Self Care and Body Mechanics

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Comment by heidi mitrus on April 7, 2010 at 12:21pm

Hi All,
Henry.I totally agree with you! I lean into the table, sit on the table,and utilize many ways of making sure i am coming from my feet and using my body weight.I believe that if I am feeling stress and strain in my body, the client is picking up on that tension as well.I am happy to have found this group.

Comment by Lauriann Greene, CEAS on March 12, 2010 at 11:00am

I noticed the thread below about hand self-care. I also like Yamuna and MELT, because they offer ways to self-massage the hands and arms without using your own hands and arms to do so. Just keep in mind that once you're a practicing MT, you don't want to be doing gripping exercises with the hands, since you're already doing a lot of work with your hands and the gripping (Power Putty, balls, etc.) adds repetitive motion that can contribute to injury. Those kinds of exercises are great when you're a student, because you do need to develop some strength in the small muscles of the hands and fingers, but once you're working, rolling-type therapies like Yamuna and MELT are preferable.

Comment by Lauriann Greene, CEAS on March 9, 2010 at 6:21pm

It's always great to hear that instructors are teaching their students about body mechanics. But it's important to remember that body mechanics does not, by itself, prevent injury. You can have great body mechanics and still get injured. It's very important to be aware of all of the risk factors for injury, to stay in shape for your work with exercise and stretching that takes into consideration the type of work you do, to take care of your general health and emotional well-being, and to treat symptoms early and effectively so they don't worsen. A multi-faceted, holistic approach to injury prevention is the only approach that has been proven to really work. Definitely work on your body mechanics, just make sure you're doing all those other things so you can stay healthy. And of course, the more you know about risk factors for work-related injury, the more you can educate your clients and help them prevent injury, too!

Comment by Shari Auth, LMT, L.Acu, NCBTMB on November 17, 2009 at 1:48pm

Hello Everyone,
I'm happy to announced the release of my new instructional massage DVD on forearm massage. The DVD is 74 minutes, it is beautifully shot and teaches how to give a full body massage using the forearms as the primary tool. This is great self care because it is less taxing on the more delicate joints of the hands. It also includes simple chi gong exercises for better body mechanics. To watch a preview please visit www.shariauth/DVD.html or go to shariauth.com and click DVD.
Wishing you healthy and long careers,
Shari

Comment by Karina Braun on September 16, 2009 at 5:57pm

Foam rollers are great.
However, I took the whole Yamuna Body Rolling series and I find that body rolling can be great for self-care. I lik ethe green ball the best.
Stay healthy!
Karina
www.igetintouch.com

Comment by Darcy Neibaur on September 15, 2009 at 6:11pm

Hi Shari,

I went looking for M. E. L. T. and was unscecessful. What do the letters stand for and where do I locate this item. I could not find it on the internet.

Comment by Mike Hinkle on September 14, 2009 at 12:50pm

A message from Karen Menehan to all members of Self Care and Body Mechanics on massage and bodywork professionals!

We are running two self-care articles in our October issue: "Beyond the Physical, Deeper Levels of Self-Care: Living the Questions," by Tom Myers; and "Stay the Course: 3 Keys to Injury Prevention and Career Longevity," by Marc Westergard. I'd love to receive any feedback on the articles from members of this group. Thanks! – Karen, www.massagemag.com, edit@massagemag.com.

Comment by Shari Auth, LMT, L.Acu, NCBTMB on September 13, 2009 at 1:15pm

Denarah,
I client of mine with hand issue introduce to M.E.L.T. which is a well designed kit that takes you through simple exercises with different sized little foam and rubber balls. It successfully loosens the joints of the hands. It's also easy to do and is the kind of thing you can do while watching a movie at home.
Peace,
Shari

Comment by Denarah McHold, LMT on September 2, 2009 at 6:35pm

What kind of hand exercises and stretches do you do to take care of your hands, thumbs, wrists?

Comment by Mara Canlas on August 9, 2009 at 6:39pm

I think I paid about $30 for mine. Look for one made of denser foam - not the white styrofoam kind. I have a fully round 36" long one, from OTPT.com, I think.

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