Stress Threshold, Stress Awareness, and Migraines

Here are some thoughts about how we deal with stress daily, hourly, and even down to the second. Every little thing adds up so you have to be mindful of your personal "Stress Threshold" and what triggers set you off, so you can prevent critical events like Migraines or Painful Flare-ups elsewhere in the body. 

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How Much Do You Squat, Bruh?

I'm not really asking how much weight you can stack on a bar for a set of Squats at the gym. The real question is, "How often do you Squat?" 

A Deep Resting Squat is one of the most natural positions for humans to spend time in, but unfortunately, most of us don't spend much time squatting at all, after we hit school age. If you watch toddlers exploring and playing in their environment, they will frequently squat down to look at something more closely and/or grab it to examine it physically. Soon, however, we start introducing the modern chair and table, which disconnects the lower body from the upper body. We don't need any flexibility or movement from the bottom half to bring things closer to our face and hands for learning. 

In "Developed" or "Western" countries, a typical young student will spend 8 hours a day sitting in a desk like these and maybe another 2-5 hours a day sitting in a cafeteria chair, a bus or car seat, and then some kind of chair at home doing homework. A physical education class or recess period will most likely be less than 1 hour. That's quite an imbalance, in my opinion, which sets up our bodies for failure later. In Traditional Thai Massage there's a philosophy that "Aging begins in the legs."Immobility and frailty of the hip joints are notoriously bad signs for elderly people. It's a shame that we set up those habits culturally, decades earlier. 

I just did some manual therapy on a patient who is an IT professional.  He is working through some lingering low back pain after a car accident, and shared that his coworker was suffering from sciatica. He asked if I knew any stretches for those issues. I told him to squat. Just get in a deep squat and sit for 20-30 seconds. It will feel very foreign at first, but you can slowly build up to longer. Just moving through that full range of motion a few times throughout the day will do wonders for back and hip flexibility.

A deep, comfortable, heels to the ground, body weight squat is invaluable for ankle mobility, plantar fasciitis relief, blood flow, lumbar discs, sciatic pain, and more. Even if you need to cheat by leaning your back into a wall as your tissues get accustomed to this infrequent positioning, give it a try every day for a week and see if you've improved in any way. 

Think about the squatting in terms of growth vs. gains. Sure it's easy to get some quick gains doing consistent sets of squats at the gym. You can rack up more and more weights and lift it easier and easier as you strengthen your ankles, legs, hips and low back over time. You can see and feel a difference. It's trackable in your workout log. That's all gains, but I'm talking about growth. Growth is when your brain figures out the balance of your body in 3 dimensional space, in every tiny, nuanced vector of force and resistance throughout the entire range of motion of the squatting exercise. Even better if you're dealing with uneven terrain during some of your squatting motions, as opposed to a perfectly flat even gym floor. Your brain has to be engaged during the exercise in addition to the gross muscles. Best case scenario, both your brain and muscles work in concert, to produce strong, stable, balanced, consistent, adaptable movement. The more holistic concept of growth is superior, in my opinion, to simple gains in numbers of pounds added to the bar. 


Here is a video that examines squatting vs. chairs and how it affects other movements throughout the body:

Healthy Stress Management vs. Training to Failure

Stress is ever present, so you can't shelter yourself forever. Since you can't eliminate stress, you have to learn to deal with it in an efficient way. Stress shapes who we are and how we interact with the world. All change is basically a form of stress and it's probably the most common source of stress in our modern, fast paced world. That means we have to deal with change to be able to manage stress efficiently.

Like many people, I have a hobby of running that relieves stress. I've been thinking about therapeutic properties of regular, aerobic exercise, but I also want to approach this as if I am building up my health, NOT breaking it down, recovering, and overworking again- cycling through pain and exercise with a "No Pain, No Gain" attitude. That's what I see in many of my clients who do marathons and triathlons, unless they have already taken several years to build up to that elite status.

