Support Group for Healthy Living
Muscle Health Matters: Aging Gracefully with Pain-Free Vitality
Our women* clients requested a Facebook support group to help motivate and further educated lifestyle changes. We have also opened it to women in our community who are interested in muscle health.
Use this link to request membership:
Group: Muscle Health Matters: Aging Gracefully with Pain-Free Vitality
https://www.facebook.com/groups/243469556199740/?ref=bookmarks
If enough interest is shown, we will create a healthy lifestyle online support group for our men clients. Healthy lifestyle support in our office is available to all
of our medical massage clients. This helps them understand how to help their bodies stay pain-free for lasting relief.
Common Self-Care Topic of Interest
Active Isolated Stretching & Strengthening
http://www.stretchingusa.com/aboutAIS.cfm
Example video from a continuing education class where Aaron Mattis is teaching stretches for the chest muscles (Pectoralis Major and Minor).
Insights into chronic pain in soft tissue:
What is Fascia? How does it contribute to chronic pain? It's a common question because it's a common problem that can cause pain, neuropathy, and joint damage.
At Restored by Touch, we use gentle techniques to target every layer of soft tissue. This eliminates the harmful changes in the soft tissue resulting from trauma, chronic overload or irritation nerves.
Most people interpret these changes as tight muscles. Problems in the soft tissue can cause irreversible problems if left untreated. A few examples include torn muscles, stress fractures of bones, tendonitis and bone spurs.
Some common conditions include plantar fasciitis (PF) and shin splints (SS). The origin of PF is NOT where the pain is felt. It's typically a simple fix when treated early. It comes from further up the body towards the head. That's why it's important to evaluate tissues to determine which areas are involved.
Shin splints are one example of how the tissue pulls away from the bones. It's common for runners, but with good self-care, it's totally avoidable. If caught early, it's easily reversible.
See more wonders of fascia in this video.
Hydration is featured in the above video. This article describes how it manifests in our lives in ways that few of us understand.
Your Body's Call for Water: Keeping a Whimper from Becoming a Shout by Carole Suzanne Jackson
More health tips to motivate and inspire you to create a self-care plan:
Creative Financing
Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyzyn - may help budget for making massage a regular part of your life.
Cold and Hot Therapy Instructions and Products
Following are detailed instructions about the effective use of cold and heat therapy. Please review. Do call us with any questions.
http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/rehab/a/heatorcold.htm
Cold Therapy Reduces Inflammation
All these in the following link are great commercial cold pack. Except the
neck one doesn't conform well unless it's pulled too tight.
http://www.coldoneinc.com/icewraps/index.html
An ice massage with water frozen in a paper cup (peel the cup down as the ice melts) is especially effective for inflamed tissue. Keep the ice moving—it’s a massage.
Holding in one spot can damage tissue. Follow the instructions at this link carefully.
http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/rehab/a/heatorcold.htm
Gardening for Health
http://www.earthbox.com/ provides an easy way to garden urban or country.
Click here to access the current
version of our spreadsheet giving basic garden planner information for starting from seed.
Muscle Health Books for Great Self Care
Fibromyalgia and Chronic Myofascial Pain: A Survival Manual (2nd Edition)
by Devin J. Starlanyl & Mary Ellen Copeland
The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief, Second Edition by Clair DaviesStrength Book: Active Isolated Strengthening:
The Mattes Method
Specific stretching for everyone by Aaron L Mattes
Active Isolated Strengthening: The Mattes Method
by Aaron L. Mattes