March 2015 – Wellness Focus

Food Rules for Fibromyalgia Sufferers

Fibromyalgia is a disorder characterized by widespread muscle aches and pains often accompanied by fatigue, sleep disturbance, depression and more. Symptoms sometimes begin after a physical trauma, surgery, infection or significant psychological stress. In other cases, symptoms gradually accumulate over time with no single triggering event.

Fibromyalgia is more common in women than men. While treatment with medicines can relieve some symptoms, many say that following a careful diet can help with the rest, or even replace medicines over time. Here are a few tried and true dietary fixes:

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Five Easy Stretches That Work

Studies about the benefits of stretching are mixed, but one thing that’s not in question is that stretching improves flexibility, which may improve your performance. Better flexibility can decrease your risk of injuries by helping your joints move easily through their full range of motion. Here are five easy stretches you can do before a workout, hike, or just to start your day.

NECK: Lower your right ear to your right shoulder. Lift your right arm and gently apply pressure with your left palm to the left side of your head increasing the stretch to your neck. Your left arm should dangle at your side with finger tips pointing toward the ground. Repeat on the other side.

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Take Care of Your Lats

If you’ve ever rowed a boat, done a pull-up, or deadlifted weight, you’ve probably felt the effects in your lats. Your Latissimus dorsi (lats) are the broadest of the main muscles in your back and are located in your mid/lower back.

The muscle is responsible for extension (rowing, swinging your arms as you walk), adduction (pull-ups, chin-ups, or lifting a heavy object from a shelf above your head) and rotates the arm toward the body’s midline (like when you fold your arms over your chest) and serves a minor role in assisting other muscles.

While your lats perform important functions, they also are largely responsible for holding the shape and contours of your midsection and chest. Developed lats make for a trimmer appearance.

For those into anatomy, here’s the official scoop on the lats:

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Is Relaxation All in Your Head?

Why is it that it takes some people an hour in a spa to relax, while others can just close their eyes, envision a happy place, and relax almost instantly? It turns out that while relaxation has physiological effects, the process of relaxation is all about your state of mind.

That’s right, if your head’s not in the game, you won’t relax. If you sit down after work in your most comfy chair with a nice cold beverage and think about all the things that happened that day, and all the things that will happen tomorrow, you won’t relax. Relaxation is about quieting your mind, not processing throughs. It’s about thinking about right now, not a while ago or tomorrow. It’s about consciously shutting out the day-to-day noise, even if just for a few minutes.

You can get yourself into a relaxed state of mind almost anywhere, but, particularly when you are learning to relax, it’s a good idea to control your environment.

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Make the Effects of Massage Last Longer

Massage helps you feel better. It gets the blood flowing faster and soothes sore muscles. While some people may experience mild muscle awareness as the muscle fibers and nerves readjust to the work done, which is completely natural, most people will just experience an incomparable feeling of relaxation and wellbeing. Every fiber of your body is relaxed, your aches and pains subside and your brain knows it.

Here are some tips to help make the effects of massage last longer and prolong these good feelings:

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How to Introduce a Friend to Massage

Not everyone is ready for the hands-on experience of massage therapy, and some may even have some personal issues about touch. If you take the time to educate and introduce a friend to massage, you’ll allow them to come to massage and bodywork on their own terms. Then, they are more likely to be open to the safe, comforting, professional touch that the massage therapist provides.

You understand how you feel after a massage and you know how things work, but do your friends? To the uninitiated, massage seems like a bit of mystery. Some associate massage with the “masseuse” of yesteryear. Others think about it as an “out there” practice and question the effectiveness. Very few, however, will deny the benefits after they have actually had bodywork from a skilled, certified massage therapist.

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Combating Dad Stress

Whether you’re a new dad or the seasoned dad of grown children, you now about stress. It’s not the same stress that comes from deadlines at work, staring at unpaid bills, or even forgetting an anniversary. It’s “Dad Stress”. Dad stress comes along with the responsibility of being a parent, and it can be just as difficult to deal with as “Mom Stress”.