That being said, we must start slow and steady- a little bit every day. Let's go for a short, peaceful run to build up some oxygen and pump the heart, instead of training to exhaustion. 

Here's a great video about how important it is to use your Brain to understand how Stress is affecting your Body- to have a healthy perspective about it.

How Much Water Should I Drink after a Massage?

The other day I got to speak with a particularly inquisitive massage therapy client, who likes to get each different therapist's unique perspective on his situation, by asking thoughtful questions throughout the massage. I like his questions, because I feel that he takes advantage of my hands and my brain.

When leaving this last time, he asked me, "How much water should I drink after a massage?" I have several stock answers, because it's a common question, but my most common answer is "The most important thing is to stay well hydrated all the time. One half your body weight in ounces- for example, if you weigh 100 pounds, drink 50 ounces of water daily, to maintain normal hydration. Then, drink a bit more, like you've had a good workout, to minimize soreness from the massage."

Hydration is very subjective, however. My inquisitive client got me thinking. Staying hydrated all the time is the key. It's just like sleeping habits. If I only sleep 4-5 hours a night with loud ambient noise and bright lights, most nights, then sleeping 12 hours on the weekend days isn't going to help much. I get clients who come in with a gallon jug of water and start chugging as soon as they stand up from the table. If they are primarily drinking energy drinks, diet soda and coffee most days, and only have a little bit of water daily, that gallon after the massage is an extreme change!

The body doesn't handle extreme changes well. Your body prefers consistent, well balanced habits. The gallon chugger probably isn't going to hurt himself, if he is already well hydrated from consistent intake of clean water as a daily practice. So, like getting a good night's sleep regularly, staying hydrated consistently will keep the body functioning optimally before, during, and after the massage.

Check out this Water Intake Calculator with several unit conversions.

*Notice I didn't say anything about "Toxins." Neither massage nor reflexology are flushing out Toxins into your bloodstream. That's been debunked as the science has advanced. Here's a good article about that from Massage Magazine. 

What's the Difference Between Sports Massage and Deep Tissue Massage?

Yesterday I had a couples massage on a regular client. Afterward, when washing up, the other therapist said that I had done one of the best "Sports Massages" she had ever seen. That compliment was funny to me, because I was doing much more rehab/injury type work than sports work. The client had been working with a Chiropractor daily for a week to resolve some severe lumbar pain and spasm. I was thinking way more about that challenge, than preparing him to get back to training for the half marathon he has coming up. His sedentary desk job was exacerbating the issue just as much as running would have.

I mention this, because I feel like there's a lot of confusion about "Sports Massage" and what that label means. To me, it is applying Myofascial Release, Neuromuscular Therapy, Structural/Postural Alignment, Stretching and/or Flushing Swedish techniques to a specific soft tissue imbalance, in a person who is doing something athletic. I can use this very same definition for "Deep Tissue Massage" except that the client may not be using his body for specifically sports or athletic training. Sitting at a computer several hours a day isn't "Athletic," but it is using the body repetitively. Which is the unifying theme- Repetition.

There's not a list of secret "Sports" techniques that only apply to athletes. I'm going to do whatever kind of massage the client needs for the specific problem area that day. Problem areas usually come from some kind of repetition mixed with imbalance. When the body is not used to doing a movement and is then forced to repeat the movement, you create strain. After strain comes compensation,  creating more imbalance. I'm going to look at any client who comes to me from that perspective; to unravel the compensation, imbalance and overuse to restore the optimal movement in the body. If you want to call that "Sports Massage," I'm happy to take the compliment. If you want to call that "Deep Tissue Massage," we are starting to speak the same language.

Stress Pandemic by Paul Huljich Book Review

The latest book in my recommended reading list is Paul Huljich's Stress Pandemic: 9 Natural steps to Survive, Master Stress, and Live Well. It is a good overview, greatest-hits-of-health kind of book that is probably going to cover a lot of things you already know, but it's worth the refresher.

http://www.stresspandemic.com/

Spoiler Alert! None of the "9 Natural Steps" in this "Lifestyle Solution" is Massage Therapy. That being said, there is plenty of good stress management info here. What are the 9 steps?

