There are certain things we do like clockwork. Generally we have our teeth cleaned every six months and book our next appointment after each cleaning. We change the oil in our vehicles at steady increments and don’t wait to run out of gas before we fill up. And most of us see our physicians annually in an effort to ensure our bodies are functioning optimally. And still it seems many of us may be a little confused about maintaining the physical performance of our bodies; particularly when it comes to our ability to move, perform and live without pain. Having been a personal trainer in Red Deer for more than twelve years I have encountered literally thousands of people that seemingly believe it’s normal to have a certain amount of physical pain in their lives as they age. From sore knees, elbows, hips and shoulders; to day to day back pain and headaches; many people feel this is an acceptable sign of aging.
I hope today, together we can break this paradigm. It’s not normal to live with pain, especially where serious injury is not a factor. Injury or not with some basic understanding of how our body works to move; chronic pain can often be reduced, eliminated or prevented altogether.
Massage is a key treatment for improving the health of soft tissue.
Soft tissue needs maintenance just like our teeth, cars and our internal organs and immune system. What we think of as the skin that covers our muscles and the muscles themselves is actually an elaborate system of multilayered tissue. The layers of tissue from the outer layer of the muscles (known as the fascia), the independent muscles in each group, and the layers of the skin are actually all designed to move freely over one another. Over time, lack of increased circulation and movement to different areas of our body, (primarily from in-activity involving these areas) allows adhesions to form that prevent these tissues from moving freely. A good example of this is pinching your skin. Someone very fit will often be able to pinch (just their skin without much if any fatty tissue) and have a lot of mobility of the skin when compared to someone not as fit. The fit person would have less impingement of their facial layers.
When our facial layers become impinged or are unable to move freely our body compensates by altering our patterns of movement, our posture, and joint alignment. Any and or all of these inevitably lead to pain and injury. As society continues to develop more conveniences our lifestyle habits provide more repetitive in-activity and ultimately the day to day pain that many people experience.
Here is what you need to know in order of priority to live a pain free life:
1) Treat soft-tissue impingement regularly. Massage therapy is one of the best treatments available to break apart facial adhesions and increase the mobility of the facial layers. The results of treatment are almost immediately notable. The problem with massage is most of us don’t use it enough. If you are currently experiencing day to day pain that is not related to a specific injury I highly recommend discussing treatment with a qualified massage therapist. A couple treatments in the same week followed by regular treatment 2-3 times per month will likely have significant and immediate impact on how you feel. Ongoing treatment in this fashion will almost certainly eliminate and prevent further pain throughout life.
2) A body in motion stays in motion. This simply means we need to move on a regular basis and if you don’t use it, you will lose it. Exercise is essential if you want to live a long, enjoyable pain free life, and when used with regular massage therapy goes a long way to guarantee prevention of pain. 30 minutes of steady motion of any kind (the more of your body in use the better) each week will be an acceptable minimum.
3) Maintain joint alignment. This recommendation is the most broad as it may be controversial with a number of people. People in general, active or not will likely experience some joint misalignment, the hazards of our complex internal structure versus gravity. Joint misalignment can often be improved with regular stretching, something that none of us ever do enough of. Ten minutes of static stretching per day (broken into 2-3 minute increments) will have a tremendous impact. A more direct approach would be to also work with a reputable chiropractor. Now not everyone is comfortable with a chiropractor, and even though I have worked with chiropractors most of my life even I am not comfortable with them all. I would recommend meeting with one before a consultation before ever receiving an adjustment and I would also recommend using a chiropractor who avoids using aggressive velocity adjustments.
If only everyone educated themselves and used these three services and therapies with the same type of regularity we do the dentist, lube shop or our physicians the world would be in a lot less pain.