In today’s world of working more and relaxing less, there’s never been a more important time to learn to manage your stress. Some men choose to hide their stress, fearing that others will see them as weak. Actually, it’s the opposite. Men who acknowledge and manage their stress are seen as stronger, better partners, and more emotionally balanced.

What is dad stress?

Stress is a physical or emotional reaction to internal or external events. Dads have a lot of opportunities to experience both kinds. They experience external stress when they spend sleepless nights helping take care of the newborn (and their partner). They are stressed when the teen gets the car keys for the first time. They’re stressed when a child gets hurt.

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Massage and Office Productivity

Chances are, you are not the queen or king of good posture. Your workstation ergonomics are less than wonderful and you sit for long periods staring at a bright computer monitor. Pile on top of that a boatload of deadlines and office politics and it can all add up to anything from slacking off at work to having an epic meltdown,

We’re only human, and eventually, all that unnatural activity can start to wear on our bodies and minds. You suddenly start to feel aches and pain, have trouble falling asleep, or get headaches, or find it difficult to stay on task. And sometimes, you’re even ready to just chuck it all out the window and move to the beach.

Massage is a smart option

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Golfer’s Elbow: What can you do?

Golfer’s elbow (medial epicondylitis) is pain caused by inflammation of the muscles on the inner side of your elbow, where the tendons in your forearm attach to the bony bump on the inside of your elbow. It’s similar to tennis elbow, except it occurs on the inside, rather than the outside, of your elbow.

“The pain of golfer’s elbow shouldn’t keep you off the course. With rest and appropriate treatment, you can get back into the swing of things.” (Mayo Clinic, 2011)

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10 Things Your Massage Therapist Wants You to Know

About 40% of the US population gets at least 1 massage a year. Many get one a month. You might be surprised at some of the issues and challenges we face, mostly because the general public is still learning about the “how-tos” and benefits of therapeutic massage.

Here’s our list of things we’d like to tell you about your session. Read on, and ask you therapist about any of these before you start your session if you still need clarification.

1 We are NOT masseuses, and no matter how cool you think that word sounds, your massage therapist probably doesn’t like it. Massage parlor is also outdated. We did not take out student loans and work through 700+ hours of instruction, get certified by the state, and go through an extensive background check to be associated with prostitution. It’s “massage therapist” and “massage clinic”, please. Continue reading “10 Things Your Massage Therapist Wants You to Know”

Top 5 Running Injuries

Runners of all skill levels usually experience some kind of injury, ache or pain. Most of the time, running injuries happen when you overexert, or when you’re not paying attention to proper body mechanics, or sometimes just dumb luck.

Here’s a quick list of the top five of the most common injuries (WebMD, et al) and some ideas about how to treat them.

1. Runner’s knee. Basically, this is when your form, running shoes, or terrain causes your kneecap to misalign. You’ll especially feel this when sitting for a long time, squatting, or climbing a hill or stairs. Over time, the cartilage around your kneecap can wear down causing bone-to-bone friction which results in pain, especially around the edges of your kneecap.

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Massage for Insomnia

Disrupted sleep patterns happen to everyone at one time or another because of temporary factors, like a snoring partner or medication. Unfortunately, there are other factors, like stress, that can cause sleep patterns to disrupt, sometimes over a long time.

The typical adult needs slightly more than 8 hours of sleep every day, but fewer than 35% of American adults get this level of rest. Actual insomnia is defined as difficulty initiating, or maintaining sleep 3 or more nights in a week, in addition to sleep related daytime impairment. Typically, someone with insomnia feels unrefreshed when they wake, can’t get to sleep despite being really tired, has daytime drowsiness or fatigue, sometimes has difficulty concentrating, sometimes gets headaches.

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408K Race to the Row

It’s Sunday, March 1, a beautiful and sunny California morning and thousands of runners made their way on an 8K run/walk from San Jose’s SAP CENTER (aka Shark Tank), through some of San Jose’s more charming neighborhoods, to the outdoor shopping mecca, Santana Row, as part of the 4th Annual San Jose 408K RACE TO THE ROW.

In addition to being a fun race, the quirky running event features lots of things you won’t find at every race event. Here’s a quick list of a few highlights from the 2015 event:

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