1. Take Charge
2. Kick Your Bad Habits
3. Learn to Say No
4. Affirmations
5. Exercise
6. Nutrition
7. Sleep
8. The Power of Awareness
9. Don't Give Up

How do I apply these 9 steps to my life?

1. I take charge by researching methods to improve myself by reading books (like this one), watching documentaries (usually about health and nutrition), blogging about how I apply the stuff I learn (like I'm doing now), and I make a clear plan of attack utilizing moderate, attainable goals.

2. Everyone has bad habits. Mine include but are not limited to: staying up late, Chinese buffets, and being a workaholic. Some have easy solutions, like going to bed earlier and avoiding Chinese buffets. The workaholism, however, takes some more planning to better prioritize my time. The trick is to be aware of the bad habits and make positive strides in the right direction, once you recognize your less desirable trends.

3. Saying "No" is hard for me, see the aforementioned workaholism, because I usually have a multitude of good options of things to do with my time and energy. I'm always struggling to say no to stuff I actually want to do. Also, because I am constantly cranking the gears in my introverted head, I have many ideas and projects in development, which are hard to put aside. Prioritizing is big on this one too.

4. I have to admit, I have a huge ego. I rarely need affirmations, from myself or others, to boost my mood or self esteem. I don't spend much time looking in the mirror talking myself up, but I don't want to discount that as a good practice for many people for stress reduction, to gain perspective about their self image.

5. Personally, my favorite exercise is bike riding. I am a "bicyclist" and not a "cyclist" for many reasons, but the neurotic stress related to being a "cyclist" is the primary one. Since we moved into an apartment, I walk our tall leggy greyhound mix dog 3 times a day for about a half mile each walk. This relieves my stress immensely, because it gets me going first thing in the morning and helps me decompress from work as I look at the stars and breathe in fresh air at the end of the day.  Since we moved, we are also much closer to several gorgeous beaches. Some within biking distance. If you're stressed while walking on the beach, you have bigger problems than this massage therapist can fix.

Watching the sunset this evening, from my bike seat.

6. There was a lot of good nutrition info in the book. I love my veggie juice, Nutribullet smoothies, and mono-meals. The juice and smoothies help me boost my intake of healthful foods in a quick and easy way. One food mono-meals, like eating a bunch of bananas for dinner at work, keeps things simple. It takes about 30 seconds to prep my lunch before I leave the house. It's super easy for my body to burn the food when it's one ingredient, and I don't have to leave work, wait in a line at a restaurant, and rush back in time to eat it.

7. Like I said above, my natural tendency is to stay up late and sleep less than I should. Lately, I've been listening to brain wave based, sleep enhancing music which is supposed to enhance the quality of the sleep. I am also striving towards consistency in terms of sleeping the same 8 hours every night, at the same room temperature, and with a sleeping mask.

8. Awareness, in my opinion, should be #1 on this list. Knowing what is stressing you is the first step to "Master Stress" so you can "Live Well." Either way, journaling (blogging in my case) to document what's going on in your life is a good way to be aware. Reading books like this one is also a good start to identify major, common stressors.

9. Don't give up. That one is hard to put a tangible description on. I guess I do it by using a results based approach. When I want to give up on something, I re-examine the results I want and what I'm doing wrong. If I don't know what's wrong with my routine/methods/practices, I hit the books and search the internet for better info. If I can find people who are getting the results I want, I am encouraged that it is possible to achieve, if I can learn how they did it.

So, take a look at this book and take steps towards Living Well!

Is Deep Tissue Massage Supposed to Hurt?

Here are some of my thoughts about "Deep Tissue Massage" and how that terminology is misleading to everybody involved- Clients, Patients, Therapists, Spa Owners, Medical Professionals and more. 



