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.

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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.

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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. 

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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. 

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

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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.

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