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keep your hands free and turn off the screen of your phone to conserve battery life |
Diaphragmatic breathing will keep your muscles from fighting against the forced relaxation |
This has the added benefit of reducing the extent of soreness afterward |
Illustration A Massage of the temporal muscles B Skeletal muscles of the back C Neck massage |
Most masseuses whether they realize it or not specialize in treating the muscles of |
respiration This is because any muscle of the torso can be seen as a muscle of respiration After |
all every one of them either mobilizes or stabilizes breathing motions Remember how we said |
that breathing with the muscles surrounding the thorax and clavicles is especially unhealthy |
Any decent massage of the neck shoulders or back will release those muscles helping diminish |
the strain responsible for thoracic and clavicular breathing Also you will find that during a |
relaxing massage your breathing becomes diaphragmatic on its own and that the activity of |
your sympathetic stress system plunges Stress and anxiety cannot remain chronic if you give |
yourself intermittent restorative breaks in the form of professional massages |
Receiving regular professional massages will teach you how a good massage manipulates |
muscle making it easier to give yourself or others effective massage later on You will also |
quickly learn where on your body the muscles are dormant so that you can compress them |
yourself Additionally massage conditions dominant traits such as not flinching or pulling away |
when touched relaxing completely around others and being comfortable while in close |
physical contact with people you dont know well These traits will add to your overall sense of |
ease and confidence in the world around you |
Chapter Release Tense Muscle with Massage |
Massage Activity Visualization During Massage |
Every time you get a massage spend some time noticing what the masseuse is doing to |
your body Note the tempo the pressure and the locations they focus on Notice what |
areas are sore and how they respond to pressure Pay particular attention to the |
technique the masseuse uses what body parts they employ and how Visualize what the |
masseuse is doing to you and visualize yourself doing the same to your muscles or those |
of others Spending time picturing yourself giving the massage will make you a fantastic |
masseuse in no time |
Due to reductions in chronic tension and an increased blood supply after a highquality deep |
tissue massage you will find yourself able to jump higher run faster and bench press more |
You will have more energy better endurance and exercising will be more pleasurable To help |
capitalize on those improvements strongly recommend exercising before a deep tissue |
massage Afterward you want to stretch and exercise the muscles that have been released |
but you dont want to overload them You do not want to go to a batting cage lift heavy weights |
spar or load up a moving truck Do these things before a deep tissue massage but not after |
Most importantly massage will allow you to flex into and exercise within positions that |
were previously barricaded You will find that you can contract portions of muscles that were |
once completely unavailable They become available because the massage gives them a |
temporary blood supply allowing them to flex like healthy active muscle tissue is supposed to |
Subsequent chapters will detail how to combine massage with exercise to reopen |
musculoskeletal obstructions |
recommend trying as many different masseuses as possible Almost any massage is going |
to be of value but only a certain percentage of masseuses are worth your time and money |
Your goal is to find the masseuses in your vicinity who are best at searching out and pressing |
into the aching tense parts of your body This does not necessarily mean paying top dollar The |
most helpful massages have received myself were not the most expensive ones The Chinese |
acupressure studio in the mall near my home is consistently the best In my experience |
traditional Chinese massage has excellent biological validity They know where trigger points |
are and how to compress them firmly while slightly varying the location of pressure every few |
seconds also stand by Thai massage medical massage sports massage active release |
technique osteopathic manipulation myofascial release therapy and trigger point therapy |
With a skilled practitioner each of those schools can lead to extremely positive outcomes |
Tension Insanity Excitement |
Having reviewed the most important ways in which touch can heal lets return to the story that |
opened the chapter That was not the only time found my friend in crisis Nor was it the worst |
The third time had to take my friend to the hospital was the most dramatic Homeless |
again he had spent a few weeks with some mutual friends One of them was another transient |
who harried and browbeat him constantly After less than a week of this abuse his speech was |
accelerated and the things he said came primarily from resentment and frustration One day |
was looking after him along with a woman he was dating We watched his mental state slowly |
devolve over just a few hours and by nighttime his behavior was delirious He was pacing and |
PROGRAM PEACE Self Care Exercises to Reprogram Your Mind and Body |
ranting in a state of purposeless volatility In the episode described at the beginning of this |
chapter my friend was in a state of catatonic stupor This time his condition was catatonic |
excitement commonly cited as one of the most dangerous mental states in psychiatry |
Patients in a state of catatonic excitement are completely impulsive and exhibit bizarre |
nongoaldirected hyperactivity My friend was storming around restlessly pointing yelling |
and making wild accusations raving about a new topic every two sentences It took me |
minutes of this to realize that even though he was on his feet and talking he was barely |
conscious His nonsensical incoherent ranting seemed inexhaustible He wouldnt let anyone |
touch him and started yelling when any of us came near him or made eye contact He |
repeatedly jabbed his finger into the chest of a common friend while screaming As soon as he |
made a violent physical overture toward his girlfriend quickly but gently used a wrestling |
takedown to bring him to the floor knew that using physical force with a person with a mental |
health condition is unethical but reacted to protect the others spoke to him in a friendly |
authoritative way and massaged him firmly kneaded the muscles along his spine for a half |
hour until he started weeping in relief Remarkably our friends were able to talk him into going |
back to the place he dreaded the most cant imagine that any intervention other than |
massage could have helped him relax enough to make that choice willingly |
It was his third admission to a psychiatric hospital in two years After four days there he was |
expelled for fighting with other patients spent hours searching streets near the institution |
before found him shivering in the rain He was frenzied rambling madly with a swollen lip and a |
gash over his eye All his medications had been stolen from him and he was crashing down as |
the prescribed drugs cleared from his cerebral circulation Withdrawal from the sedatives and |
antipsychotics caused his sympathetic stress system to go berserk realized that no matter what |
we did he would seek out and engage the most upsetting aspect of any scenario put us in |
So we avoided stimulation checked us into a hotel in a quiet neighborhood and spent |
three days with him working hard to remain as calm and as boring as possible To avoid |
overstimulating him hid my phone and took the rooms television down to the front desk At |
that time he could only fathom what was physically in front of him so because there was no |
television in the room he didnt miss it Instead brought a few board games for us to play |
spent most of the time trying to be the perfect combination of nondominant and |
nonsubmissive He tried to dominate me he tried to act submissive toward me and ignored |
these so as not to reinforce either |
During that time also practiced many breathing exercises with him He said he liked them |
but he was so restless that he could only concentrate on them for a few seconds at a time He |
did not have the attention span necessary for paced breathing For this reason every half hour |
asked him to take one long slow inhalation and one complete exhalation while blowing on his |
finger He said it made him sleepy Calming our anxiety with proper breathing can make us |
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