Long story short, any kind of bodywork- massage, stretching, reflexology, or movement training should be within Your tolerance and boundaries of comfort as a client or patient being treated. Just because you might be able to survive a session of torture, doesn't mean that's the best way to get your body to move or perform at it's best. Look for a therapist or trainer who understands that. Don't give your hard earned money to someone who doesn't apply appropriate levels of pressure to accommodate what's going on in Your Body on that day. Look for a professional who uses his brain as much as his brute strength. 

Dr. Mark Hyman Nutrition Interview

Here is an INTERVIEW with Functional Medicine Doctor Mark Hyman. In it he talks about food, nutrition, how to optimize your health by balance between food and movement, and some exciting changes in the healthcare system. 

Some key quotes:

"You cannot exercise your way out of a bad diet." Meaning that to compensate for poor dietary choices, you have to spend an impossible amount of time exercising. He uses the example of having to run a marathon everyday if you eat a Supersize McDonald's meal everyday. 

"The microbiome...and gene expression changes with every single bite you put in your body." It does not take weeks or months to give yourself positive wellness progress. He goes on to speak about quality of food being the key to the long term plan. 

"Sugar is a recreational drug." Here he compares sugar to tequila. You would never pour a shot of tequila in your morning coffee, have a tequila filled candy bar in the mid afternoon and follow dinner every night with a bowl of tequila with chocolate sauce. The point is that sugar is way too prevalent and our bodies are functioning like we are walking around drunk all the time. 

"The higher fat vegan diet people lost more weight... and had better metabolic profiles..." We can't be afraid of fat, but the quality of fat is what has been throwing off our understanding of how it works in the body. Plant based fats, like nuts and seeds, avocados, and coconuts are extremely helpful to boosting health. Conversely, canola oil, which we generally buy when it is already rancid, is horrible for your health. 

What does the good doctor eat? "I eat mostly plant foods." His example goes from 75-90% veggie. He says his favorite fat is actually lamb fat. He indulges with dark chocolate covered almonds.

Dr. Hyman also mentions the Glycemic Index and how powerful it is to controlling hunger and hormonal reactions. 

 


The last big point of interest for me in this interview was how Dr. Hyman helped develop the Daniel Plan with Dr. Daniel Amen the "Brain Doctor." He asks what would we serve to Jesus Christ is he came to dinner. Would we serve God-made food or Man-made food? Good question. 

Book Review: Eat Move Sleep by Tom Rath

I just read through an accessible, informative wellness book called Eat Move Sleep: How Small Choices Lead to Big Changes. The author, Tom Rath has a rare genetic condition that makes him incredibly susceptible to cancer. He has compiled a book full of his lifestyle choices that have helped him to beat the cancer progression clock. I like this book because most of the tips are easy to implement and have a sound scientific basis. 

If I could change one thing about the book, I would organize it a bit differently. Each chapter has one piece of each topic- Eating, Moving, and Sleeping. Sometimes they are related, other times, not so much. Each chapter is bite sized and useful, so it's not a big deal, but I was a little distracted by the organization. 

Here are some quotes from the book which give you an idea of the kinds of topics he covers. All of these claims are backed up with evidence and/or personal experience. 

"Sitting for many hours encourages fat cells to congregate near your rear."

"A mere 20 minutes of moderate activity could significantly improve your mood for the next 12 hours."

"When your body's motions are not aligned and balanced. Using one side of your body far more than the other, for example, can create uneven wear and serious back problems over time."

"One spinal surgeon put it, be careful to avoid bending, lifting, and twisting in particular. During these three motions, your spine is the most vulnerable to injury."

"Exposure to light in the hours before you go to sleep suppresses melatonin levels. Lower melatonin levels make it hard to fall asleep, decrease sleep quality, and could even increase the risk of high blood pressure and diabetes. "

"Getting more protein from fruits, vegetables, nuts, and fish will also increase your intake of omega-3's, which are deficient in most people's diets today."

