AOBT Demo
This is a beautiful video of Mary-Claire Fredette (my AOBT instructor) at the World Massage Festival demonstrating AOBT. I love the thumbs up from the client at the end! Perfect commentary.
Funny You Should Ask
I received a phone call a few days ago from a gentleman in Auburn, AL. He was looking for a Thai massage therapist in the Decatur area and had found this website from an internet search.
Funny that he should call and ask for Thai massage specifically as I’ve been kicking around the possibility of taking Ashi-Thai in September. There has been much waffling and back and forth trying to make the decision. Can I afford it? Am I going overboard with the Ashi / CEUs? Will it sell in my area?
So the phone call prompted me to make the decision. I’ve contacted the instructor and will be traveling to San Antonio, TX in September to be trained in Ashi-Thai. I’m excited about learning and integrating the new skill set into my practice. I’m also quite excited at the prospect of being stretched for two days.
It’s also great to know that the website is working. And it’s always a pleasure talking to and educating someone about AOBT.
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Sports Massage?
When I was in massage school, I never felt like I’d ever be a sports massage therapist. It just didn’t feel right to me, probably because I had never been athletic. My instructors would talk about how you had to know massage and specialize in a particular sport to become a good sports massage therapist. It just didn’t interest me.
In my head I would think that if I worked with athletes, I would treat them as any other client who presented with aches and pains. Identify the ache or the pain and work accordingly. It was simple, in my mind.
Of course, recently I have learned how to be a coxswain, taken a Learn to Row class with Rocket City Rowing Club and spent this year’s summer vacation learning to scull at Calm Waters Rowing camp. You might say that I’ve become a novice athlete.
Last weekend I found myself working with a client who sweep rows competitively. She was having lumbar region issues that manifested mostly while she was sitting in the boat and felt kinked up when she wasn’t in the boat. While working I began asking her questions about when and where she felt the pain. Before I realized it I was asking very specific question about during what phase of her rowing stroke she was feeling the pain.
That’s when it hit me. This is what my instructors were talking about when they talked about understanding the sport and its biomechanical peculiarities.
I certainly didn’t set out to become a sports massage therapist when I began this odyssey of learning to row. Mostly I did it to appease friends who were rowing and needed a short person to steer the boat. The learning to sweep row was a necessity at becoming a better coxswain and an attempt to get healthier. In the process though, I found something that I really enjoy doing, I’ve made new friends, gained new clients, dropped some weight, and gotten healthier.
And, unwittingly, I have also become a sports massage therapist who specializes in the sport of rowing. Who knew?
Releasing the Rotator Cuff
I spent the day yesterday with Peggy Lamb learning about the rotator cuff. What an interesting day it was. I wish I had learned these things while I was still in massage school. I keep thinking about how many clients I could have helped with the more specific work she taught us.
Of course, I’ve never had work on my rotator cuff before and it’s a bit sore today. Thankfully I know three local therapists who were in the class so I can continue this work and get the kinks worked out of my shoulders and back.
It’s amazing the pain referral caused by some of these muscles. I was surprised to learn that the pain I’ve suffered for years between my shoulder blades and across my deltoids is actually referred from three of the four common rotator cuff muscles. Thank you subscapularis, teres minor, and infraspinatus.
I can’t wait to bring this new protocol to my clients. Hopefully I’ll be able to make a difference in someone’s pain level with these new skills.
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Shameless Self-Promotion
Check out the new tab at the top that I’ve added. It’s all about me!
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Are You an Ashiatsu Therapist?
If so, have you seen the new Graduates Corner? It’s a social networking site designed specifically for Ashiatsu therapists. Network, trade, photos, videos, name that Ashi stroke, you name it, it seems to be there.
I’m still waiting for other Ashi therapists in the north Alabama area to sign up. I need someone to trade with!
Are You an Ashiatsu Therapist? Read More »
The Valley of Bad Air
If you’ve lived in the Tennessee Valley for any length of time you’ve heard about how the American Indians used to call this the Valley of Bad Air. I’ve seen descriptions of how only certain molds grow here that are highly allergenic and how the air doesn’t move in the bowl of land we live in. I don’t know the answer, but I do know that a lot of people are suffering right now with allergies.
Spring has sprung and so has the trees and some of the flowers and the pollen is thickening. Thus, here’s a helpful little website where you can punch in your location and get some information on the pollen level and your area’s biggest current offenders.
