Self Treatment Workshop

I will be giving a workshop on Saturday April 16th called Self Treatment.  The idea of this workshop has been brewing in me for a while and is based on ideas that help to teach people how to take care of themselves in between physical therapy sessions or for general prevention.  When you have an injury, pain or disease that you have been dealing with sometimes it takes more than just a few exercises to help you heal.  You need to have tools that help to nourish the body, energize it, and help boost the healing process.

The tools that I will be teaching in April are a combination of different corrective and restorative techniques that can help to heal and help prevent injury.   The first tool I will introduce is Total Motion Release, where we will learn to find the good side of the body and treat it to help heal the bad side.  These techniques are simple, practical and they work.  They also help people to practice a deeper level of body awareness, as do all of the tools I will teach in the workshop, which is one of the keys to healing.

The next area of focus will be stretching.  I am going to help the participants understand the idea of myofascial stretching that addresses the deep connective tissue system of the body that can hold restrictions that cause pain and disease.  We will practice a couple different ways to stretch for a deep release.

And lastly I am going to show how to use body balls for soft tissue mobilization and myofascial release.  Using a tool to help put pressure into a restriction can be a wonderful way to achieve a release without the aid of the therapist.

If you have any questions about the workshop or the ideas mentioned above, please contact me:  email:  bodyworkspt@comcast.net or visit my website:  www.bodyworksptonline.com

The Million Dollar Question

How do we get ourselves to take action, making the steps toward our goals, desires and dreams?  I am calling that the million dollar question.  It is February, and by now we are past the excitement of the new year resolutions and wondering what happened to the enthusiasm.  I have had several conversations with clients and friends about what makes us take the actions we want to take to get us closer to our goals.  What will make us just do it?  What gets us from an idea in our head to moving our butts?  I think that there are some people who do not have an issue with action, in fact, they jump with two feet without barely thinking first.  And then, there are others who despite the best laid plans, thoughts, and goals, despite knowing exactly what it is that they need to do, don't.  And I could write a whole blog on the reasons people are being either way.  But the part that interests me most is how we get ourselves to act.  What does it take?  Moving from thought to doing, why is it lots of us get stuck in the thoughts.  The thoughts can become paralyzing in fact.  We think a lot.  Too much sometimes.  We think ourselves into fear.  We think we will fail.  We wonder how.  We think all these things instead of doing something, trying something, attempting it, initiating the conversation, booking the meeting, etc...   And then when we haven't met our goals, we spend the rest of the time thinking and worrying about that.
So whether you want to lose weight, be healthier, have a better relationship with a loved one, find the best job or pursue a passion, the key is action.  Find someone who is doing what you want to do and talk to them.  Make a phone call.  Tie up the laces and go for the walk.  Find your action step and make it.  Get help.  Enroll your friends in your possibility, and be responsible for it.  Show up for your life!

How to get stronger by being softer

Many of my clients are interested in being stronger.  And there are many advantages to working out with weights to achieve that goal, including stronger bones, improved metabolism, injury prevention, and so on. They have an idea in their mind though that the stronger, harder, more rigid they are, the better.  I want to pass on the idea that more strength does not come from being more of a hard body.  In fact, if you are too rigid, you will break!  I would like to suggest that strength can be gained by improving your mobility, flexibility and flow.  And by balancing the body.  The stronger and tighter we get, the more wound up our myofascial system is, the more pressure there is on the joints.  More pressure means compression of those joints.  Constant chronic compression of a joint can mean pain, restriction and arthritis.  Most of us need to balance our workout routines to include things that will decompress our musculoskeletal system.  That could include stretching, yoga, meditation/relaxation exercises, corrective exercises, or getting bodywork like myofascial release.  In general we need activities that will allow us to decompress, relax, elongate, and release our tightness.  With this release comes freedom and ease of movement, more flexibility, room for our joints to function properly, and magically, more strength!  A muscle no matter how much time you spend trying to make it stronger, if it is tight, shortened and compressed, will not perform well.
So begin to think about your routines for exercise and well being.  Are they balanced?  If you go 8 to 10 hours a day at a desk or other sedentary job, and your exercise routine consists of running 3-4 days a week, and doing weight exercises 2 times a week, you may be tightening your system even more.  While the exercises you have chosen will give you strength and cardiovascular conditioning, they are repetitive, and not varied.  If you begin to have feelings of tightness or mild pain or restriction, think about adding another component to your routine that will help you decompress.  You might be pleasantly surprised when your running, weights and work hours start to feel better!
You can find a lot more great information about these topics on the following websites:
www.myofascialrelease.com
www.totalmotionrelease.com
www.bodyworksptonline.com (that's me!)