To Thai or not to Thai?!?!

2 weeks ago my dear sister dragged me to Puri Thai for a "long overdue" thai massage!
The therapist in me had alarm bells ringing thinking of all the horrendous things these tiny asian woman were going to put my body through.
She couldn't understand my fear so I decided I would blog and explain to both her and all of you the deal behind my anxiety!

For those of you that don't know, a Thai massage is a massage where therapists use pressure from their fingers, palms, elbows, knees and feet to stretch your muscles in postures inspired from yoga.
You are fully clothed and no oils are used.
It started off well with her digging into my knots in my back and neck. However (fear #1 confirmed). Her pressure was way too hard and caused pain during the massage and bruising the next day. Massage is more about where you are applying the pressure then how hard the pressure is applied. So yes as a therapist we use pressure pointing but this is meant to help dissipate the spasm, and not cause bruising or secondary pain. Nonetheless it definitely helped loosen me up.
It continued with massage of the rest of my body and then LOTS of stretching!
(Fear #2 confirmed)! - So although alot of the stretches done are stretches I use on my patients on a daily basis, some were putting the body in hyperextension (which is not always recommended) and which makes me quite nervous. However, again, I felt loose and supple post massage and I loved being stretched instead of the one doing the stretching!

Leaving Puri Thai I was left with mixed feelings!


THE PROS:
 On the one hand I felt good, relaxed and rejuvinated , in a way I have never felt with a massage before. So as with normal aromatherapy massages, I would feel relaxed and ready for bed, here I felt rejuvenated, pain free and ready to take on anything! And this feeling lasted for at least a week as opposed to a few hours!

THE CONS :
I had bruising where she overdid the massage

My conclusion is that stretching is good for your body to help with aching muscles and that is what helped me that day, however I will be certain to tell my next therapist not to push so hard and that I don't want to hyperextend ANY part of my body! And yes as you may have gathered there shall be a next time! :)

Coca-Cola Playing an Active Role Symposium

Last week Mumtaz was invited to the "Coca-Cola Playing an Active Role Symposium". It was an honour and a privelege as only 10 Biokineticists were invited.

 The host for the evening was Kerishni Naicker

The evening was all about Physical Activity, the lack of it in society, and the need for more awareness.

It is advised that one should be exercising for a minimum of 150minutes per week (if it is moderate intensity) or 60 minutes per week (if it is vigorous intensity) . Kids should be doing a minimum of 60 minutes of moderate intensity exercise per week and 50% of this should be done at school.

A shocking 50% of our population is INACTIVE!!

Exercise during pregnancy was also spoken about. Exercise during pregnancy is needed to control weight gain during pregnancy, to control weight retention post partum and it has now also been proven that exercising during pregnancy can reduce subcutaneous fat in offspring.

Dr John Peters from the USA was one of the speakers and he discussed energy balance. His theory is even if we eat x amount but we are exercising this is more advantageous. He has done a study on Amish persons in the USA. These people do not use any electrical transport and are alot more active and his study has shown that based on their lifestyle where although they are not eating very healthy but are getting in alot more physical activity than the average person, 0% OF AMISH MEN ARE OBESE. No that is not a typo, I meant 0%!!

Dr Louis Holtzhauzen from South Africa has started an initiative called "Exercise is Medicine" in order to educate medical practitioners so that they in turn can advise and encourage the general pubic to get going and get active!
He made an interesting point :"We are not facing a fatness epidemic but rather a fitness epidemic!"

The biggest question on everyones tongues is "What is the best diet?"
And the answer to that , according to John Peters, is simple, What is the diet for? Because it varies based on what you want to achieve and what activity you are involved in.

The highlight of the evening was being mentioned, by name, over and over, that the people we need to turn to are BIOKINETICISTS!!
It was so refreshing so have such highly esteemed people understand our true worth and place in the medical industry and it was so exciting to not have to hear that "other medical professional" are the fitness gurus beacuse put simply, they are not.
Maybe doctors have finally been educated enough and this is the turn in our profession!!

cirque du soleil

I recently went to watch the famous Dralion Cirque du Soleil performance. I probably spent 90% of the show with my mouth open!

It is certainly phenomenal what our bodies are capable of! This is what drives me to do my job everyday and get my patients bodies to function at their full capability!

These were just ordinary people like you and I that have been trained in order to perform these acts! So basically if we try hard enough you and I could do one and the same!

So no excuses guys! Work hard, train hard and achieve amazing things!!
Because......IT IS POSSIBLE!!!