Posts from the ‘Massage / Bodywork’ Category
For all you New Year’s Resolution people, here’s one to add to your list:
Buy a foam roller. Now.
Don’t like resolutions? Fine.
Backache? Stiff neck? Sore shoulders? Tight hamstrings? Tight…ass?
I repeat. Buy a foam roller. Now.
I swear, this thing has done more for me in the past week than anything else. As you might remember, my body has been testing me in all sorts of ways in the past few months. First a back injury, then a broken foot, then major muscle and joint pain. The back was by far the most debilitating though. A few days before Christmas I was at a theater and actually had to leave because it hurt so badly to sit in the seat. The back doctor I saw basically told me to “avoid forward bending for 8 weeks.” Um…ok. YOU TRY THAT.
I know that things are getting tighter these days since I’ve had to pretty much avoid all traditional yoga poses (broken foot = big clunky boot). So about a week ago I decided I was going to try anything and everything I knew I could do on my mat. Starting with kneeling sun salutations. I’m going to post a video of this little ditty soon, but it goes like this:
- Child’s pose
- Inhale to knees, arms to sky
- Exhale hands down in front to you, slide forward as you bring chest and chin to the floor (hips up, back arched)
- Finish exhale with entire body on mat, hands underneath shoulders
- Inhale into cobra, draw shoulders back, collarbone wide
- Exhale push back into child’s pose
- Repeat 8-10x
My teacher Marco taught this in his Slow Flow and I just fell in love with the practice. Opens hips, chest, shoulders, side body and gets spinal fluids going. Score!
But wait, this is about foam rolling. Yes. Meet your new best friend:
Foam rollers feel really hard and I’m not gonna lie, they hurt. But it’s that GOOD HURT – the one that makes you beg for the male massage therapist with the big hands. That’s how you know you’re hitting the good spots!
So what should you use it for, you ask? Everything.
I intuitively knew the tightness in my back was stemming from a lot of places: glutes, hamstrings, IT band, quads and the muscles from the neck down to the sacrum. Yes – that’s a lot. Yet it’s all the same. Remember the conversation about fascia? Everything is connected, so are you really surprised?
My favorite is workin’ the piriformis and the glutes (ie. your booty!):
Click through for some other tips from Runner’s World.
For those of you with pain and tightness in the shoulders, try rolling along your mid- to upper-back with your hands laced behind the nape of your neck. Every time I do this, I literally hear cracking along my spine and it feels like an instant chiropractic adjustment. It got rid of this nagging pain in my right shoulder literally in one day.
The coolest thing about foam rolling is that you are basically getting free myofascial release therapy and you control everything: the pressure, how long you spend on one area, what gets more attention. So here’s what you can do.
- Use the foam roller every day after you stretch. (You are stretching, right?)
- Roll slowly and evenly. Imagine a massage: how slow do you like it?
- If you’ve got serious IT band tightness from running, cycling, etc. be sure to give the outside of your thighs extra attention
- When you hit a spot that is really talking to you – and believe me, you will – stay there for at least 30 seconds
- It’s going to hurt at times. If an area is too tender, adjust your body weight accordingly
- Breathe through the pain and mentally soften the spots you’re working
- Remember: You can’t release muscles when you’re tightening them!
You can buy these for very little money and in different sizes. I opt for the shorter one because it’s easier to maneuver and I can travel with it. In fact, I took this home for Christmas and after all the gifts were opened, guess what my 4 nieces and nephews were fighting over to play with??
Cheers to rolling into 2012 tension-free!
I’m hanging up my nomad hat. Retiring my gypsy skirt. Clipping my butterfly wings.
Ok, that’s a little dramatic. But I am, after over a year of wanderlusting around the world, settling down moving into an apartment of my own and staying in one place…for a while.
Destination: Denver!
