Just the other day I read an article about how your gut is your second brain. I’ve know this for a while now, but I thought it was time I helped you relate massage and your second brain along with the brain in your head.

Your gut or digestive system feeds your brain and when you don’t feed your gut properly, you don’t feed your brain properly. The gut and brain communicate on a constant basis. Your gut tells your brain when you are hungry and when you eat your brain sends out hormones either asking for more or telling you you’re full. Along with a host of other signals the hormones do.

The tricky part is, not feeding your gut and your brain crappy food disrupting the signals throughout your body. Because once you start on that slippery slope it’s hard to get off that slope. Because when you don’t feed the gut, you are actually stressing the gut along with the brain and the rest of your body.

Now the thing about stress is your brain doesn’t differentiate between mental stress and physical stress you’re putting your body through.

This is where the benefit of massage therapy come in, when you get a massage you de-stress yourself, helping relaxing your brain and letting your gut fire up again, so you can digest food. This is because when you are mentally stressed, your brain shuts down the gut to deal with the stressful situation you are in. The brain also doesn’t differentiate between a little stress and a lot of stress, it’s goes into a flight or flight response to protect yourself. So if you are in a constant level of stress, even a little stress, your gut isn’t working to it’s full capability.

So de-stressing with a massage will help not only your brain to relax, but your gut to fire up again. There is actually a good chance you will hear and feel your gut gurgle. This is your brain talking to your second brain it’s relaxed and the gut to go back to normal.

So in the end, keep massage as part of your healthy routine, you will not only appreciate the relaxation part of the massage, your gut will thank you as well.

Far too many times I have too many clients come in to see me because they are hurting. Not because they are wanting to prevent aches and pains with a massage therapy treatment. What you need to do is have a more balanced approach, in preventing those aches and pains.

I have a client right now who is going through such an issue. He’s torn his labrum in the hip. He came in because he couldn’t walk and even more important to him play golf.

Before I go any further, I’m not saying massage therapy could have prevented a tear of his labrum. However, with regular massage treatments we can help with the flexibility of the hip. Which is one of the best preventative measures for a labrum tear, in your hip or shoulder.

So next time you’re thinking should I go in for a massage. The answer is probably yes. You will keep your muscles more balanced along with all the other benefits of massage therapy.

I came across an extensive conversation today in LinkedIn.com regarding should a massage therapist sell supplements. A lot of the therapists in the conversation didn’t think it was ethical to sell products.

I have to say if those therapists could be more wrong I don’t know if it’s possible. What does ethics have to do with a therapists business within their business. As a massage therapist we’re very good at learning how the body works and how we can help with healing the body. Supplements just happen to help heal the body, so there’s my point. Why not help when you can?

The big mistake these misinformed therapists are making is that, as a therapist we cannot diagnose. There is a huge disconnect in recommending a supplement or skin care product and diagnosing a specific medical issue.

Technically telling a client to drink water after a massage is a form of supplement,  we tell people all the time to supplement with water.  So why not calcium, vitamin C, magnesium and so on. All these and the rest of the vitamins and minerals we need each and every day to stay healthy.

So don’t think selling a product as part of your business is a bad thing. There is nothing wrong that, we each need to take care of ourselves and the reason we work is to give ourselves a comfortable life. The last thing anyone should want to do is be a burden to their family and poor finances are the easiest way to go down that road.

One of the things each of you can do to preserve your back, is to stay active. By staying active you use your back and as the old quote says, “If you don’t use it, you lose it.” Your back is no different from anything else, it needs to be active.

Staying active really isn’t that hard either, because almost any activity includes use of your back. It can include yard work, shoveling your sidewalks, house cleaning and even walking. So if you pay someone to do some on these mundane things, it can easily be worth it to do these things yourself. For your backs sake.

Staying active also has the added benefit of heart health as well. Even the little things add up for your overall health, not just back health.

If you’re using the excuse, “I don’t have time”, at least do your family a favor and let them know you will have back issues in the future. That way they can plan in advance for the time needed to take care of you.

And if you back does get tight once in a while from the extra activity, schedule a massage. Even better yet schedule yourself in at least once a month so you stay on top of any minor back issues.

The timeless quote, “Birds of a feather flock together”, really does say a lot about who you spend your time with. It also says a lot about how you take care of yourself as well. Because when you spend time with people doing healthy things, it’s much more likely you will to.

I also find this quote is also applicable to people that get a massage. I have a lot of clients where it’s a couple that gets a massage one after the other. They have that basic belief in the healthy lifestyle and work on it together.

I also have a lot of my corporate clients that work in the same department, that are good majority of my “Coffee Break Massage” massage junkies.  So this doesn’t just apply to the family.

So if you know someone that could use a massage because you know the benefits. Flock together and recommend a massage for them.

All too often I have people see me once they are in some sort of muscle pain. So what’s stopping people, maybe even you, from taking a couple hours a month, to schedule yourself a massage?

The most common answer I hear is time. “I don’t have time to get in to see you.” Of course you don’t have time, when you don’t plan and get in the habit of scheduling a massage once a month.

I tell you though, the clients that do schedule ahead of time always get their massage and they feel better for it.

