning of our body, and moving from the various stages in order allows for sleep to have the most beneficial effects.
  4. Receive regular massage. Massage and other bodywork like Reflexology and energy work like Reiki, have been shown in studies by the Touch Research Institute and other organizations to improve the quality of sleep. The mechanism of this is not fully understood, but some think that massage calms the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) and activates the parasympathetic nervous system (relaxation response), and that the decrease in cortisol levels in the body contributes to better movement through the stages of sleep cycle.
  5. Exercise regularly. Having a regular exercise program, or even doing something like taking a walk for between 30 minutes to an hour a few hours before sleep is not only good for your physical fitness, it also can improve the quality and length of your sleep. Note here that exercising immediately before sleep is not recommended, as the body needs the time to come back from the stimulated state of exercise to properly sleep.
  6. Light evening meal. The lightest meal of the day should be the dinner/supper meal in the evening. Several small meals throughout the day is best, but if you are going to eat three meals a day, then start big and end light. Breakfast should be the largest meal, then lunch, and finally dinner. Our bodies use a tremendous amount of energy in digestion, which distracts us from repairing and resting and processing our brain’s work while we sleep.

As you can see, these things are not just a part of good sleep hygiene, but they are also a good part of a healthy lifestyle.

Make a Commitment to Yourself

Published on April 17, 2008 in Blogroll. 0 Comments

You might be wondering what to do with that tax rebate check or your tax refund. My suggestion to you is that you make a commitment to your health by buying a multi-massage discount pack. Packs are available in 5 or 10 sessions - buy five and save 10% off the individual cost, and buy 10 and save 20 percent! That’s like buying 8 and getting 2 free!

Multi packs are available in 30, 60, 90, 120 minute lengths. And unlike a gym membership where many people will go for a while and then it sits like an albatross ’round the checking account, you’ll actually want to come to the massage table! (Yes, I know, all you gym-lovers, this doesn’t apply to you!)

Commit yourself to improved health and well-being by buying a multi-pack today!

Case Study: “Harold” - Part One

Published on April 6, 2008 in Case Study. 0 Comments

Client is an 81-year old man who woke up in the middle of the night with chest pains. After the doctors determined that he was not having a cardiac episode, they prescribed a bunch of pain meds and muscle relaxants. The meds gave him bad constipation and he lost his appetite and 20 pounds, which on him was far too much weight to lose, so he was keen on finding a non-medical solution to his pain.

He experienced pain and/or limited range of motion in shoulder flexion, abduction, lateral rotation, protraction and retraction. Was unable to upwardly rotate shoulder. Extension, adduction, medial rotation, retraction were within normal limits. After assessing his range of motion, we began the session.

Working on the elderly requires a very deft and gentle touch. Their skin is very fragile and easily torn, and it is important to work to create a comfortable group of positions for them to recline, as their joints are often painful and makes difficult prone or supine positions for very long.

This particular man required trigger point work in his subscapularis and serratus anterior muscles, which have insertions on the anterior surface of his scapula, which means going in through his axilla to access the muscles. Also, his infraspinatus, supraspinatus, levator scapula were all very tight and required work as well. Using very slow, gentle pressure, I was able to get the subscapularus trigger points released, as well as relaxing the posterior rotator cuff muscles and levator scapula.

Recommended a weekly appointment for the next four weeks to continue making progress.

Massage-A-Thon

Published on February 13, 2008 in AIDS/LifeCycle and Massage. 0 Comments

From today until the May 31st, I will be donating $10 for each massage I do! That’s right, you can come and get on my table AND make a donation to my AIDS/LifeCycle fund raising efforts.

So, why not Book Now!  Want to just make a direct donation?  Click here for my ALC Page.

Close
E-mail It