About a year and a half ago, as the urge to leave New York City grew stronger and stronger, I had an intense cross-country romance with an awesome guy in Denver, who I oh-so-creatively nicknamed “Denver”. After one visit, I was hooked on Denver (the city), but not the guy (sorry G!). With the notion of leave NYC becoming more and more real, I realized that I needed a bigger change and started dreaming up a serious plan, starting with India. I had no idea where I’d end up, and I didn’t really care. There was a part of me that still loved the idea of moving to Denver, but I was open to anything and everything that could happen in the next year or two. So off I went to India, armed with one bag and a heart full of adventure.
Those seven months around Asia were beyond amazing. Setting foot in India, Thailand and Bali, I knew I’d be coming back. Along the way I met incredible people, many of whom were perpetual travelers. These people, these professional wanderers, intrigued me to no end. They live their life differently. Why not?
Back in the US in June, I was not ready to make any long-term decisions. I setup shop in my family’s summer cabin in the woods of Northern Michigan. Three inspiring months of teaching yoga, doing Thai Massage, cycling and spending time with family. It was perfect.
Come end of July, I started hopping around again with Michigan as my base. First stop: Wanderlust Festival in Lake Tahoe. Wow. This yoga/music festival was pretty much life-changing in more ways than one. Most notably, I fell madly in love with someone I thought was my soulmate. All of the sudden, all bets were off and we wanted nothing more than to be together. Which would require me to shift some big plans I’d made and move to Salt Lake City. Suddenly, the idea of settling down and growing some roots was very attractive. But not yet. I had another two months of traveling ahead of me.
In short, those months went like this: Tahoe –> Michigan –> Salt Lake City –> Michigan –> New York City –> Upstate NY –> New York City –> Michigan –> St. Louis –> Salt Lake City –> St. Louis –> Chicago –> St. Louis.
I know, it’s exhausting to even think about. I was done. In more ways than one.
In the course of that whirlwind, my heart was broken, my health was slipping and I had no clue where to go. I ended up back in my parent’s house in St. Louis, Missouri. For the first time in ten years I was back in the comfort of my childhood home, enjoying the freedom of doing nothing. So naturally, two weeks of sleeping ensued.
I am a big believer of the Universe sending us lessons. All the time. It’s up to us to learn from them.
Sometimes we are fortunate enough to experience and learn a valuable lesson in a considerably short time frame. Other times, we are not so lucky, drawing out wrong relationships and situations for years, even decades.
I somehow managed to fall madly in love, experience a bliss I never knew existed, proceeded to lose myself in that love, experience heartbreak, and go through the grieving process…all in ten weeks. Holy lessons learned!
[Enter Denver. Again.]
In the course of that beautiful love affair, I decided not to move forward with plans to go to massage school in Costa Rica. I was done with traveling to foreign countries for 4 months at a time. Plus, I wasn’t convinced a traditional massage school was the right path for me. I do Thai Yoga Massage and want to continue learning that craft, but I also want to study Western therapeutics and get my massage license. Well, it just so happens that the only school in the country (to my knowledge) that offers an integrative approach to massage – Thai Yoga Massage practicum + Western therapeutics training – is located in Denver. And classes start January 2012. I found all this out the day it was clear Salt Lake City was no longer happening. As usual, the timing is impeccable.
So here we are. I just returned from a quick Denver trip, visiting the school and securing an apartment. The place is perfect, the school exactly what I’m looking for. And the Denver yoga community is so inviting. I couldn’t be more excited. Finally, setting down roots, teaching long-term and starting my practice: exactly what I’ve been yearning for these past few months.
A kitchen. A studio space. A backyard with planter boxes. A hammock. Even a storage shed.
I’m trying not to be attached to these things, but, my goodness! After living out of a suitcase for over a year, they sure make things so very comfortable.
As my teacher told me, all this moving around from place to place creates a feverishness inside. It is true. Being physically grounded naturally lends itself to being mentally and emotionally grounded, as well.
Although, today I just finished reading Tales Of A Female Nomad. And find myself dreaming of my next chance to get away, take off with one bag and immerse myself in something totally new and foreign…
Namaste brave souls.
Amy Carole