"I keep pictures of my wife and kids directly above my desk and treadmill. This reminds me that my staying active matters as much for the people I care about as it does for myself."

"Use plates with a diameter closer to the length of your hand than to the length of your foot."

"The impact of plate color alone is quite dramatic. They found a clear contrast between food and plate keeps people from overeating."

"Sleep is a treasure, and it should be valued as one. Yet for many of us, sleep is the first thing we cast aside."

"If you structure your activity to end on a high note, you are more likely to do it again."

"Exercise creates an immediate benefit for your memory."

"Higher levels of physical activity are consistently related to greater brain volume."

"Vigorous workouts in the hours right before bed are likely to improve sleep significantly."

"People who were on teams with more social influence increased their odds of losing weight by 20 percent."

"Pick one food you eat even though you know you shouldn't. Give it a nickname that will make you think twice about eating it."

"People who eat breakfast are smarter and skinnier."

"Eating breakfast foods with a low glycemic index prevents spikes in blood sugar later in the day, which could make for better choices in the afternoon and evening."

"Data show that people who spend more than four hours a day watching video are more than twice as likely to have a major cardiac event that kills them..."

"Researchers found that for every extra hour of total commuting time per day, you would need a corresponding 40 percent increase in your salary to make the added car time worthwhile."

"People with severe sleep apnea had a 65 percent higher risk of developing cancer."

"During a 3 week disruption [of sleep patterns], the participants' glucose control went haywire...could easily set the stage for development of diabetes and obesity..."


This book contains a great deal of wisdom and I highly recommend it. I found personally that it gave me some fresh ideas and perspectives for tweaking the way I eat, move and sleep. Because I am such a nerd about these health fundamentals, I frequently re-evaluate how to optimize them for myself, and this book both reminded me of shortcomings and encouraged me to overcome them. 

Fluid Movement

Something fascinating occurred to me, while studying the Urinary System in great detail during my Reflexology training. The fluid and mineral balance in the body is constantly changing and dynamic. This affects even the most rigid structures. We need to get away from the idea that the body has any truly hard, permanent, unchanging pieces. We're mostly made of salt water and our bones are like coral reefs- alive, growing, adapting to currents (habitual postural patterns) and interdependent with the sea water (blood) around them. 

I'm guilty too- I think about my body as being a solid mass of stuff that stopped growing after I got into my early 20's. The urinary system underlines the fact that I'm wrong. Water movement, filtration, and mineral exchange happens second by second. Hopefully, when properly hydrated, we should be peeing several times a day. A hard, rigid system, like a marble statue, would find itself highly stressed, if it had to convert marble to saltwater several times a day. We are not solid statues and thankfully, reflexology, massage, stretching and movement can promote healthy fluid and mineral exchange in a calming, balanced way, because our bodies are fluid and constantly adapting. 

What is Foot Reading in Reflexology?

Western Reflexology is based on the Nervous System and how it has connections to every part of the entire body. The extremities, namely the Feet, Hands, Face, and Ears, can be analyzed and manipulated to create balance in other areas of the body. A good starting point for visualizing this is by using Electrical wiring as a metaphor. 

You may have seen a Reflexology Chart or Map.

Source

And you may have seen a Fuse box labeled on a diagram, in your car perhaps.

93 Ford Mustang GT Source

Looking at the diagrams on paper only goes so far though. Without seeing the real thing, touching the switches, and making physical changes, you're not going to gain any understanding of what's happening- either good or bad. 

In your house, you have a Fuse box, which should have every major area of the house labeled. If the "Oven" fuse is blown, you know there is a problem with the Oven, but if the Air Conditioner fuse is blown, you're probably going to ignore the Oven when you're trying to fix the problem. Resetting the A/C fuse won't necessarily fix whatever malfunction is in the cooling system, but it's an indicator of where you should put your fixing/maintenance resources.

