fitness for life textbook
To the list of things no one escapes, right below death and taxes, let us add muscle soreness.
A sedentary person is still prone to gravity and kinetic forces, the basic stresses everybody experiences..even with massage.
One might even build the case that a sedentary life invites more inflexibility, more muscle soreness and spasm than is introduced by an active lifestyle.
So even couch potatoes can benefit from the therapeutic wonders of massage.
Yet it is the athlete and those of us who pursue physical activities and workout programs that can best utilize massage in keeping joints and muscles flexible, functioning and optimally pain-free. Thus a massage therapist is to the human body as the mechanic is to an automobile.
How Can Massage Benefit You?
More often than not, the therapist will use his/her hands to manipulate the soft tissue in order to facilitate the physical and often psychological needs of the client. Muscle tissue is typically the target, but the therapist, or masseuse, can apply their touch to other tissues as well, such as: tendons, ligaments, joints, skin, connective tissue, lymphatic vessels and the organs of the gastrointestinal system.
Types of Massage
Most of us have heard the term Swedish massage. If you guessed this approach to bodywork was developed in Finland, you’d be close. Per Henrik Ling’s techniques were promoted in the mid-1800s by two New York physicians, establishing the form known for long, flowing strokes as perhaps the best known. While the Swede forever linked his nation to this technique, it was the French that found a way to name two of the six basic strokes.
In addition to effleurage, ‘to skim over,’ and petrissage, ‘to knead,’ a massage therapist performing a Swedish massage would employ friction, tapotement (hey, another French word meaning to ‘tap’ or ‘drum’), compression and vibration strokes.
Lotion, cream or various oils are used to reduce friction between the therapist’s hands and the skin of the very lucky individual, who might well fall asleep and wake up with a reduction of pain, joint stiffness and the kind of total body relaxation that might make them want to go back to sleep.
Shiatsu sounds like a breed of small dog, but it actually is a Japanese form of massage where you keep your clothes on and lay on the floor as the massage therapist uses thumb pressure to work energy meridians. The Shiatsu masseuse will also incorporate stretching.
Deep Tissue Massage is thought to have originated in a dungeon somewhere. Most likely it was developed by physical therapists with very strong hands and fingers. The approach, as the name suggests, allows the massage practitioner to focus manual pressure to a specific joint, muscle or muscle group for the purposes of accessing deeper layers of soft tissue.
If pressure is applied too deeply or too quickly, the muscle may guard, or tighten, to protect the area and the client will yelp like a dalmation.
Myofacial Release is a manual massage approach that seeks to stretch the fascia for the purposes of releasing bonds between fascia, integument and muscles.
The goal of myofacial release is to eliminate pain, increase range of motion andget out your dictionaryequilibrioception, which is textbook-speak for ‘sense of balance. Stone Massage employsget thisstones! So that the massage therapist can penetrate deeper into the muscle, smooth stones (ususally warmed) are placed on the body to relax the muscle first.
Plucked from a hot water bath, the stones are dried and given a coating of oil before being wielded directly in the hands of the masseuse. Often, the hot stones are placed under the back, along the sides of the spine and on top of the torso to provide thermal stimulation to the chakra, or meridian centers. In this application, the stones are not oiled so as to inhibit gravity or movement from dislodging the stones.
The Main Benefit Of Massage
There are many other approaches practiced by massage therapists. Previously described above can all work with an active person in their desire to stay pain and injury free.
About the Author:
Zach Hunt is a massage Spokane expert, fitness coach and owner of Physzique, a fitness coaching service in Spokane, WA. Go here: Personal Trainer Spokane Fitness Tips for more fitness tips.
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – No More Pain – the Massage Secret
Textbook Table Tennis Training DVD – Out Feb 16th
|
|
Nutrition for Life (2nd Edition) $79.99 Nutrition for Life capitalizes on readers’ natural interest in nutrition by demonstrating how nutrition relates to their health. A unique aspect of the book is its presentation of nutrients based on function, rather than chemical classification. The book offers a chapter on vitamins and one on minerals, but within these chapters micronutrients are organized based on their functions within the… |
|
|
Fit for Life: Not Fat for Life $8.99 There is only one concept to grasp and only one action to take: Eat more living food than dead food. The simplicity of this message has eluded people up to now. In fact, it may seem oversimplified. Because of past frustrations and disappointments, people have come to believe that losing weight is complicated, difficult and expensive. Truth be told, all that is required to reap the myriad benefits … |
|
|
The Anti-Aging Plan: The Nutrient-Rich, Low-Calorie Way of Eating for a Longer Life–The Only Diet Scientifically Proven to Extend Your Healthy Years $7.00 The only diet scientifically proven to extend the length and quality of life The late Dr. Roy L. Walford spent much of his lifes work researching low-calorie diets, and is now recognized as a pioneer of what is widely recognized as “calorie restriction” (CR)a diet consisting of fewer calories while maintaining adequate nutrition. This is the only diet that has been proven to retard aging an… |
|
|
The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Geriatric Psychiatry (Hardcover) $143.2 In updating the 2004 textbook, editors with the Duke University Medical Center incorporate advances in medicine, neuropsychiatry and other fields relevant to understanding psychiatric disorders in later life. Coverage includes the demographics, theorie… |
|
|
Chemistry for the Life Sciences (Paperback) $40.54 This textbook for chemistry applications in life sciences, now in its second edition, provides students in biochemical and biomedical fields with a firmer understanding of basic chemical concepts. Sutton (forensic science and biochemistry, U. of Wolver… |
|
|
Maternity and Pediatric Nursing (Mixed media product) $61.95 Virtual Clinical Excursions Pacific View Regional Hospital is a groundbreaking workbook/CD-ROM package that brings learning to life in a “virtual” hospital setting. This guided learning experience features textbook reading assignments that correspond w… |
|
|
Documentation for Physician Assistants $37.5 This textbook introduces the skills for documenting patient care. It specifically describes office and hospital charting procedures, and explains how to write SOAP notes and prescriptions. Real-life case studies illustrate the consequences of poor docu… |
|
|
Health Promotion Throughout the Life Span Text + E-book Package (Paperback) $114.28 Evolve eBookThe Evolve eBook gives you electronic access to all textbook content with plenty of added functionality. Not only can you search your entire library of eBooks with a single keyword, you can create … |
|
|
Basic Nursing (CD-ROM) $59.35 Virtual Clinical Excursions Pacific View Regional Hospital is a groundbreaking workbook/CD-ROM package that brings learning to life in a “virtual” hospital setting. This guided learning experience features textbook reading assignments that correspond w… |
|
|
Common Neuro-ophthalmic Pitfalls (Paperback) $75.11 Using real-life cases describing patients with neuro-ophthalmic disorders, this book is a case-based teaching tool that bridges the gap between textbook information and everyday clinical practice. Each case illustrates a particular area of frequent dia… |
|
|
Geriatric Education for Emergency Medical Services $45.83 Intended for a continuing education curriculum, this textbook addresses the special needs required by the older population when receiving pre-hospital medical care. Topics of the 15 chapters include communication techniques, end-of-life care, falls, m… |
|
|
Living, Dying, Grieving (Paperback) $70.25 To help foster a mature understanding of death and consequently educate students for living life to the fullest, Dennis (administrator, Austin Peay State U., Clarksville, TN) presents a textbook that covers issues of aging and end-of-life planning to c… |
|
|
The Respiratory Management of Motor Neuron Disease (Hardcover) $54.1 This textbook on the assessment and management of respiratory concerns caused by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis has been designed for health care professionals and students who need to maintain a higher quality of life for patients with motor neuron dis… |