Welcome to a wet May:

It seems like the weather can't make up its mind between summer and spring over the last two weeks. Many clients are spending time on flower beds and gardens - and coming in sore after working outside. This month the main article in the newsletter will be about listening to your body. The body talks to us, but we have to know how to listen.

My Minute Massage section has information about stretches for sitting through those long graduation and year-end school events. I've also included more information about sports massage as the summer approaches and athletics pick up.

Stay dry!

- heather wibbels (615.294-6672)

Shhh. Listen. Your body is talking to you. Can you hear it? Every day the body communicates to us through sensation. Most people, most of the time, ignore that visceral voice until it becomes a nagging, hard-to-ignore pain. Taking some time to listen to the body and interpret what it’s telling you can prevent injury, increase energy and improve your mood.

Start by taking a mental inventory of your body. Sit or lie down, close your eyes, and take three deep belly breaths. Quiet your mind to intrusive thoughts (“I have to get X done today. I need to remember to Y before I go to bed. I have to call Z this afternoon.”) and set your focus on your physical body.

First, make a mental scan of your body. Think about your feet – are your feet relaxed? How about your legs, any holding or tension in the legs or hips? What about the torso, the arms, the shoulders, the neck or head? Go through each part of the body and see if you notice muscle tension or soreness. When you find a sore or tense spot, take a deep breath, and let the tension go.

Once you’ve queried each part of your body, think about where you’ve been hurting lately. See if that sensation is still around. If it’s not still hurting, is there tension in the muscle or joint? Think about how you’ve been treating that part of the body.

After you’ve performed the scan, think about your planned activities for the next few days. If your arm is hurting, perhaps you need to shorten or cancel the tennis match or golf game. Take care of the parts of you that hurt. If your shoulders or neck hurt while at work, think about changing the configuration of your workstation or getting microwaveable heating pack to use when your shoulders and neck start to ache. Listen to your body before you’re really hurting to prevent injuries or chronic muscle pain.

Performing this mental scan is only one way to listen to your body. Many times the body sends us messages we don’t want to hear. If you’re in the middle of weeding a large garden bed, and your lower back starts to ache, take a break. Don’t “work through the pain” as this often increases the soreness, tension and aches later on. It can also increase your chance of injury.

Are you thinking, “I don’t have time to listen to my body. I have too much to do”? Think again. This body is the only one you’ll get. Serious injuries and chronic pain limit your lifestyle and activities much more than an afternoon without golf or putting off cleaning out the garage for a few days because your lower back feels tired. Even if you just stop and mentally check while you’re at a stoplight or during a commercial break, taking just a few minutes to listen to what your body is saying is crucial.

The body stores emotional and physical information, and some physical pain or soreness may have originated from an emotional event. Sometimes discomfort or pain in an area is a symptom of emotional or mental stress, not a product of sore muscles or tight tendons. Think about the area that hurts or feels tight – do you find that certain situations cause the area to “act up”? It may be that counseling or managing stress in a healthy way will be the best way to treat the problem area.

Massage increases body awareness. Often, as I work on clients, they remark, “I had no idea I was sore there.” By having someone else massage your body (or massaging yourself), you will find tender areas, sore spots, or places that feel tight. Good massage therapists excel at finding those tense spots and helping clients listen to information from muscles and bone. They can help you isolate activities or routines that hurt muscles and joints, and can work with you to find another way to perform activities without exacerbating the problem.

It just takes a few minutes to scan the body, but those few minutes can give you the information you need to keep chronic pain and injury from seriously impeding your lifestyle. Shhh. Breathe. Listen.

More on Massage: Sports Massage
Preventing injury and increasing performance through massage

The prime season for amateur sports is upon us. Marathons, bike races and sports tournaments start soon for all you weekend athletes. Sports Massage is a specific type of massage designed to increase circulation, prevent injuries, relieve swelling, increase flexibility, and improve performance.

Using a combination of Swedish massage techniques, passive stretching, and trigger point work, Sports Massage is used both before and after sporting events to increase performance and decrease injuries. Often, sports massage is broken up into pre- and post-event massage types because the goals and techniques used are different.

In pre-event massage, the goal is to increase circulation and flexibility – to prepare the body for the event to reduce the change of injury, and to increase the performance of the athlete. It also calms anxiety, and helps the athlete focus on the event. Pre-event sessions happen within 24 hours of the event and are usually shorter sessions. Within 30 minutes of the event, the sports massage is general only 5 to 10 minutes in length. Earlier than that, and longer sessions may be performed. Pre-event massage does not include deep tissue work or trigger point work. Because this kind of work greatly effects muscle flexibility, it can effect the timing and strength of the muscles. This means the muscle is markedly different from its usual state during training – making it easier for the body to injure or over-exert that area. (www.thebodyworker.com).

In post-event massage, the goal is to work lactic acid and other by-products of muscle contraction out of the system to decrease soreness and recovery time. Muscle tension, cramping and inflammation are also important items of focus for the massage therapist. Muscle techniques to flush the muscles, slowly cool down the muscles, and prevent cramping are often performed on the client at this time.

According to the American Massage Therapy Association,regular sports massage can:

• Reduce the chance of injury, by relieving stress points in muscles, before they result in restrictions or spasm;
• Improve range of motion and muscle flexibility, resulting in improved power and performance;
• Shorten recovery time between workouts;
• Maximize the supply of nutrients and oxygen through increased blood flow;
• Facilitate the body’s regular processes for recovery from exercise;
• Decrease performance anxiety and sharpen mental focus.

Often, large, supported sporting events offer pre- and post-event massage. Make sure the therapist you’re seeing is licensed. If you’re a professional athlete, find a massage therapist well-versed in sports massage. Sports massage is greatly enhanced through working with one particular therapist. The therapist gets to know the athlete’s common injuries or flexibility problems, and knows the standard feel of the body. This experience makes it much easier for the therapist to assist in the identification in problem areas and treat the body in the most effective way possible.

For more information on sports massage see the following websites:

• Sports Massage Association
• The Canadian Sport Massage Therapists Association (CSMTA)
• The BodyWorker.Com