STOP the FSMTB Massage Practice Act

HELP NOW stop the the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards from deciding who should be licensed as massage practitioners. Click on the link below to sign a petition.

I am not and have never been a massage practitioner, but the FSMTB wants to regulate the type of work I do. It is a bit like State Association of Chiropractors trying to regulate doctors, nurses, PTs, OTs, Yoga teachers, etc. They have no idea the purpose and goals of our work.

 

 

 

The Federation of State Massage Therapy Board’s Model Practice Act

We, the undersigned, believe that the Federation of State Massage Therapy Board’s Model Practice Act (MPA) for the massage therapy profession is neither valid nor fair. Their efforts to subsume all bodywork practices into massage therapy demonstrate deep and fundamental misunderstanding about those practices, and therefore will not serve their goal of protecting the public.

The MPA will force all bodywork professionals to take the MBLEx, a massage therapy licensing exam, which was created by the Federation and provides them an income stream. Not only is this an obvious conflict of interest, but this exam does not test basic competency in other fields of bodywork.

The MPA also suggests that a massage therapy education is a necessary prerequisite to other bodywork professions. This is simply not true.

We call on the FSMTB to make an effort to work with, and educate themselves about, other bodywork therapies to establish guidelines for appropriate regulation of these professions.

 

Thanks so much.

End of RICE age: ICE inflammation Rx

Ice inflammation treatment. Does it really work to our best advantage? We hear so often about people using ice to stop pain after injury or athletic performance. I have always been a bit skeptical. It seemed to me that the inflammatory process was important somehow, body intelligence. Josh Stone, Athletic Trainer, has been making the same point that ice may be counterproductive to healing and repair after injury.

In his blog Josh Stone: Why ice and anti-inflammatory meds may not be the answer, Josh has us questioning the anecdotal evidence for the use of rest, ice, and anti-inflammatory medications to limit or stop the inflammatory process. He makes the point that maybe our body’s wisdom of creating inflammation is the way to go, not ice inflammation treatment.

In a more recent blog Josh (RICE the end of an ice age) points out the recent results of Gabe Mirkin, the coiner of the RICE term.

Coaches have used my “RICE” guideline for decades, but now it appears that both Ice and complete Rest may delay healing, instead of helping.” – Gabe Mirkin, MD, March 2014

Ice Inflammation Treatment or Movement

Movement is the healer. For years the medical world kept people in bed after surgery, avoiding movement, under the assumption that rest was best. Then it was discovered that the sooner you got the body moving the faster the recovery and the quicker the healing. According to Wolf’s Law the body, bone, and connective tissues all form according to the stresses that you put on them. So, it makes perfect sense to get and keep the body moving. For many injuries and traumas the only movement you can make are micro movements, not gross motor movements. Movement helps the body redefine the layers of the connective tissues as they heal. Otherwise, scar tissue and adhesions form that later limit movement and optimal functioning.

The basis of Structural Integration (Hellerwork, Rolfing) is getting movement to happen again between layers of connective tissues, between the skin and the first deep layer of muscular fascia, between the layers of muscle, between the nerves and their surrounding tissues and muscles, between the blood and lymph vessels and their surrounding structures, within the connective tissue structure surrounding muscle fibers.

At best ice inflammation treatment should perhaps be limited to five minute to ten minute intervals with at least twenty minutes in between each icing. Here are some suggestions Dr Mirkin on using ice inflammation treatment

 

 

 

Stress and your body beliefs about stress

We think that beliefs are a result of our experiences, in fact it is the opposite. Experiences are a result of our beliefs. Beliefs run our lives. If you just inquire into your beliefs and alter the beliefs that might not be serving you, then you will have the body and life you want.

Here is a marvelous Ted Talk by Kelly McGonical about beliefs related to the nature of stress in our lives and how simply changing those beliefs can not only change your life but perhaps can save your life. Click this link to see and hear. Ted Talk rethinking our beliefs about stress

 

Gravity: body’s friend, foe, or teacher

Here is a nice consideration of gravity and how by the help of structural integration and movement integration we can begin use it as our benevolent teacher.

Gravity Friend or Foe? Or is that the wrong question?

“Only our relationship with gravity determines whether we experience it in a constructive way or destructive way. Depending on the structure of the body on which it acts, gravity can either support us and provide a springboard for our activities or it can pull at us and tear us down.”       ~ Joseph Heller

“We want to get you to a place where gravity is your friend; a nourishing force.”       ~ Dr. Ida Rolf


Illustration by Leif Backus

Spiral Heart, Spiral Body, Healthy Exercise

Most people don’t really think much about their movement patterns, hence the primary movements of the body appear to most people as front to back and perhaps side to side movements. As proof, most people when asked to make a life-like robot would probably create something with only those same front-back and left-right patterns. Most people strengthen themselves on machines that cater to these limiting movement patterns, moving in only one or perhaps two planes of movement.

Actually what makes us different than most other creatures is our ability to perform spiral and helical movements. That is our gift, our (underused) birth right. Most people have no clue about it, and most accidents and self injuries are caused by limited spiral knowledge and use.