I have two current clients right now. One started with 3 massages over 3 weeks and now schedules a massage once a month before he goes home and his minor shoulder issues are under control. The second client had never had a massage before and has some major arm and hand pain, tingling and numbness.The discomfort she’s going through is almost unbearable for her, especially during the massages.

Now she’s in for a long haul getting the issues resolved with massage, chiro and physio therapy. Because of a poor maintenance program, actually no maintenance at all, and she’s paying for it now. As for my second client, he’s happy his minor back issues never got to become an ongoing issue.

So what’s holding you back from regularly scheduled massage treatments? Don’t tell me it’s time, because we’re all busy, it’s a matter of priorities. Prioritize your health and you won’t have to spend even more time addressing what could have been prevented.

Do you have to be an elite athlete to take advantage of sports massage? Of course not. Injury prevention is for anyone ready to exert their muscles on a regular basis.

So when should you get a sports massage and really what is a sports massage?

In my opinion, as long as you’re active, a regular once a month massage is a sports massage. Along with those special events you’re getting ready to compete in. So the short answer is, as long as you’re active get a massage at least once a month or more. Along with extra pre and post massage for those extra events, such as a weekend tournament or marathon.

What a sports massage is depends on how close to the event you’re getting the massage. If you’re getting the massage the day before the event, generally it would be a regular massage, but concentrating on specific areas for the specific sport. However, if you compete on a regular basis, such as playing hockey or baseball 3 or 4 times a week. A regular massage every couple of weeks, will keep you on top of any muscle issues.

So there you have short answer when and and what is a sports massage. Keep it simple and often enough to stay on top of the aches and pains you get when you stay active.

Too many times I’ve come across corporate clients that have potential serious RSI issues and the employee doesn’t get attention they need. When a company brings onsite massage into their office and doesn’t offer other professionals to assist employees; such as ergonomic assessments, nutritionists, exercise specialists and so on.

When it comes to work related RSI, your company needs more than just one or two professionals, to help employees deal with work related RSI. Carpal tunnel, thoracic outlet syndrome and headaches are all related to desk jockey work because of muscle fatigue.

The muscles shouldn’t just be dealt with as they fatigue, but employees need to be shown ongoing ways to prevent the various RSI issues before the escalate. Because when these issues escalate they can become major long term issues, requiring lost work time.

By ensuring employees have the appropriate tools to prevent and address muscular issues, your company ensures less lost time with disability and increase efficiency at the same time.

By ensuring a variety of work related professionals, to keep on top of potential efficiency draining RSI issues, it doesn’t take long to be able to justify the expense involved. So build your network of work related professionals and reap the rewards.

Does your company put on an annual health fair? If you aren’t. Why aren’t you? Health fairs are an inexpensive way, to expose your employees to the vast array of wellness tools. Everything from local health clubs, health professionals, workplace efficiency tools, psychology experts and of course onsite massage.

Health fairs give your company the opportunity to show employees what is available to them, that employees might not know are there for them. Because, I’ve seen way too often employees not know what is available to them. There are companies that I’ve been going to for 3-years and employees still don’t know I offer massage for them.

Health fairs are also a great way to show employees you do care about their wellness. Not only for their personal health but for efficiency at work as well. With workplace efficiency, also reducing their stress levels.

When you combine healthy employees with a healthy workplace, increased efficiency will naturally be part of your culture.

So if your company can introduce employees to new and innovative efficiency tools with a yearly health fair. Why aren’t you? So when you do your cost benefit analysis on putting on a health fair, the benefits far outweigh the costs. 

When you introduce your employees to health tools your company also gives employees the tools to be healthier as well. In many instances employees don’t know where to start when it comes to personal wellness. So when you show them some simple tools to a healthier lifestyle, this will also reflect on workplace efficiency.

So do the cost benefit analysis and get a health fair organized for the new year. 

I’ve come across quite a few people lately complaining about carpel tunnel syndrome. Almost all of these clients thought it was a nerve problem. But it’s not a nerve problem, it’s a muscle problem.

Just so you know what the signs of carpel tunnel are, you would feel tingling in the hand, just like your hand is going to sleep. Other symptoms would be weakness and/or coldness in your hand. These symptoms can only be in the hand, not up the arm at all.

However, the real issue isn’t in the hand, the real issue is in the muscles that move the hand that go all the way up to the elbow. Carpel tunnel is a repetitive strain issue, with the best example being typing and mousing from computer use. With the excessive use of the muscles that move the fingers, the muscles get inflamed close to the elbow and slowly inflaming the muscle to the tendons at the carpel tunnel.

This is where the real issues start. The inflammation of the tendons compress the nerve that runs along with the tendons at the carpel tunnel, causing the issues mentioned above.

So the best treatment plan for carpel tunnel issues, is addressing the inflammation of the muscles along the forearm. We do this by stripping the scare tissue that has worked up on the muscles, which reduces the inflammation. As the scare tissue in broken down the inflammation is reduced as well, taking pressure off the nerve at the carpel tunnel.

So if you’re even starting to feel the issues of carpel tunnel, massage therapy is one of your best ways to address the muscle issue, that it really is.