Source

Likewise, if you have a sore spot on your foot, hand, face or ear, it can lead you to where your body is in need of some kind of repair or balance. A Reflexologist is trained to look for many types of "Markers" beyond simple sore spots. For example, inflamed areas, redness, moisture, dryness, cracking, warts, callouses, and coldness would all have meaning when trying to figure out what's going on in the body. That's where the basic fuse box with its On/Off switches is an oversimplified example. 

Top Outside Inflammation Source

Dorsal Lateral Inflammation Source

The human body is a wondrously complex organism and the extremities are just reflecting that complexity. A better visual would be a city's Power Grid. 

Source

Having a huge, color coded display would allow an Electrical Engineer to have a much greater understanding of the interdependent dynamics of the electricity as it functions, or dysfunctions, in real time, in the grid. A Reflexologist looking at the feet can understand how the interdependent systems of the body are functioning now, or how they changed over time.  

The electrical engineer might be able to "Read" a blown transformer from the "Screen" that reflects the state of the entire system. 

Source

The Reflexologist might be able to "Read" a highly stressed Heart from the "Screen" of the Foot.

Source

Reflexology is a "Holistic" technique, which means that the goal during the session is to create balance in the entire body, instead of just trying to focus on one organ, like the heart, in isolation. In our blown transformer example, the engineer sent to fix it would need to look at many variables. Was there something broken structurally? Was there an outside stressor like Lightning? Were there tree branches slowly growing into and getting tangled around the wiring? Did a homeless guy build a fire in a garbage can that got out of control?

If the engineer just goes in and takes out the bad part and replaces it, without understanding the bigger picture, it's probably not going to actually be fixed- much less functioning optimally. 

Reflexology will aim to create balance and relaxation in the whole body, to take pressure off of the broken/inflamed/malfunctioning area, so that everything can work at the highest possible level. 

Big Picture Healing.

Source

What is Profound Therapies?

Let's start with some general definitions...

Profound- Having or showing great Knowledge or Insight, Demanding Deep Study or Thought, Extending to a Great Depth, Wise, Intelligent, Scholarly, Discerning, Perceptive, Thoughtful, Insightful.

Therapy- To Attend, do Service, Take Care of during a Remedial, Rehabilitating, or Curative Process; An act or task that Relieves Tension; a Healing Power or Quality.

As a Bodyworker (Licensed Massage Therapist, Certified Reflexologist, Certified Posture and Pain Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer) I have several core values that help shape how I can get the most "Profound" results for the clients and patients I see every day for Therapy.

Most people think of getting a Massage with a goal of having their Muscles Relax- and that's about it. Over years of experience and advanced training from many perspectives, I've learned that you cannot separate or isolate any specific system of the body. Each and every cell in the body is connected to Nerves, Fascia, and Blood flow. I cannot massage or stretch any specific muscle alone, and if I did, it would be meaningless taken out of context of the Holistic Body in the 3 Dimensional World.

The Brain is the director of everything that goes on in the body, using the nervous system to gather information from the world and then to distribute calls for action in response to that information.

Profound Therapies is built around respecting the Nervous System to benefit the Body as a Whole Structure. As a Therapist, I can communicate with the Brain in several ways- Massage, Reflexology, Stretching, Verbal Coaching, Functional Training, and Passive or Assisted Joint Movement.

So the biggest Core Value of Profound Therapies is that I approach Your Body on the Table with respect for Your Brain. You are the boss of what's going on. If your Brain thinks I'm attacking Your Body, it's going to put up walls and barriers against me, which is the opposite of the results we want. Walls are stiff and hard to move. You want to move better, with Less Restriction, right?

Ice

That's the difference between Deep Tissue Massage and Profound Therapy. You get to take advantage of my Thoughtful, Discerning, Knowledgeable, Scholarly training to get the Results you want, without being sore, bruised, and inflamed after the session. You shouldn't have to recover from a massage or training session. Brute Force does NOT benefit Your Brain or Your Body.