When we use spiral movements our movement and learning efficiency shoots way up. We hurt ourselves less. We get stronger and healthier with less effort. We feel better now. When we design robots from this perspective they begin to look, move, and balance naturally.

I was recently inspired by a reference to a website by a dear friend and colleague Laurie McMenamin. This website demonstrates without a doubt that the heart is spiral and helical in nature, and more importantly the heart is helical and spiral in movement and development. It is the deep core of movement in the body.

Untying the Knot: Your Heart is actually a Spiral

Let’s postulate that the body is also spiral and helical in nature and that this very same helical and spiral nature creates a quality of spiral connective tissue fabric and movement throughout the body. Therefore spiral, helical movements are the natural order of all our movements. When we take on these spiral movements now, and when we design our exercise and other equipment around spiral, helical patterns we increase the rapidity of our learning. We increase our strength. We are healthier, happier human beings.

Perhaps the very spiral nature of our movement and our bodies is developed by merely following the spiral patterns of the heart as it develops and beats from very early on, a mere 18 days from conception.

So design your exercise patterns in all sorts of spiral patterns. Acknowledge the spiral patterns in your walking, your running, the way you turn to pick something off the floor. Begin to own and take on your spiral nature and birth right. These are patterns that can be learned throughout life, and will make balancing as we grow older far more efficient.

 

Harry’s – The Best Razor ?

I love this line: Want to stop overpaying for a quality shave?

I imagine many of you out there shave, and you think that the only good razors are made by the giants (you know Gillette, Schick,… and the blades are pricey and who are those people anyway, whom I have been supporting forever).

Well I have news! I ran across a great razor from a great website. I loved their style and the way the whole website seemed really inviting. (I’d be happy if my website looked and acted like theirs.)

I bought one and am loving it. It feels good. It looks good. And the packaging was marvelous and sexy. I’m thinking of giving all my friends Harry’s Razors for the Holidays, crazy right.

Well, the blades are something like half the price of the high price commercial razors. And, you can get different colored handles.

What the heck. Sexy, German engineering, inexpensive, great shave, easy to buy, they make you feel right at home and you are already friends. All you have to do is click this link, check them out, and get a great shave for less. You get to be the judge.
https://www.harrys.com/?ref=5f38403648

Let me know if you like them like I did, okay.

Increasing Mind and Body Health through Manual Therapy

I recently watched a GoogleTechTalks on YouTube by Eric Moya called

Increasing Mind and Body Health through Manual Therapy

See Manual Therapy and human development. I was fascinated and encouraged by the conversation about connective tissue FASCIA. Fascia is the stock and trade of structural balancing and structural integration (the generic term for Rolfing and Hellerwork, where I learned part of my hands on structural expertise). Most people probably think that bones are the main structural element of the body, but that is only part of the story. The real story is connective tissue fascia. It wraps everything. It organizes everything. It relates everything. Without it we would be puddle of very confused cells. When we simply get a very clear understanding and picture of fascia, we can begin to use that knowledge for top performance in all realms of life.

Healthy Knees, Healthy Connective Tissue

How to have healthy connective tissue and joints.

Long held “body beliefs” may be holding us back from what we love (or want) to do and from being successful in our pursuits. Challenging those beliefs (perhaps all of our beliefs) often proves transformative. There are a number of beliefs and ideas about how our bodies work that could do well with a good challenge. How our bodies heal themselves is one of them. Bodies are the most amazing healing devices on the planet when they are given the best conditions to support that healing. I’d take a step further and say the only healing comes from within.

My friend Bill Parravano is the Knee Pain Guru. His website is http://kneepainguru.com. About three years ago I first looked at one of the many informative free videos on his website, and what he said had me question one of my long held “beliefs” about the body. He indicated that cartilage although highly helpful was not absolutely necessary to having healthy, capable joints. So I took him at his word and decided to test my belief and his theory.

At about the same time Gary a forty something new prospective client came to me saying he wanted to run 100 mile foot races. Gary was just starting to run and could run up to about 4 miles but with considerable knee pain in the knee from which the meniscus and cartilage had been removed surgically many years previously. Armed with a new belief and over the course course of two and two thirds years we restructured and reorganized Gary’s body and prepared him for his 100 mile challenge. In about a year he had successfully run a 50 mile race. The next year he ran multiple 30 to 50 mile races, often two in a weekend. On July 20th, 2013 he ran the 100 mile Tahoe Rim Trail Endurance Run in 26 hours and 59 minutes and came in 28th out of about 200 starters. Gary is my hero.

His plans for next year are running four 100 mile endurance races in just twelve weeks, and I am honored and look forward to helping coach him and his body through the process.

All this is to introduce you to Bill Parravano’s podcast about maintaining healthy joints, and I would say healthy connective tissue. Check out his podcasts at:  Bill Parravan’s Podcasts. And, his Podcasts are on iTunes as well. His website is http://kneepainguru.com.