My area currently lists juniper as one of its top three offenders. I have several of those in my yard so I am counting myself lucky that I’m not sick. Usually spring is tough on my allergies. Why not this year?
Some of it may be luck, but I think my neti pot has a lot to do with it. I started using one last November after I had my Fall allergy attack and sinus infection and I have been sinus healthy ever since. In fact, I’ve been able to cut way back on my allergy meds since I started using it. If you haven’t already tried one, now may be the time. I used to run scared every time the seasons changed hoping I wouldn’t get sick and barricading myself inside. This spring though, I’ve spent more time than ever outside and I’ve been able to enjoy driving with the windows down.
A lot of people I talk to are apprehensive about using a neti pot. The thought of pouring water up one’s nose is a scary prospect, but I’m here to tell you, it’s really not bad. I bought my pot at Walgreen’s (they also carry them at Wal-Mart now) and it came stocked with the pre-measured buffered salts you need. I would highly recommend those, they don’t burn like some of the bulk salts can. The neti “pot” comes in two different styles, one you can pour in and another you can “squirt” in. I use the pouring option as it seemed a bit more controllable, but I have friends who use the squirt bottle and swear by it.
Of course, I find that once I get sick enough and desperate enough, I’ll try anything which is how I came to the neti pot. Perhaps you’re there now. Try it. It’s a small price to pay if it works. If it doesn’t, you’re only out around fifteen bucks.
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Germs Have Fingerprints?
What is a Bacterial Fingerprint Anyway?
I’ve been reading lately about a recent study done to prove the concept that people can be identified by their own unique bacterial fingerprint. Fascinated, I keep coming back to it.
Did you know that for everything you touch, you leave behind a unique collection of germs? I never really thought about it that hard, but I suppose it makes sense. We leave germs behind, why not leave ones that are our own special blend?
Most of the stories I’ve read so far focus on the forensic and law enforcement angle. Very interesting, I hope they can find a way to make this work. More tools mean fewer dangerous humans on the streets.
We All Share Germs!
And while I can wholly support the forensic interest in this discovery, I wonder how volatile the blend actually is. As a massage therapist, I touch, to state the simple and the obvious. Do I pick up my clients’ germs? Yep! Otherwise, why are we as massage therapists and the medical professions at large educated so stringently on how to properly hand wash before and after contact with clients and patients?
Then even more questions arise such as, if I’m picking up my clients germs as I touch them, am I also integrating their unique blends into my own? Am I transmitting my unique blends to my client as I touch them? If so, is this a good thing? Does this blend help our immune system? Should we be out searching for new and different types of bacteria to add to our “arsenal”?
I don’t know the answers to these questions, but I’m going to be watching to see what happens with this line of research. For now, I’m going to go wash my hands again.
Relevant Articles
People leave unique ‘germ print’
Microbiomes: You Live in Your Own Germ Cloud
Analysis of Microbial Communities: An Emerging Tool in Forensic Sciences
Updated 12/1/23: The original article referenced in this post is gone so I’ve broken the links and added a few relevant articles at the end of the post.
Sharon Bryant at Harvest Moon Massage Therapy
is Decatur’s Ashiatsu Barefoot Massage Therapist!
Germs Have Fingerprints? Read More »
A Week In An Airport
I recently saw a client who had spent a week in airports across Europe and the U.S. trying to get home after spending the holidays in Italy.
I can’t say that I’d ever wondered what sleeping on benches and chairs and floors would do to my back. I suppose if I’d ever considered it, I figured I’d be permanently broken. This client, surprisingly, was not. Of course, she’s younger, still in college. Still, I was surprised that she wasn’t in worse shape.
While working with her, I began to contemplate the levels of frustration spending that much time stranded must have generated. I can’t imagine.
Afterward as I was driving home listening to the news from Haiti, I began thinking about how frustrated and desperate the survivors of the earthquake must feel. The outpouring of aid from the U.S. is encouraging. I hope it’s in time.
A Week In An Airport Read More »
Have You Finished Shopping Yet?
Have you finished shopping your Christmas list yet? I haven’t and I’m getting just a little panicked about it.
I figured some of you might be in the same boat so I wanted to toss out there that I have gift certificates available for those hard-to-buy-for folks on your list.
Call me if you’re interested.
Have You Finished Shopping Yet? Read More »