Heavy Metal (lifting it)
have had a pretty varied life in terms of how I keep fit and healthy.
Once upon a time, it was 2 hour aerobic and step classes in Aberdeen, wearing outfits that looks like I should be using them to floss my teeth (thongs I tell you!!! Thongs!!!), then it was weightlifting following a manual written by Gladys Portuguese, then it was hanging out with boyfriends that were bad for my health and nightclubbing far too much, then it was the boyfriend who used to pick a fight with me when we were out running so I would pick up the pace, shouting, 'come back here and say that you b*stard!'
'Where did you get that lovely tan?' 'Abernethy'
Caring for the skin you’re in: staying sun safe
Massage therapists see a lot of skin. All colours, all textures. Freckles, scars, stretch marks, moles. Skin with lots of hair and skin with none. Skin doesn’t surprise us.
The Rotator Cuff - A short explanation
Dealing With Rotator Cuff Injuries
You’ve been doing Olympic lifting for a while. Or stocking tall shelves. Or doing DIY in the house. Everything was great! Until suddenly, it wasn’t. Ice and ibuprofen didn’t quite do the trick, so you visited the doctor. And lo and behold, you’ve got a rotator cuff injury and two questions:
Me doing my own head in
Thinking. It’s a funny thing, isn’t it? I’m pretty sure if you asked anyone to explain what it actually was, they’d have a fairly hard time doing so (even Wikipedia doesn’t know – I checked). Apparently, it’s got something to do with ideas, and it’s a thing that we do to ‘organise’ them.
Doing your own head in.
This project is such a headache!”
They’re so common that the term has become synonymous with an annoyance, but what are headaches, really? And can massage therapy really help?
Stress, anxiety, and massage
The word 'stress' can even bring about stress, just hearing it can make the hairs on the back of the neck stand on end for some people. It does get a bad rap. However, SOME stress is good for us. It's what I call motivational stress. I have a wee sliding scale on my consultation form where clients can score from 1 to 10 how much stress they feel.
In praise of the low impact workout
So anyway... as well as being a massage therapist, I kind of see my place in the world as being the kind of person who makes the mistakes, so you don't have to, or in this case, come across an absolute golden nugget, and feel the need to pass it on!
Massage Myth Busters!
Contraindication is a long word with a simple meaning: a reason you shouldn’t receive a particular treatment, such as a massage. There are local contraindications—things like a small wound—that shouldn’t be massaged directly, but that don’t mean you can’t still get a perfectly good massage on other parts of your body. Then there are general contraindications, or situations in which you shouldn’t get a massage at all.
The low down on plastic in my life
This is a subject that has been on my radar for a few years now, but it's only started to gather momentum following Blue Planet 2. I really enjoyed watching parts of it, but I am total woose and can only handle so much animal trauma. Those poor bloody penguins!!!
Surviving Christmas/The Holidays/Winter
December! All rules are out of the window! Chocolate for breakfast, an inability to find the 'off' switch when it come to Quality Street, and prosecco at 10am.
I'm writing this primarily for ME as I am having flashbacks to last Christmas and New Year when my sleep pattern basically went to the dogs, and I developed a habit of sleeping till 11am.